The Lancet Countdown 2017 report tracks progress on the relationship between human health and climate change, and associated implications for governments’ commitments under the Paris Agreement.
The study tracks 40 indicators across five areas: climate change impacts, exposures and vulnerability; adaptation planning and resilience for health; mitigation actions and health co-benefits; economics and finance; and public and political engagement.
In an op-ed, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa and The Lancet Editor-in-Chief Richard Horton note that many of the steps taken to combat climate change can lead to immediate public health benefits.
31 October 2017: The Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change has published a report titled, ‘The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: from 25 years of inaction to a global transformation for public health.’ It describes how climate change is impacting public health, and finds that reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can mitigate health risks.
The report aims to inform decision-making and accelerate the policy response to climate change. It tracks progress on the relationship between human health and climate change, and associated implications for commitments under the Paris Agreement on climate change. The study builds on the work of the 2015 Lancet Commission, which concluded that anthropogenic climate change threatens to undermine gains in public health over the last 50 years, and that a comprehensive response to climate change is “the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century.”
The Lancet Countdown’s 2017 report concludes that the human symptoms of climate change are unequivocal and potentially irreversible, and the delayed response to climate change over the past 25 years has jeopardized human life and livelihoods.
The report tracks 40 indicators across five areas: climate change impacts, exposures and vulnerability, which disproportionately affect the most vulnerable; adaptation planning and resilience for health; mitigation actions and health co-benefits; economics and finance; and public and political engagement, including with health professionals who help ensure that the health benefits of action on climate change are understood and realized. The report concludes that the human symptoms of climate change are unequivocal and potentially irreversible, and the delayed response to climate change over the past 25 years has jeopardized human life and livelihoods. It also finds that the past five years have seen an accelerated response, and, in 2017, momentum has been building across a number of sectors.
The Lancet Countdown’s annual reports help quantify public costs in order to drive more ambitious climate action and simultaneously improve health. [The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change Report] [Lancet Countdown 2017 Webpage] [Lancet Countdown News Story]
In an op-ed that discusses the report’s findings, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa and The Lancet Editor-in-Chief Richard Horton describe how: changing weather patterns are transforming the transmission patterns of infectious diseases, resulting in outbreaks of malaria, dengue fever, cholera, tick-born encephalitis and West Nile virus; the allergy season is getting longer and allergen levels higher; Lyme disease is spreading; and unpredictable precipitation patterns and higher temperatures are reducing crop yields, leading to increased malnourishment and nutrition deficiencies. They explain that while the health community has made progress in addressing the spread and sources of infectious disease, and in combatting malnutrition and hunger, climate change could undermine this progress. They note that many of the steps taken to combat climate change can lead to immediate public health benefits, such as reducing fine particulate matter and local air pollution in cities. [Op-ed: Combatting Climate Change Brings Many Health Benefits]