Net­wor­king for trans­for­ma­ti­on: At the Pla­ne­ta­ry Health Forum. The first con­fe­rence for pla­ne­ta­ry health in Ger­ma­ny.

Save the date: On 30 Novem­ber and 1 Decem­ber 2023, the Pla­ne­ta­ry Health Forum ’23 will take place at the Umwelt­fo­rum in Ber­lin and online.

The Pla­ne­ta­ry Health Forum marks the first ever con­fe­rence on pla­ne­ta­ry health in Ger­ma­ny. Orga­nis­ed by the Cent­re for Pla­ne­ta­ry Health Poli­cy (CPHP) and the Ger­man Alli­ance on Cli­ma­te Chan­ge and Health (KLUG), the forum is sup­port­ed by the Ger­man Fede­ral Foun­da­ti­on for the Envi­ron­ment (DBU) and Stif­tung Mer­ca­tor.

The event is endor­sed by the Fede­ral Minis­ter of Health Karl Lau­ter­bach and brings tog­e­ther actors from across the fields of health, cli­ma­te, and envi­ron­ment to for­ge and deepen new part­ner­ships and tog­e­ther acce­le­ra­te the socio-eco­lo­gi­cal trans­for­ma­ti­on nee­ded.

About the event

In 2023, we are well infor­med about cli­ma­te chan­ge, bio­di­ver­si­ty loss and envi­ron­men­tal pol­lu­ti­on, and we under­stand how the­se three inter­lin­ked pla­ne­ta­ry cri­ses have mas­si­ve health con­se­quen­ces. We also have the neces­sa­ry know­ledge and no lack of recom­men­ded cour­ses of action to tack­le the­se cri­ses. What we do still lack, howe­ver, is the trans­la­ti­on of this know­ledge into effec­ti­ve and ambi­tious poli­cy­ma­king at all levels. Inde­ed, what we lack are poli­ti­cal mea­su­res which ade­qua­te­ly reco­gni­ze the urgen­cy of the socio-eco­lo­gi­cal trans­for­ma­ti­on requi­red while pro­tec­ting and pro­mo­ting health for all within pla­ne­ta­ry boun­da­ries – both today and in the future.

“With the Pla­ne­ta­ry Health Forum ‘23, we want to acce­le­ra­te our socie­tal trans­for­ma­ti­on towards pla­ne­ta­ry health. To this end, we want to crea­te effec­ti­ve, inno­va­ti­ve part­ner­ships across sec­tors and bring tog­e­ther actors from very dif­fe­rent fields, enab­ling them to work tog­e­ther to decisi­ve­ly advan­ce the urgen­tly nee­ded chan­ge,” said Dr Mar­tin Herr­mann, Chair of the Ger­man Alli­ance on Cli­ma­te Chan­ge and Health (KLUG).

Lever­aging more tog­e­ther

To achie­ve this, the Pla­ne­ta­ry Health Forum ’23 will bring tog­e­ther experts and decis­i­on-makers from the fields of health, envi­ron­ment, and cli­ma­te, this includes poli­ti­ci­ans, prac­ti­tio­ners, busi­ness peo­p­le, sci­en­tists and repre­sen­ta­ti­ves from civil socie­ty. Through the sha­ring of exper­ti­se, the con­fe­rence will crea­te the space to joint­ly deve­lop new ide­as and nar­ra­ti­ves about a pla­ne­ta­ry-healt­hy future and will pro­mo­te dis­cus­sions around the right mea­su­res and poli­ci­es to achie­ve this goal.

The forum will also exami­ne pre­vious coor­di­na­ti­on efforts and poli­ti­cal frame­works and their con­di­ti­ons with a view to streng­then future coope­ra­ti­on.

Refer­ring to the gaps and oppor­tu­ni­ties across the Ger­ma­ny health poli­cy land­scape, Mai­ke Voss, Direc­tor of the CPHP said, “At the forum, we want to explo­re joint­ly why pro­gress is slow in cer­tain are­as, for exam­p­le in the fields of urban deve­lo­p­ment or nut­ri­ti­on, or more broad­ly regar­ding cli­ma­te adap­ti­on. What are the con­cre­te obs­ta­cles and bar­riers? Which solu­ti­ons are alre­a­dy on the table and how could they be sca­led up? What poli­ti­cal frame­work con­di­ti­ons are nee­ded? And how can we, as health, cli­ma­te, and envi­ron­men­tal actors, work tog­e­ther in a more tar­ge­ted and bet­ter way to harness syn­er­gies and achie­ve maxi­mum impact?”

Pla­ne­ta­ry Health in All Poli­ci­es

Through various for­mats, inclu­ding on-site, online and hybrid, this two-day event will be about exchan­ging tried and tes­ted solu­ti­ons, get­ting to know new per­spec­ti­ves, net­wor­king and joint­ly iden­ti­fy­ing bar­riers, con­flic­ting goals and solu­ti­ons to trans­for­ma­ti­on. Based on the dis­cus­sions at the forum, the par­ti­ci­pan­ts, both online and on-site, will joint­ly deve­lop a “Memo­ran­dum for Health within Pla­ne­ta­ry Boun­da­ries”.

Fur­ther infor­ma­ti­on on the pro­gram­me, spea­k­ers, and oppor­tu­ni­ties to par­ti­ci­pa­te will soon be available on our web­site as well as our social media chan­nels (X, Lin­ke­dIn)