# Energy Is Power: Comment on "Energy as a Social and Commercial Determinant of Health: A Qualitative Study of Australian Policy"

## TL;DR

This commentary suggests expanding the analysis of energy's impact on health by considering broader systemic and political perspectives.

## Contribution

The paper introduces a new heuristic framework based on the energy cycle to reorient health equity debates.

## Key findings

- Energy systems should be analyzed through circular rather than linear frameworks.
- Energy is a source of political power, as shown in geopolitical conflicts.
- A planetary perspective is needed to understand health equity.

## Abstract

Baum et al analyse the Australian energy sector’s influence on health. This commentary suggests that their valuable work may be further enhanced by shifting the gaze in five ways: first, by leaving the health field’s dictate of linear analysis into circularity; second, by removing humans from the centre of analysis; third, by regarding the planet as an indivisible whole system and recognising, for instance, that Australia is not Africa; fourth, by recognising that energy is a source of – sometimes perverse, as demonstrated in the Russia-Ukraine conflict – political power; and fifth, by really starting from the energy point of view rather than the human health perspective. To reorient the debate, the commentary ends with a proposal of the energy cycle as a heuristic to explain global and local health equity.