Introduction by Croakey: What will it take to transform systems so that planetary health equity is prioritised rather than the excessive production and consumption of fossil fuel-reliant goods and services?
A new initiative launched today with a focus on addressing the interconnected global problems of health inequities and climate change, the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse, aims to provide some answers to this challenging question.
Croakey managing editor Alison Barrett live-tweeted the launch, as summarised in the first post below. In the second post, see her tweets from a recent Climate and Health Alliance webinar, Reimagining the Future, featuring film-maker Damon Gameau, Dr Millie Rooney from Australia ReMADE and others.
An agenda for planetary health equity
It will be critical to transform governance, systems and power dynamics if planetary health equity is to become a driving consideration for policy and markets, Professor Sharon Friel told the online launch today of the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse.
In the first annual lecture of the Hothouse, Friel, Professor of Health Equity and Director of the Menzies Centre for Health Governance at the School of Regulation and Global Governance, ANU, discussed inequities associated with climate change.
The effects of human-caused global warming are 100 percent happening now, and they are going to worsen in decades to come, she said.
The impacts of climate change are devastating – glaciers and ice sheets shrinking, sea level rise is accelerated, and human health is suffering from rising temperatures, the impact of drought and floods on food security and mental and physical health. According to the recent State of Environment report, climate change is threatening every ecosystem in Australia.
Achieving equitable enjoyment of good health in a stable ecosystem is a real challenge, Friel said.
She said the Hothouse, which will focus on the intersections between health, climate change and inequality, using a systems lens, would seek to answer the questions: why is nothing happening, and what are the conditions that enable effective climate action to happen?
Its goals include undertaking research, evidence and active engagement to inform active policy, focusing on mitigation rather than adaptation.
The Hothouse will examine political systems and identify policy designs and commercial activities.
Most importantly, they will seek to understand the systems required to enable necessary change, drawing on case studies from different sectors (for example, energy, food, housing) to develop an “ambitious policy mix” and road map towards coherent intersectoral policies and planetary health equity – and away from a “consumptogenic system”.
This is “the web of institutions, policies, commercial activities and norms that incentivise and reward excessive production and consumption of fossil fuel-reliant goods and services that are unhealthy and inequitably valued and distributed.”
The work will involve examining the processes of policy making, power dynamics and strategies/tactics used to advance interests, and understand “who’s who”.
A narrative of “free market” sets current policies, while the Hothouse aims to develop a new narrative, examine how to transition from states to being proactive, rather than reactive.
Friel said absolutely nothing will change unless the power inequities are addressed. Neoliberalism, colonialism, individualism, market supremacy and financialisation are all at odds with planetary health equity, she said.
But, “all is not lost,” said Friel. Corporations and businesses are not the only ones with power, and much can be learnt from the successes and failures of social movements.
See the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse website and follow @PHEHothouse.
A collective vision
Croakey thanks and acknowledges donors to our public interest journalism funding pool who have helped support this post.
