Perhaps nowhere is the importance of a well-managed environment as clear as in human health”, write Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in a joint editorial of the latest issue of Our Planet. This issue demonstrates, through contributions from leading authors, how environmental risk factors such as pollution, chemical contamination and climate change bring diseases and death. It further emphasizes the importance of reducing environmental threats in order to improve human health. Relevant work carried out by UNEP and its partners in this area is also highlighted