{"id":2854,"date":"2026-01-13T10:30:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T10:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/iprblog\/?p=2854"},"modified":"2026-01-12T16:44:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T16:44:56","slug":"climate-change-is-wrecking-our-ability-to-govern-for-health-and-equity-health-harming-corporations-are-capitalising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/iprblog\/2026\/01\/13\/climate-change-is-wrecking-our-ability-to-govern-for-health-and-equity-health-harming-corporations-are-capitalising\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change is wrecking our ability to govern for health and equity. Health-harming corporations are capitalising."},"content":{"rendered":"

Daniel Hunt<\/em><\/a> is a postgraduate research student (PhD) <\/em>at the University of Bath's Centre for 21st Century Public Health<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

In a world of fitful geopolitics, one thing is constant: climate change continues to rip, unabating, at the seams of public policy.<\/p>\n

The politics of climate change are intimately those of public health. The World Health Organization (WHO) has\u00a0described climate change<\/a>\u00a0as the\u00a0\u2018single biggest health threat facing humanity\u2019<\/em>.\u00a0The\u00a0physical and mental health and health equity impacts<\/a>\u00a0of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution are\u00a0well-established.<\/p>\n

The case for action\u00a0is growing all the time. Just last month, the 2025\u00a0Lancet<\/em>\u00a0Countdown on Health and Climate Change\u00a0described the health threats of climate change<\/a>\u00a0as\u00a0\u2018unprecedented\u2019<\/em>, and\u00a0found that 12 of their 20 annual indicators performed the worst since records began.<\/p>\n

Why \u2018green hospitals\u2019\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0cut it \u2013 seeking a fresh approach to governing health and climate policies<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Over the past five years, many of the political agreements linking health and climate change have grappled with trying to reduce emissions, and increase resilience to climate shocks. Year after year, diplomats have gathered at climate COPs in Scotland, Egypt and Azerbaijan. Handshakes, photocalls, and pledges for \u2018net-zero\u2019 health services resulted. Indeed, as diplomats departed and the giant river otters returned, Brazil presented us with more of the same: a COP30\u00a0Bel\u00e9m Health Action Plan<\/a>, focused squarely on \u2018health care sector adaptation\u2019.<\/p>\n

We should certainly protect health services from the perils of a warming planet, and spaces of medical care should not exacerbate the diseases they treat. However, there is a real risk that in celebrating \u2018health care sector adaptation\u2019, we trap the climate and health policy agenda into the walls of clinics and hospitals. This does an enormous disservice to doctors and nurses, who become burdened with both more, and more complex, cases of disease, many of which could have been prevented. While health care is responsible for around 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions<\/a>, for the other 95%, it is not.<\/p>\n

Yet\u00a0health is not only the domain of the hospital. Health is profoundly shaped by the social,\u00a0economic\u00a0and political norms that govern society. This is \u2018public\u2019 health: that which is\u00a0determined, not only cured. And specifically,\u00a0when\u00a0commercial actors, their activities\u00a0and\u00a0enabling economic systems\u00a0and\u00a0wider norms\u00a0contribute to\u00a0climate change, they\u00a0affect\u00a0health: they become \u2018commercial determinants of health\u2019.<\/p>\n

While\u00a0much\u00a0study\u00a0of the\u00a0commercial determinants of health\u00a0has\u00a0emerged\u00a0from\u00a0investigating\u00a0how a small set of industries\u00a0\u2013 tobacco, alcoholic beverages, ultra-processed foods and beverages\u00a0and gambling \u2013\u00a0affect\u00a0noncommunicable diseases (NCDs)\u00a0and mental health, the thinking is highly relevant\u00a0to\u00a0a climate context.\u00a0And indeed, not only to the fossil fuel or extractive industries: commercial actors readily cause ecological destruction to service their business models, such as deforestation for intensive agriculture\u00a0or\u00a0pollution\u00a0from\u00a0private vehicles.<\/p>\n

Many\u00a0industrial products that harm health, such as alcoholic beverages or ultra-processed foods, are highly\u00a0resource intensive.\u00a0It can take around\u00a0870 litres of water<\/a> to produce one litre of wine.\u00a0What\u2019s\u00a0more, local\u00a0populations must live with the consequences of industrial disasters that intersect with climate change. And governments have faced sophisticated industry lobbying to deny,\u00a0delay\u00a0and obstruct climate policies. The might of the\u00a0vested interest\u00a0is huge: in 2023, 15 countries\u00a0allocated more funds to net fossil fuel subsidies<\/a>\u00a0than to national health budgets.<\/p>\n

In seeking new ways to grapple with norm in health and climate policymaking, and to understand how thinking about commercial determinants of health might help\u00a0to\u00a0shed new light on climate and health policy thinking, our\u00a0paper<\/a>\u00a0has\u00a0explored two questions: how does climate change have intermediary destabilising impacts on systems of governance necessary for health and health equity? And as a result, how might commercial actors misaligned with health cause, worsen or exploit these destabilised conditions of governance?<\/p>\n

Climate change might wreck governance for health, playing into the hands of health-harming industries<\/strong><\/h2>\n

First, the doomsday alert. Climate change is destabilising the foundations of our politics, economics, social togetherness and use of technology, that govern our health. This is likely to have widespread and unpredictable consequences for health and health equity. This destabilisation is being caused, worsened and exploited by many industries to harm health for private gain.<\/p>\n

By placing demands on public services and population health needs, climate change is destabilising the political fabric of all governments. The longer insufficient political action continues, the greater the likelihood and impact of diverting public sector resources away from health policy activities, towards mopping up the impacts of climate change. Weak governance becomes ripe for corporate capture\u00a0\u2013 when corporations influence\u00a0and take control of\u00a0policy\u00a0decisions. Alternatively, a weaponisation of social media might exploit declining trust in politicians to push people to types of politics less known for evidence-based health policymaking. When we experience climate-related health emergencies, reduced political governance capacities might entrench a reliance on market-driven approaches to providing medical care.<\/p>\n

Next, health and the economy are inseparable. In the workplace, we\u00a0benefit\u00a0from safety\u00a0and\u00a0protection from physical and mental harm. At home, our lives and livelihoods are\u00a0affected\u00a0by\u00a0the\u00a0economic security\u00a0of our jobs. As societies, how much money is taken in taxes, from\u00a0incomes and businesses,\u00a0affects how much\u00a0governments can spend on\u00a0health, or\u00a0what\u00a0we can spend on our own care. Yet,\u00a0the economic impacts of climate change\u00a0on\u00a0health are highly unpredictable, and potentially seismic. Core indicators of macroeconomic performance, such as GDP, employment rates, job security, inflation and resource scarcity, are all likely to be undermined by climate change.<\/p>\n

Socially, climate change not only worsens disease transmission, but also civil unrest, conflict, violence and forced human migration. These are all public health\u00a0issues\u00a0but\u00a0are not always understood as such. In inflamed social contexts, commercial actors misaligned with health can\u00a0weaponise\u00a0discontent and subjugate vulnerable populations. Operations include the proliferation of private security, drug smuggling and human trafficking, or the privatisation of state functions such as border security and migrant services. Again, the shadow of social media looms large.<\/p>\n

Lastly, climate change undermines the technologies we rely on to protect health. It might make it harder to find and grow the organic compounds we need for new drugs. It might mean less reliable power and computer systems in hospitals, or across medical supply chains. Or it might be more existential: who gets to use resources\u00a0in a trade-off\u00a0between\u00a0human\u00a0livelihood\u00a0and\u00a0economic growth,\u00a0or\u00a0gets to\u00a0co-opt Indigenous technologies\u00a0for private\u00a0gain, disenfranchising communities from ownership of their own knowledge.<\/p>\n

All is not lost,\u00a0and change\u00a0is\u00a0inevitable\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The toxic interplay of climate change and industries misaligned with health is a cautionary tale for health policy and governance. In affecting the foundational conditions that\u00a0determine\u00a0how governments can\u00a0operate, it is a legitimate influence on\u00a0how \u2018good governance\u2019 can occur.<\/p>\n

While the way ahead may seem bleak, we propose four plausible paths.<\/p>\n

First, governments can place more attention on the determinants of health in both health and climate policies and plans.<\/p>\n

Second, governments can prioritise commercial activities as determinants of climate change and health in policies and plans.<\/p>\n

Third, governments and international finance institutions\u00a0can pause and reflect: their past approaches have accelerated the climate changes\u00a0that\u00a0now existentially threaten economic\u00a0norms, and\u00a0are no longer fit for purpose.<\/p>\n

And last, governments and civil society\u00a0have\u00a0untapped policies that\u00a0can\u00a0simultaneously prioritise resilient economies, sustainable development, human\u00a0health\u00a0and planetary flourishing.<\/p>\n

A fundamental reimagining\u00a0of \u2018governance for health\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By bringing together climate change and the commercial determinants of health\u00a0as serious threats to\u00a0political functioning, we highlight that governments might need to fundamentally reimagine what\u00a0they\u00a0understand as \u2018governance for health\u2019.<\/p>\n

In months and years to come, the question is not\u00a0if\u00a0<\/em>climate change will continue to damage health\u00a0\u2013\u00a0it will\u00a0\u2013\u00a0but\u00a0how\u00a0<\/em>we must think about climate change, and its commercial drivers, when politicians govern for health. Expanding our horizons might lead to new fixes.<\/p>\n

Will governance be proactive,\u00a0open-minded\u00a0and transformative? Or will it be chaotic,\u00a0reactive\u00a0and\u00a0unable to grasp\u00a0the\u00a0structural reforms so desperately needed? The answer\u00a0will have\u00a0profound\u00a0consequences\u00a0for public policy. Finding\u00a0out\u00a0is the urgent work of our time.<\/p>\n

Read the full paper by Daniel Hunt and Britta Matthes, <\/em>Safeguarding governance and advancing policy at the nexus of climate and health: a commercial determinants of health perspective<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All articles posted on this blog give the views of the author(s), and not the position of the IPR, nor of the University of Bath.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daniel Hunt is a postgraduate research student (PhD) at the University of Bath's Centre for 21st Century Public Health. In a world of fitful geopolitics, one thing is constant: climate change continues to rip, unabating, at the seams of public...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1948,"featured_media":2858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[144,116,118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","category-evidence-and-policymaking","category-health"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/iprblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/115\/2026\/01\/Climate-change-is-wrecking-our-ability-to-govern-for-health-and-equity.-Health-harming-corporations-are-capitalising-1.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/iprblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/iprblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/iprblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/iprblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1948"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/iprblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/iprblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/iprblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/iprblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/iprblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/iprblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}