The climate crisis highlights the close interdependence of human, animal and environmental health and reveals the unequal global and regional distribution of climate-related health burdens. This raises pressing ethical questions and poses also a theological-dogmatic challenge.
Global health describes the interaction of globalisation with social, economic, political and ecological factors and their impact on health. This paper argues that these interrelationships require theological engagement with questions of justice and responsibility.
Based on creation theology, health is understood as a relational variable embedded in social, ecological and historical contexts, shaped by power relations and vulnerability. Climate-related health impacts such as heat stress, food insecurity and displacement appear as consequences of structural conditions leading to asymmetrical exposure and harm.
Drawing on the concept of creation justice, the paper interprets unequal climate-related health burdens as justice issues. Creation justice serves as a normative framework that enhances awareness of inequality and provides criteria for responsible action in addressing climate-related health issues. Creation justice forms the basis and aspiration of theological and ethical positioning.
In creation theology, all of nature and all living beings are understood to be God-willed, good and valuable parts of a just world, requiring human respect, preservation and care. Given the extent of human destructive activity, the scope of human agency and capacity for action must be questioned. This paper demonstrates how theological concepts of creation and creation justice can be used to interpret climate-related health inequalities, classify them normatively, and address them theologically and ethically.