Medical Education Must Address Climate Change and Planetary Health

Abstract

Healthcare professionals face an unprecedented challenge: the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution — alongside the healthcare sector’s own significant environmental footprint. The consequences of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (GHGe) are already increasing avoidable mortality and morbidity globally and placing growing strain on the economic systems underpinning human health and wellbeing1. In this context, integrating planetary health more fully into medical education is both timely and necessary. It is imperative that medical graduates have a clear understanding of how climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss affect disease patterns, health equity, and the resilience of health systems...