The degradation of the environment has considerable impacts on humans, humans being part of the whole earth system. Planetary health encompasses both human health and planet health crises, focusing on humans as a civilization that depends on Earth to properly evolve. Human health, as defined in the preambular of the World Health Organization Constitution, is ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity'. The definition goes beyond the mere absence of disease or infirmity, underlining in a sense, the need for humans to socially thrive and not just survive. The right to health requires humans to live in healthy environmental conditions, humans depending on multiple underlying determinants of health including the environment. It is thus inherently connected to the recently recognized human right to live in a healthy environment. At the interface of both seems to emerge a new concept of law: planetary health law. The presentation first tried to untie the links between human and environmental health by way of considering the environmental determinants of health. It then tried to understand how (or if) public international law, and more specifically planetary health law, could enable resilient and sustainable health that benefits both the environment and humans.
Bertaux et al. (Mon,) studied this question.