Overline:
IASS Symposium
Headline:
Towards Planetary Health
What is planetary health? Why should leaders care about it? How do we transform a global idea into a local reality?
In the evening of November 6, 2019, the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) will convene a high-level panel to celebrate the inaugural Klaus Töpfer Sustainability Fellowship. The event also commemorates the legacy of IASS Founding Director Klaus Töpfer, who embodies the unique combination of science, politics and the non-profit sector required to realise the vision of the IASS. With its Klaus Töpfer Sustainability Fellowship, the IASS wants to honour and support individuals who are committed to sustainable development and build bridges between science, politics and society.
The first Klaus Töpfer Sustainability Fellowship has been recently awarded to Dr. Nicole de Paula, a Brazilian political scientist working across disciplines to promote a greater integration of the environment-health nexus.
It is hard to imagine how truly healthy people can live on a sick planet. To address the growing threat that environmental degradation posesto public health, the event is a unique opportunity to exchange about the innovative and growing field of Planetary Health, meaning "the health of human civilization and the state of the natural systems on which it depends." This definition emerged after the 2015 publication “Safeguarding human health in the Anthropocene epoch: report of The Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on planetary health,” urging for more integrative health policies by taking into account the impact of humans into natural ecosystems. The event on November 6 focuses on the challenges for human health in a changing environment, affected by unprecedented degradation of nature, includingthe emergingclimate crisis. It explores promising solutions for scaling up action for a healthier future,both for people and for the planet.
Recalling the potential of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the event will showcase environmental trends that are putting human health at risk, explaining why the holistic approach of Planetary Health is a promising avenue for driving action towards a cleaner and healthier future in times of a climate crisis. Discussions will build on the experience of high-level leaders to discuss how planetary health can be promoted in times of adverse political contexts marked by the rise of populist and nationalist feelings, notably in times when international cooperation is most needed.
Venue: Auditorium Friedrichstraße, Friedrichstr. 180, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Please register here by October 28.
You can find the agenda of the event here.