Toward health-environment policy : beyond the Rome Declaration

Abstract

We offer here a brief commentary of the Rome Declaration (May 21, 2021) in light of a recent Report on the Health-Environment Nexus released by the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEALL). Although the Rome Declaration promotes at the highest level a new health philosophy, we argue this vision is still incomplete as it fails to include a constructive criticism of current growth-driven economic systems. To add to the Declaration’s principles, we offer a holistic health-environment framework and six (6) key pathways to place human and natural well-being – rather than continuous growth in production and consumption – at the heart of our development model. We call for the urgent need to recognize the health-environment nexus as the core of planetary health and thus evolve – in our societal transition towards sustainability – from usual cost-benefit analyses to the recognition of ‘co-benefits’ among health, the environment, and the economy.