This news item is about: In The Need for a Systems Approach to Planetary Health (The Lancet planetary Health, Volume 1, Issue 7, e257 - e259), Dr. Montira Pongsiri and colleagues describe the need for a transdisciplinary, systems-based approach to effectively address planetary health challenges. In this science-policy collaboration, Dr. Pongsiri and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Knowledge srl, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and UN Environment highlight the opportunity planetary health presents to produce an applied evidence base using approaches which are grounded in transdisciplinarity and systems thinking. The benefits of this approach to planetary health are to elucidate interactions and feedback relationships in complex natural and social systems as important human health drivers; to potentially identify non-linear and irreversible changes in natural systems with serious implications for health; to develop a shared understanding of planetary health challenges in relevant decision-making context; and, to engage with stakeholders to apply this multisectoral understanding to bridge science, policy and action.