No silver bullets, no shortcuts: confronting the commercial determinants of the climate crisis

Last year the 28th UN Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP28) placed health firmly on the global climate change agenda. Many are hoping that the upcoming COP29 in Azerbaijan will build on this momentum. However, although important, there can be little doubt that centring human health in climate change negotiations alone will be insufficient to drive the action needed to prevent catastrophic climate and ecological breakdown. Ultimately, efforts to protect the health of current and future generations, and of the natural ecosystems upon which life depends, must focus on confronting the power of the fossil fuel industry and transforming the dominant political–economic system within which it is embedded. A commercial determinants of health lens—highlighting the practices of commercial entities and the wider system which both enables and constrains them—can provide important insights.