Cli­ma­te chan­ge, bio­di­ver­si­ty loss, and pol­lu­ti­on are wide­ly reco­gni­zed as pla­ne­ta­ry cri­ses with mas­si­ve health impacts. Alt­hough recom­men­da­ti­ons for action are available, their imple­men­ta­ti­on is still lack­ing: the­re is a shorta­ge of effec­ti­ve poli­ti­cal mea­su­res at all levels to advan­ce the neces­sa­ry socio-eco­lo­gi­cal trans­for­ma­ti­on and pro­tect health within pla­ne­ta­ry boun­da­ries – today as well as for future gene­ra­ti­ons. The Pla­ne­ta­ry Health Forum was laun­ched to address this gap and to dri­ve con­cre­te and effec­ti­ve actions in poli­cy and prac­ti­ce.

Pro­ject goals

As the first con­fe­rence dedi­ca­ted to pla­ne­ta­ry health, the Pla­ne­ta­ry Health Forum 2023 brought tog­e­ther experts and decis­i­on-makers from the fields of health, envi­ron­men­tal, and cli­ma­te pro­tec­tion — span­ning poli­tics, prac­ti­ce, busi­ness, aca­de­mia, and civil socie­ty. The forum’s sta­ted goal was to crea­te a space for deve­lo­ping new nar­ra­ti­ves about a future that ensu­res health within pla­ne­ta­ry boun­da­ries and to faci­li­ta­te dis­cus­sions on effec­ti­ve mea­su­res and poli­ci­es. Addi­tio­nal­ly, the forum pro­vi­ded a plat­form to cri­ti­cal­ly exami­ne exis­ting coor­di­na­ti­on mecha­nisms and poli­cy frame­works, while streng­thening coope­ra­ti­on among stake­hol­ders.

Rea­li­sa­ti­on

The Pla­ne­ta­ry Health Forum took place on Novem­ber 30 – Decem­ber 1, 2023, at the Umwelt­fo­rum in Ber­lin and addi­tio­nal­ly was live­strea­med. Over two days, appro­xi­m­ate­ly 1,000 regis­tered par­ti­ci­pan­ts deve­lo­ped and dis­cus­sed new ide­as, mea­su­res, and poli­ci­es for a health and well­be­ing within pla­ne­ta­ry boun­da­ries. A total of 24 key­note and panel spea­k­ers enri­ched the event with their per­spec­ti­ves. Nota­ble spea­k­ers included cli­ma­te acti­vist Lui­sa Neu­bau­er, trans­for­ma­ti­on rese­ar­cher Maja Göpel, cli­ma­te sci­en­tist Ste­fan Rahmstorf, the Pre­si­dent of the Ger­man Medi­cal Asso­cia­ti­on Klaus Rein­hard, and Par­lia­men­ta­ry Sta­te Secre­ta­ry Bet­ti­na Hoff­mann from the Fede­ral Minis­try for the Envi­ron­ment.

The key the­mes of the PHF23 included:

• Pla­ne­ta­ry Boun­da­ries
• Well­be­ing Eco­no­my
• Equi­ty, Envi­ron­ment and Health
• Indi­ge­nous Per­spec­ti­ves
• Know­ledge Trans­la­ti­on
• Free­doms of Future Gene­ra­ti­ons
• Social-eco­lo­gi­cal, demo­cra­tic Trans­for­ma­ti­on
• Fos­si­li­ty
• Public Health, One Health, Eco Health, Pla­ne­ta­ry Health

To ensu­re las­ting impact, the forum was embedded in pre- and post-con­fe­rence acti­vi­ties focu­sed on net­wor­king, co-crea­ting effec­ti­ve solu­ti­ons, and dis­cus­sing col­la­bo­ra­tively deve­lo­ped results. During the forum, a “Memo­ran­dum for Health and Well­be­ing within Pla­ne­ta­ry Boun­da­ries (ger­man)” was draf­ted with par­ti­ci­pan­ts. This trans­for­ma­ti­ve docu­ment aims to initia­te insti­tu­tio­nal chan­ge and was be pre­sen­ted to the con­fe­rence patrons in Octo­ber 2024.

Fur­ther infor­ma­ti­on and sources

Pro­ject dura­ti­on

April 2023 — Febru­ary 2024

Cont­act per­son

Fun­ded by

The main spon­sor of the pro­ject was the Ger­man Fede­ral Envi­ron­men­tal Foun­da­ti­on (DBU). The patro­na­ge was assu­med by the Fede­ral Minis­try of Health and the Fede­ral Minis­try for the Envi­ron­ment, Natu­re Con­ser­va­ti­on, Nuclear Safe­ty and Cos­tu­mer Pro­tec­tion. The main part­ners were the Mer­ca­tor Foun­da­ti­on, the BKK Dach­ver­band und BKK Green Health. Many other part­ners also pro­vi­ded sup­port.