Health at the Heart of Climate Action: Insights from PAN’s UNFCCC Engagement
By Teresa Strobel, Psychologist, M.Sc. & Managing Director of PAN DACH
At this year’s Bonn Climate Conference, PAN co-hosted a side event focused on protein diversification in food policy. Dietary choices influence not only individual health outcomes but also public health, planetary stability and the resilience of healthcare systems. Increasing the diversity of protein sources, particularly through greater inclusion of plant-based options, offers a strategy that supports both climate goals and improved health across populations.
Our dialogue in Bonn began with a simple yet urgent question: should health be treated as a welcome side effect of climate action, or should it be the driving force behind it?
1. Health as a Co-Benefit – or the Driving Argument?
While the health gains from climate mitigation are often treated as secondary “co-benefits”, we at PAN believe it’s time to flip the narrative. Health is not a side effect of food system transformation; it must be at its core.
Our global food system is a key driver of both climate change and the global burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. At the same time, the climate crisis itself is one of the greatest health threats of our time. This triple connection of climate, food, and health must become central to policymaking.
Using health as a narrative entry point is powerful: while concepts like biodiversity or carbon footprints can feel abstract, the promise of longer, healthier lives resonates with everyone. A food system transformation driven by health has the potential to mobilise broad support across sectors and societies.
2. The Role of Healthcare Professionals in Protein Transition
Healthcare professionals are among the most trusted voices in society. They hold immense potential to drive the protein transition not only by guiding patients but also by shaping institutional practices and public discourse.
At PAN, we actively work to empower health professionals to lead this transformation. This includes:
Integrating planetary health nutrition into medical education.
Promoting sustainable procurement in healthcare, including plant-forward meals in hospitals.
Advocating for updated dietary guidelines that reflect both health and sustainability.
Addressing the 5% climate footprint of the healthcare sector, with food systems as a key leverage point.
Shifting towards more diverse, plant-based protein sources is not just climate action, it’s preventive medicine.
3. Institutions Must Lead by Example: Healthy Hospitals & Retail Environments
Calling for individual dietary change while public institutions fail to model sustainable eating is ineffective and unfair. Systemic transformation begins in the environments where people eat, recover, and make daily food choices.
At PAN, we support hospitals and public institutions in aligning food services with health and climate goals. Our work in the Healthy Hospital Food project includes:
Serving plant-rich, nutrient-dense meals in hospitals.
Training kitchen staff and nutrition teams to confidently implement sustainable menus.
Using procurement as a tool to support sustainable, regional agriculture
Modelling healthy defaults, because what’s served in hospitals shapes public perception of what’s “right”.
Likewise, we work on food environments in supermarkets, recognising retail spaces as central to public health. Through a benchmarking initiative with major German retailers, we highlighted the importance of expanding sustainable protein options, including plant-based meat alternatives.
These alternatives help bridge the gap between aspiration and reality. They provide familiar, low-effort entry points into dietary change, critical in reaching broader populations beyond already health-conscious consumers.
The shift toward plant-based eating must become a structural right, not a personal burden. Institutions, from hospitals to supermarkets, have the power and responsibility to make the healthy choice the easy choice.
4. Towards a Climate-Resilient Healthcare and Food System
Health systems themselves must become climate-resilient, and that includes food. Public procurement, policy reform, and institutional leadership are essential to building a food system that supports both planetary and human health. PAN supports EU-level initiatives like the Blueprint for an EU Action Plan for Plant-Based Foods, calling for measures such as:
VAT reductions on healthy, plant-based foods.
Integration of sustainability in public food procurement.
Clear labelling and updated food-based dietary guidelines.
Stronger support for farmers shifting to plant-based production.
Conclusion
If we are serious about climate action, we must take health seriously. But the reverse is also true: in a changing world, we cannot protect human health without mitigating climate change. A food system transformation is not complete without placing health at the centre, be it from dietary guidelines to hospital menus to supermarket shelves. It’s time to stop asking individuals to fix broken systems and start building environments that make healthy, sustainable living the default.