‘Now is the time to radically change course towards Planetary Health!’
This was the message at the KIN expert meeting on “Planetary Health” that took place last Tuesday. Around thirty people from policy, research and practice (including experts by experience) from various fields such as health, climate, social affairs, economics and agriculture took part in this meeting.
The message: planetary boundaries are being exceeded and we are in the midst of a health crisis. We are seeing the direct and indirect effects of climate change on our health. And the people in the most vulnerable situations are being hit the hardest. However, we are still failing to radically change course. Now is the time to do so.
The KIN is therefore developing a transition programme with planetary health as a social perspective for change. In the programme, we work from the vision that “The health of people, ecology and the planet are organised in such a way that they not only remain within planetary boundaries but also strengthen ecological systems”. Within this programme, KIN wants to support transition practices focused on research into system barriers and knowledge gaps. The aim is to create a lever for radical change.
At the meeting, we validated the transition analysis for Planetary Health that had been drawn up. Participating experts provided their input to define this broad theme and identified important practices and levers for change.
As a next step, a Crutzen workshop on Planetary Health will take place in Utrecht on 14 April. During the Crutzen workshop, participants from various disciplines will work together on the outlines of a Knowledge-in-Action agenda for Planetary Health. This will form the thematic framework for a call for proposals on this topic. The call for proposals is expected to open for applications in June. Keep an eye on our channels for more information!