Planetary health—transformative education regarding the climate and sustainability crises for health professionals

Abstract

The urgency of the climate and sustainability crises and their health effects are receiving increasing attention in the German health system. To avoid further exacerbation of these crises, profound transformative processes in all sectors of society are needed (e.g. transport, energy production, and food systems). Based on the ethical imperative of non-maleficence and the high levels of trust in society, health professionals have great potential to make an important contribution to the necessary transformative processes. In order to fully harness this potential, health professionals should be supported in developing competencies to take transformative action during their pre- and postgraduate education and professional training. In this article, we introduce the concept of planetary health, as this concept provides orientation for this both ethically and with regards to the subject matter. Furthermore, we provide an overview of current teaching and learning formats and identify aspects that could contribute to further developing planetary health education.