INTRODUCTION:
Planetary health frameworks are frequently applied to future-oriented climate risks or specific environmental exposures, with limited focus on the interactions among environmental degradation, political fragility, and economic collapse in shaping health outcomes in real time. Fragile and conflict-affected states experience compounded risks as governance failure, infrastructure breakdown, and climate stress converge to influence population health. Lebanon’s post-2019 polycrisis serves as a critical case for examining how overlapping crises, such as financial collapse, governance failure, environmental degradation, and climate stress, unfold within a context of extreme inequality.

METHODS:
This conceptual analysis synthesises interdisciplinary literature from political economy, public health, and planetary health scholarship, integrated with empirical evidence from Lebanon (2019-present). We conducted a narrative review of peer-reviewed literature and grey literature from international organisations, focusing on health system performance, energy and food insecurity, and environmental degradation in Lebanon. A systems-oriented approach was adopted to trace pathways linking environmental stressors, infrastructural breakdown, and social determinants of health, with particular attention to mechanisms of vulnerability amplification and equity impacts.

RESULTS:
The analysis shows that in contexts of state fragility, health, environmental, and climate-related risks are intensified by failing health systems, degraded public services, energy insecurity, and social fragmentation. Ecological exposures do not act as isolated stressors; instead, they intersect with currency collapse, fuel shortages, food insecurity, and weakened governance to produce cascading health harms. These dynamics disproportionately impact already marginalised populations, exacerbating health inequities and undermining resilience.

CONCLUSIONS:
Lebanon’s polycrisis demonstrates that planetary health is inseparable from issues of political economy, governance, and power. In fragile and conflict-affected settings, planetary health frameworks must extend beyond mitigation narratives to explicitly address structural vulnerability, institutional collapse, and lived experience. This paper advocates for a justice-oriented planetary health agenda that prioritises fragility, equity, and systemic resilience in both policy and practice.