Reflections on the political economy of planetary health

This article seeks to contribute to debates on the political economy of global health by offering a ‘planetary’ perspective. We initially sketch contestations concerning improvements, inequalities and inequities in the state of global health in order to move towards a more integrated conception of significant social forces driving transformations in health, society and ecology. We then explore key agencies (e.g. large energy and pharmaceutical corporations; sympathetic governments) and structures of contemporary capitalism to interrogate their impacts on health care and ecology, for example in driving global pollution and climate change. We propose that such forces play a significant role in an unprecedented planetary organic crisis. Finally, we suggest that the world has reached an historical crossroads, necessitating a significant change of direction to promote a more ethically and ecologically sustainable, socially just future and argue for new paradigms of health that are ‘planetary’ in scope and perspective.