Planetary Health Highlights Global Links Between Climate, Respiratory Well-Being

The health of people and the planet are deeply intertwined, a message underscored during a session on planetary health that closed with a strong call for medical education, clinical practice, and public policy to address climate change, biodiversity loss, and respiratory health together. The discussion took place during the 2025 European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Moderators opened the session by framing planetary health as both a challenge and an opportunity, emphasizing that the burden of climate change is not limited to rising temperatures but extends into asthma, allergies, and other respiratory diseases.

Biodiversity, Health Care Burdens, and Local Solutions

Hanna Haveri, a neurologist and planetary health physician from Lati, Finland, as part of the nation’s Nature Step program, described planetary health as the recognition that human well-being is dependent on the well-being of ecosystems. She pointed to biodiversity loss as a direct driver of respiratory conditions, noting that the disappearance of protective microbial exposures has been linked to rising asthma and allergy rates.

Haveri highlighted Finland’s achievements in reducing health care costs and improving outcomes through programs that merge ecological and medical goals. The National Asthma Allergy Program cut health care expenditures by 30% while improving patient care, and the “Nature’s Debt to Health” initiative demonstrated how reconnecting people with green environments can support immune and respiratory health.

She also underscored the role of health care as both a healer and a polluter. Globally, the sector contributes substantially to ecological burdens, requiring innovations that simultaneously lower emissions and improve patient care. Localized solutions, she argued, such as sustainable diets, municipal partnerships, and expanded urban nature, could deliver measurable co-benefits for health and the environment.

“I think the most important thing is that at all levels of our society, we have to have good networks. We have to combine our experiences and try to find the strengths of each expert and not try to invent something by ourselves,” she said.

Climate Change as a Health and Equity Crisis

Liz Grant, assistant principal and professor of global health and development at the University of Edinburgh in the UK, expanded the conversation to the global scale. She described climate change as a looming health crisis, already evident in rising health care costs, loss of labor productivity, and strain on health systems.

Grant stressed that health care is itself a driver of climate change, ranking as the world’s fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gases. She argued that reforms in health services—ranging from greener procurement to energy-efficient infrastructure—are essential for reducing emissions and safeguarding long-term health.

She also drew attention to the principles of climate justice, noting that disadvantaged communities bear the brunt of climate impacts while contributing the least to emissions. Equitable adaptation, she said, requires not only technological change but also public policy that values health co-benefits, integrates health into national climate commitments, and strengthens cross-sector collaboration.

Education and Next Steps

Both speakers emphasized education as a cornerstone of future progress. Grant shared her experience integrating planetary health into the medical curriculum at the University of Edinburgh, while Haveri described Finland’s voluntary courses and stressed the importance of embedding environmental sustainability into everyday clinical practice.

The session concluded with a call for concrete action items: collaborating with municipalities and food systems to make sustainable choices easier; promoting care practices that reduce environmental impact; pitching health co-benefits as incentives for climate action; and ensuring that planetary health is introduced from the first year of medical and nursing training.

In discussion with the audience, Haveri and Grant reiterated the importance of preventive care, community engagement, and urban green spaces as levers for reducing respiratory disease while protecting the planet. Their shared message was clear: planetary health is not a future agenda item but a present necessity, demanding collaboration across health, policy, and ecological systems.

Grant concluded, “The global response to the climate crisis is asking us some very serious, quite uncomfortable questions, and the ones that I think we should carry with us are: what do we value? What are our values, what needs to change, and what is the language of change?”