Postgraduate Course: Global Governance of the Human Health-Environment Nexus (fusion on-site) (EFIE11398)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | *Programme Core Course: Planetary Health (MSc/PGD/PGC)*
This course will provide an analysis of why despite 25% of global deaths being attributed to economic decisions affecting the environment, decision-makers and stakeholders from the health and environment communities remain disconnected. The course will discuss the key effects of human disruptions to Earth's natural systems on human health and identify the nexus of socioeconomic, environmental and geopolitical determinants of health and the structural inequalities shaping human health outcomes. It will examine the reasons why global environmental and health agreements rarely use transferable language or reflect each other, such as by incorporating health into environmental treaties.
By examining the multilateral environmental and health agreements of the World Health Assembly, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the UN Committee on World Food Security the Montreal Protocol on Ozone and the Stockholm Protocol on persistent pollutants the course will provide you with understanding of the key intersectoral health and environment agendas.
The course will connect dots and present a landscape view of global governance on the health-environment nexus, including for biodiversity, climate change, pollution and food systems.
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| Course description |
The course is an introduction to the global policy architecture in which decisions on the environmental determinants of health are made (or missed). It will frame how evidenced-based planetary health information is incorporated into intergovernmental treaties, with a focus on biodiversity, climate change, and pollution. Food systems, which link to most environmental agreements, will be reviewed in depth, and in an integrated cross-disciplinary way.
The course will aim to foster a common language on global environment and health policy. It will set out and analyse the environmental governance structures from a global health perspective. Students will be challenged to think analytically in a way that bridges international health and environmental law, science and policy, and global decision-making that leads to positive local health outcomes.
Students will progress through three phases:
1) A pre-intensive overview of the complexity of the issues covered in the course, mapping the global health-environment nexus since the establishment of the United Nations Environment programme in 1972.
2) A 2-day intensive where each of the core themes - biodiversity, climate change, pollution and food systems - will be explored in relation to health, wellbeing and ecosystems.
3) A post-intensive critical analysis exploring the common language on global environment and health policy and strategies to build bridges across communities, with a particular focus on how the financial, product, energy and health industry engage.
Students will engage with leaders in and literature of the field, developing critical thinking and literacy on the intersectoral issues.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - On-Site Fusion Course Delivery Information:
The Edinburgh Futures Institute will teach this course in a way that enables online and on-campus students to study together. This approach (our 'fusion' teaching model) offers students flexible and inclusive ways to study, and the ability to choose whether to be on-campus or online at the level of the individual course. It also opens up ways for diverse groups of students to study together regardless of geographical location. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities.
Students should be aware that:
- Classrooms used in this course will have additional technology in place: students might not be able to sit in areas away from microphones or outside the field of view of all cameras.
- Unless the lecturer or tutor indicates otherwise you should assume the session is being recorded.
As part of your course, you will need access to a personal computing device. Unless otherwise stated activities will be web browser based and as a minimum we recommend a device with a physical keyboard and screen that can access the internet.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 22,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 4,
Online Activities 10,
Formative Assessment Hours 4,
Summative Assessment Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
146 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Summative Assessment:
The course will be assessed by means of the following components:
1) Assessment 1: Group Presentation (25%)
In groups, students will select a current challenge or crisis and present a case for action to a parliamentary select committee hearing on health and the environment. Presentations are limited to 10 minutes and 5 minutes of Q&A will follow. Students may present their cases orally or in a PowerPoint format. Prior to the oral presentation, students will provide an anonymous work declaration with their contribution to the preparation and delivery of the group presentation. Written feedback will be provided in advance of the Assessment 2.
In the event of exceptional circumstances where students are unable to complete the group presentation, students will submit a single page advocacy brief on a selected challenge that highlights how and why a particular course of action or intervention is needed by a national government to address a challenge at the intersection of human and environmental health. Please note that this brief follows a different format to assessment 2 and requires the student to persuade a policymaker to take a particular course of action rather than a longer format balanced summary of scientific literature.
2) Assessment 2: Policy Brief (75%)
Students will write a concise issue brief communicating the intersection between health and the environment based on an assessment of the latest scientific evidence. For the brief, students should select a challenge that is of significant national or international importance and translate this challenge and opportunities that will come from taking a collective co-benefit approach to devising actionable solutions. The text should be presented in a clear format suitable for a non-technical policy audience and usable by a formal organisation (either at City, National or Intergovernmental level).
Students are encouraged to discuss their chosen topic with course staff prior to submission. To support this assessment, students will use one of the UN structured policy brief formatting guidance to structure their brief. This brief has no word limit but must be communicated within three pages (with text at Ariel 11). The brief will be targeted at a city, national or international policymaker. |
| Feedback |
Feedback will be provided throughout the two-day intensive through lecture discussions, seminars, and group activities and discussions.
Assessment 1 will include detailed written feedback that will be delivered after group presentations on the second intensive day. Clarity of communication, identification of a relevant and timely challenge at the health-environment interface, concise visual and/or oral delivery within the time allotted, critical engagement with scientific evidence, and clarifying responses to panel/audience Q&A.
Assessment 2 will provide detailed written feedback on issue briefs that deliver a concise briefing of a challenge identified at the intersection of health and the environment. A relevant audience, clear language and visual communication to non-experts, identification and referencing of recent and high-quality scientific literature, and a clear structure of delivery with policy recommendations will be assessed.
Prior to this submission, a single page of the policy brief should be submitted for feedback. This may be delivered as a first page draft or a policy brief plan for feedback from the Course Organiser. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate critical understanding of key concepts and debates on global governance for biodiversity, climate change, pollution, and food systems in the context of the impacts of deteriorating planetary health on human health.
- Demonstrate competence in communicating interconnectedness of planetary and human health to a wide range of audiences: academic, policy, community through at least one mode of choice in ways that spur collaborative action.
- Develop a common language for de-siloing the health-environment nexus and demonstrate ability to apply this knowledge.
- Apply this understanding and knowledge to evaluation of planetary health threats in a chosen local context.
- Exercise substantial autonomy and initiative in designing an intersectoral planetary health response such as a policy paper, which fits into a chosen geopolitical and/or socioeconomic context.
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Reading List
Indicative Reading List:
Essential Reading:
Willetts, E., Grant, L., Bansard, J., Kohler, P. M., Rosen, T., Bettelli, P., & Schröder, M. (2022). Health in the Global Environmental Agenda: A policy guide. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/publications/health-global-environment-agenda-policy-guide.
Convention on Biological Diversity. (2021). Draft global action plan on biodiversity and health, Annex to Biodiversity and health (Annex, CBD/SBSTTA/24/9). 24th Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical, and Technological Advice. https://www.cbd.int/doc/c/76f9/1b75/42e360ab3ae6e53d0762c449/sbstta-24-09-en.pdf
WHO (2019). Health and Climate Change Survey Report: Tracking Global Progress. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/who-health-and-climate-change-survey-report-tracking-global-progress
Dasgupta, P. (2021), The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review. Abridged Version. (London: HM Treasury). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/final-report-the-economics-of-biodiversity-the-dasgupta-review
Rasanathan, K, Atkins, V, Mwansambo, C, Soucat, A and S. Bennett (2018). Governing multisectoral action for health in low-income and middle-income countries: an agenda for the way forward. British Medical Journal. 3:supp4. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2018-000890
de Leeuw, Evelyne (2017). Engagement of Sectors Other than Health in Integrated Health Governance, Policy, and Action. Annual Review of Public Health. 38(329-349). https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031816-044309
Kaye, J. (2021). Horizon Scanning: The Future of 21st Century Governance: Trends, Threats, Challenges and Opportunities. UNDP Oslo Governance Center. https://www1.undp.org/content/oslo-governance-centre/en/home/library/horizon-scanning--the-future-of-21st-century-governance.html
Whitmee, S. et al. (2015) Safeguarding human health in the Anthropocene epoch: report of The Rockefeller Foundation: Lancet Commission on planetary health. The Lancet (British edition). [Online] 386 (10007), 1973-2028.
Haines A. Addressing challenges to human health in the Anthropocene epoch-an overview of the findings of the Rockefeller/Lancet Commission on Planetary Health. Public Health Reviews. 410AD;37(14):14-14. doi:10.1186/s40985-016-0029-0
Recommended Reading:
United Nations Environment Programme. (2016). Healthy Environment, Healthy People. Thematic report, Ministerial policy review session, 2nd Session UN Environment Assembly of UNEP, 23-27 May. https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/17602/K1602727%20INF%205%20Eng.pdf
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. (2021). Decision -/CP.26 Glasgow Climate Pact. (FCCC/CP/2021/L.13.) https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cop26_auv_2f_cover_decision.pdf
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. (2021). List of Participants, part one. [FCCC/CP/2021/INF.3 (Part I)]. 26th Conference of the Parties, UNFCCC, 31 October - 12 November. https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cp2021_inf03p01_adv.pdf
World Health Organization. (2021). WHO health and climate change global survey report. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240038509
Convention on Biological Diversity. (2021). Draft report of the 3rd Open-ended
Working Group on the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. https://www.cbd.int/doc/c/63
4e/15be/78d817a6d4ef4520408ed501/wg2020-03-l-01-en.pdf
World Health Organization. (2020). Guidance on mainstreaming biodiversity for nutrition and health. https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/climate-change/mainstreaming-biodiversity-for-nutrition-and-health12d76606-f87e-4857-9264-dd2b2924186a.pdf?sfvrsn=afd00782_1&download=true
International Food Policy Research Institute. (2017). 2016 global nutrition report: From promise to impact: ending malnutrition by 2030. http://dx.doi.org/10.2499/9780896295841.
United Nations Environment Programme. (2021). For people and the planet: The UNEP strategy for 2022-2025. https://www.unep.org/resources/policy-and-strategy/people-and-planet-unep-strategy-2022-2025
World Health Organization. (2019). Promote Health, Keep the World Safe, Serve the Vulnerable. WHO 13th General Programme of Work, 2019-2023. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/324775/WHO-PRP-18.1-eng.pdf
Further Reading:
Planetary Health Alliance website
Lancet Planetary Health Journal |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
This course will provide students with a curiosity for learning that will enable them to make a positive difference in the world. They will be encouraged to channel their passion to engage locally and globally with key issues.
Attributes include the following:
Knowledge and Understanding - demonstrate and/or work with:
1) Knowledge that covers and integrates most, if not all, of the main areas of the subject/discipline/sector - including their features, boundaries, terminology and conventions.
2) A critical awareness of current issues in a subject/discipline/sector and one or more specialisms.
Applied, Knowledge, Skills and Understanding - apply knowledge, skills and understanding:
1) In using a significant range of the principal professional skills, techniques, practices and/or materials associated with the subject/discipline/sector.
2) In planning and executing a significant project of research, investigation or development.
Generic Cognitive Skills - students will be able to:
1) Apply critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis to forefront issues, or issues that are informed by forefront developments in the subject/discipline/sector.
2) Critically review, consolidate and extend knowledge, skills, practices and thinking in a subject/discipline/sector.
Communication, ICT and Numeracy Skills - students will be able to use a wide range of routine skills and a range of advanced and specialised skills as appropriate to a subject/discipline/sector, for example:
1) Communicate, using appropriate methods, to a range of audiences with different levels of knowledge/expertise.
2) Communicate with peers, more senior colleagues and specialists.
Autonomy, Accountability and Working with Others - students will be able to:
1) Exercise substantial autonomy and initiative in professional and equivalent activities.
2) Take significant responsibility for a range of resources. |
| Keywords | Governance,Health,Environment,Policy Negotiations,International Relations |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Liz Grant
Tel:
Email: Liz.Grant@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Yasmine Lewis
Tel:
Email: yasmine.lewis@ed.ac.uk |
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