Frontiers in Science Lead Article
Published on 18 Dec 2025
Obesity and climate change: co-crises with common solutions
Frontiers in Science
doi 10.3389/fsci.2025.1613595
- 71,703 views
- 7 citations
Lead article
Expert insights
ARTICLE EVENT
Discussion with the article authors
Prof Jeff Holly (University of Bristol, UK) and colleagues explored next steps for transforming food systems for human and planetary health on 5 March 2026.
Frontiers in Science Editorial
Published on 18 Dec 2025
Food systems determine obesity and climate change
Dr Sydney Pryor and Prof William H. Dietz, George Washington University, USA—High-income countries must lead food-system reform efforts to counter the disproportionate climate and human health impacts of beef and ultra-processed food overconsumption.
Frontiers in Science Editorial
Published on 03 Feb 2026
What can we do about the coincidence of runaway obesity and climate change?
Prof Tim Lang, City University London, UK—Decades of data linking food systems, obesity, and climate change have not adequately reshaped policy, necessitating a systemic recalibration of food supply, consumption, and societal norms.
Frontiers in Science Viewpoint
Published on 18 Dec 2025
The health and economic consequences of policy inaction and vested interests: food and climate change
Prof Paolo Vineis, Imperial College London, UK—Systemic policy interventions that confront corporate influence could yield substantial co-benefits for human and planetary health, while reducing the economic costs of obesity and climate change.
Frontiers in Science Viewpoint
Published on 12 Jan 2026
Co-crises with complex causes: why obesity and climate change demand more than dietary prescriptions
Dr Raedeh Basiri and Prof Lawrence J. Cheskin, George Mason University, USA—Obesity-climate strategies should address socioeconomic inequities driving unhealthy eating, limit overconsumption of animal foods while evaluating alternatives, and integrate mental-health considerations.
Key points
Half the global population is projected to be living with excess weight and/or obesity within 10 years, placing an unsustainable burden on healthcare systems.
The food environments driving obesity via increased consumption of energy-dense and ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are also driving climate change.
Although bariatric surgery and incretinomimetic drugs offer important new therapeutic options, they cannot substitute for societal-level, systems-wide reform of obesogenic ecosystems.
Reforms necessary to tackle the obesity and climate co-crises include the following: cost transparency to address market distortions, taxes on energy-dense UPFs, facilitation of healthy food choices (including subsidies to producers and consumers), food labeling, living environments that enable healthy diets and activity, and education of the public and professionals.
Transitioning to non-obesogenic and sustainable food systems that are healthy for the planet would likely be very economically advantageous to societies.
For all readers
EXPLAINER
Published on 18 Dec 2025
How our food system fuels both obesity and climate change—and how to fix it
A summary of the lead article in a Q&A format, with a video.
Frontiers for Young Minds
Published on 18 Dec 2025
Obesity and Climate Change: Two Problems, Shared Solutions
A version of the lead article written for—and peer reviewed by—kids aged 8-15 years.
News
PRESS RELEASE
Published on 18 Dec 2025
Global food systems driving twin crises of obesity and global heating
A major review in Frontiers in Science highlights how tackling unsustainable food systems—reflected by our changing food environment—is urgent for both health and climate. (Photos: Prof Jeff Holly, University of Bristol, UK, Prof Paul Behrens, University of Oxford, UK, and Prof Katherine Samaras, St Vincent's Hospital Sydney, Australia).
PRESS RELEASE
Published on 18 Dec 2025
Global food systems driving twin crises of obesity and global heating
A major review in Frontiers in Science warns that unsustainable food systems pose an urgent threat to both human health and the climate.
PRESS RELEASE
Published on 18 Dec 2025
Global food systems driving twin crises of obesity and global heating
Changing the consumption-driven nature of our food systems would significantly benefit public health and the climate, say the authors of a major scientific review linking environmental harms with obesity.
NEWS STORY
Published on 18 Dec 2025
Global food systems may push warming beyond 2°C even if emissions ceased today: study
The world's current food systems could push global temperatures beyond the warming threshold of 2°C set in the Paris Agreement, even if fossil fuel emissions ended today, according to a study.
NEWS STORY
Published on 18 Dec 2025
How the global food system is impacting obesity and climate change: study
The same global food system that is fueling rising obesity rates is also accelerating climate change, according to a sweeping new scientific review that argues both crises share common roots and solutions.
NEWS STORY
Published on 19 Dec 2025
Global food systems may push warming beyond 2°C even if emissions ceased today: study
Reviewing recent evidence from epidemiology and endocrinology, among others, the study highlights how tackling unsustainable, profit-led food systems is urgent for both health and climate.
NEWS STORY
Published on 19 Dec 2025
Are current food systems fueling climate change?
Obesity is not the only problem the current food system is creating — a new study signals that even climate change could be the byproduct of the same system.
NEWS STORY
Published on 11 Jan 2026
The link between poor nutrition and pollution
A study by the University of Bristol highlights how eating better would help people and the planet: the production of ultra-processed foods damages the environment and worsens animal welfare.