Health responsible green transition – interdisciplinary problems and solutions
PhD School at the Faculty of SCIENCE at University of Copenhagen
This is a specialised course where 50% of the seats are reserved for PhD students enrolled at the Faculty of SCIENCE at UCPH and 50% of the seats are reserved for PhD students at other faculties and universities. Seats will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis and according to the applicable rules.
Applications from other participants will be considered after the deadline for registration.
Anyone can apply for the course, but if you are not a PhD student, you will be placed on the waiting list until enrollment deadline. After the enrollment deadline, available seats will be allocated to applicants on the waiting list.
Aim and Content
Aim:
The aim of this course is to contribute to the understanding of the nexus of health, climate and environment and present interdisciplinary inspired solutions to how global health, one health and health
promotion initiatives can be brought together in ways that ensure just green transitions.
Content:
The health of humans, animals, plants and the state of the environment are inextricably interlinked. Climate change can impact human health in many ways for instance by worsening air quality, increase
spread of disease and altering the frequency or intensity of extreme weather events. As environmental exposure and climate change disproportionally and adversely impact poor people throughout the world,
social and economic factors also affect ability to prevent and cope with environmental exposure and climate change hazards. This calls for interdisciplinary collaboration.
Participants will be presented to three topics: Green dietary transition, Emissions and exposures, and Urban planning, through interdisciplinary, interactive lectures, discussions, and group work. Participants
will be encouraged to contextualise their own research. Subsequently they will explore and identify barriers and enablers to sustainable solutions based on a Solution Matrix and will collaboratively develop suggestions for sustainable and fair solutions. Throughout the course, there will be a strong focus on interdisciplinarity.
The course includes a guest lecturer who is Co-chair of the EAT-Lancet 2.0 Commission, and the last day participants will be given feedback to their solutions from a broad panel of external stakeholders.
Learning outcomes
Intended learning outcome for the students who complete the course:
Knowledge:
• Understand the interconnections between green, sustainable transitions and health promotion
• Recognize how human-built environments and activities can increase the risk of zoonotic disease transmission
• Comprehend how exposure to environmental toxins – through air, water, and food – negatively impacts human health
• Understand the psychological and emotional impacts of climate change, including climate anxiety
• Understand the links between access to green spaces, infrastructures for physical activity and human health
• Understand the relationship between sustainable dietary habits and the promotion of public health
• Understand the relation between the human right to life and health, environmental injustices, and green transition
Skills:
• Operationalize interdisciplinarity approaches in development of health responsible green transition initiatives
• Explain how health promotion and green transition are mutually reinforcing
• Relate individual and collective concerns to climate change, including coping mechanisms and strategies for resilience
• Identify and propose strategies to reduce harmful environmental toxic exposures
• Explain the relationship between human activity and emergence of zoonotic diseases
• Interpret the complexity and interaction in achieving just green transition
Competences:
• Innovate and apply creative approaches to developing health-responsible green transition solutions
• Integrate interdisciplinary perspectives to support just green transitions that align with the principles of One Health
• Critically reflect on current health and environmental practices, policies, and regulations
• Conceive and formulate actionable, health-oriented solutions to address complex global environmental and public health challenges
Target Group
PhD students from all disciplines at Danish and international universities working with scientific questions relevant to health-related issues in relation to green transition.
Recommended Academic Qualifications
MSc
Research Area
Interdisciplinary health
Teaching and Learning Methods
Participants will learn by contextualising their own research, and by hands-on experience in collaborative and interdisciplinary development of solutions based on the Solution Matrix
The course will apply a mixture of (interactive) lectures, instructed theoretical exercises, group work and feedback from course facilitators and external stakeholders.
Type of Assessment
(1) Submission of Reflection Paper (I) prior to the course in which the student reflects on the course’relevance to their PhD project.
(2) Submission of a revised Reflection Paper (II) after the course, integrating the student’s specific learning from the course and how it may be used in their PhD project.
The reflection paper should initially focus on the student's personal insights regarding her PhD study in relation to the health responsible green transition as perceived before the course, within 2 pages. Post-
course, the student should revise these reflections, detailing how the course has deepened her insights.
The final reflection paper should not exceed 3 pages.
(3) Full participation in the course.
Literature
Brauer, Michael, et al. ‘Global Burden and Strength of Evidence for 88 Risk Factors in 204 Countries and 811 Subnational Locations, 1990–2021: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study
2021’. The Lancet, vol. 403, no. 10440, May 2024, pp. 2162–203. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)00933-4.
Bui, Linh P, et al. ‘Planetary Health Diet Index and Risk of Total and Cause-Specific Mortality in Three Prospective Cohorts’. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol. 120, no. 1, July 2024, pp. 80–91.
DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcnut.2024.03.019.
European Environment Agency. Europe’s Environment 2025: Knowledge for Resilience, Prosperity and Sustainability. Publications Office, 2025. DOI.org (CSL JSON), https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2800/3817344.
Gu, Xiao, et al. ‘Global Adherence to a Healthy and Sustainable Diet and Potential Reduction in Premature Death’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol.
121, no. 50, Dec. 2024, p. e2319008121. PubMed, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2319008121.
Ip, Eric C. ‘AN EMERGENT PLANETARY HEALTH LAW’. International and Comparative Law Quarterly, vol. 72, no. 4, Oct. 2023, pp. 1047–67. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020589323000325.
Keller, Margit, et al. ‘Policy and Governance for Sustainable Consumption at the Crossroads of Theories and Concepts’. Environmental Policy and Governance, vol. 26, no. 2, Mar. 2016, pp. 75–88.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com, https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.1702.
Lähteenmäki-Uutela, Anu, et al. ‘Planetary Boundaries Nurturing the Grand Narrative of the Right to a Healthy Environment?’ Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 54, no. 1, May 2024, pp. 15 26. DOI.org
(Crossref), https://doi.org/10.3233/EPL-230055.
Nading, Alex M. ‘Living in a Toxic World’. Annual Review of Anthropology, vol. 49, no. 1, Oct. 2020, pp. 209–24. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-010220-074557.
Nieuwenhuijsen, Mark J. ‘Climate Crisis, Cities, and Health’. The Lancet, vol. 404, no. 10463, Oct. 2024, pp. 1693–700. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01934-2.
Rockström, Johan, et al. ‘The EAT–Lancet Commission on Healthy, Sustainable, and Just Food Systems’. The Lancet, Oct. 2025, p. S0140673625012012. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-
6736(25)01201-2.
Smith, Kirk R., et al. ‘Energy and Human Health’. Annual Review of Public Health, vol. 34, no. 1, Mar. 2013, pp. 159–88. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031912 114404.
Willett, Walter, et al. ‘Food in the Anthropocene: The EAT–Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems’. The Lancet, vol. 393, no. 10170, Feb. 2019, pp. 447–92. DOI.org (Crossref),
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31788-4.
Wolf, Meike. ‘Is There Really Such a Thing as “One Health”? Thinking about a More than Human World from the Perspective of Cultural Anthropology’. Social Science & Medicine, vol. 129, Mar. 2015, pp. 5–
11. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.06.018.
The above is examples of the literature that will be selected. Course coordinators will select other relevant literature related to the specific discipline.
Course coordinator
Inge Tetens, Professor, Department of Nutrition, Exercise, and Sports, KU
Guest Lecturers
Co-chair of the EAT-Lancet 2.0 Commission.
External stakeholders:
Mayor of Copenhagen Municipality
Danish Cyclists’ Union, National Chairman ‘
Danish Vegetarian Association, Secretary General
Danish Industry, Deputy Director
Bispebjerg Hospital, Head of Catering Unit
Course location
Not yet confirmed
Course fee and participant fee
PhD courses offered at the Faculty of SCIENCE have course fees corresponding to different participant types.
In addition to the course fee, there might also be a participant fee.
If the course has a participant fee, this will apply to all participants regardless of participant type - and in addition to the course fee.
Course fee
• Participant fee: DKK 0
• PhD student enrolled at SCIENCE: DKK 0
• PhD student from Danish PhD school Open market: DKK 0
• PhD student from Danish PhD school not Open market: DKK 1.800
• PhD student from foreign university: DKK 1.800
• Master's student from Danish university: DKK 0
• Master's student from foreign university: DKK 1.800
• Non-PhD student employed at a university (e.g., postdocs): DKK 1.800
• Non-PhD student not employed at a university (e.g., from a private company): DKK 5.040
Cancellation policy
• Cancellations made up to two weeks before the course starts are free of charge.
• Cancellations made less than two weeks before the course starts will be charged a fee of DKK 3.000
• Participants with less than 80% attendance cannot pass the course and will be charged a fee of DKK 5.000
• No-show will result in a fee of DKK 5.000
• Participants who fail to hand in any mandatory exams or assignments cannot pass the course and will be charged a fee of DKK 5.000