From Climate Crisis to Health Transformation: a Planetary Approach
Executive Short Course
Climate change and environmental degradation represent significant determinants of health for populations worldwide. They add further stress to populations affected by armed conflict and displacement, particularly in low-resource settings where resilience and preparedness are harder to build and sustain. These forces act as drivers and amplifiers of conflict and displacement and increase exposure to infectious diseases and pollution created by toxic remnants of war. A substantial proportion of these changes is caused directly or indirectly by countries that are less exposed to their consequences and are better equipped to face them. Health systems need to be responsive to these compound crises, provide care without undermining the ecological systems that sustain health and make sure that new programs do not exacerbate climate injustice.
This intensive executive course provides practical tools to design and lead a planetary health intervention—from advocacy to implementation—under conditions of uncertainty, limited data, and competing priorities. Working from real-world cases, participants combine structured project design with applied communication, prioritisation under planetary constraints, and a justice-oriented implementation lens.
At the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Analyse existing evidence on the effects of climate change on health, health systems and population displacement
- Apply a planetary health lens to analyse links between climate and other environmental hazards, health risks, and vulnerability in a selected healthcare or humanitarian context
- Define a clear organisational problem statement and map key pathways, stakeholders, and leverage points
- Formulate an evidence-informed intervention logic and a communication plan tailored to a target audience
- Implement key economic principles and approaches linking planetary boundaries and human well-being, including alternatives to continued GDP-focused growth
- Make trade-offs explicit using a sufficiency/planetary boundaries lens (what scales up, what shifts, what stops)
Around 75 hours of work overall, including:
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Asynchronous self-study activities (readings, short videos, case material, group work on a shared project, etc.)
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Synchronous live sessions
- Planetary health foundations and application in humanitarian contexts
- Problem mapping: exposure, vulnerability and response capacity
- Health systems responses under planetary constraints
- Political economy, planetary boundaries, and justice
- Communicating a planetary health intervention
- Climate justice in practice
- Professionals in the humanitarian, development, or social sector who want to strengthen their skills in health-related work and planetary action
- Professionals from other sectors (e.g., policy, donor agencies, government, or the health sector) who want to improve their understanding of how health and humanitarian systems can respond to climate and other environmental risks
- Graduate students with relevant volunteer or internship experience who wish to undertake a postgraduate short course as preparation for work in the humanitarian sector
- Broadband/high speed connection – 2.5 Mbps minimum
- Most weekly content is accessible via phone, but a laptop/PC is preferred
- Microphone and webcam
Interested in applying? Learn more about the admission requirements and application process here.
