The Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change

The Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change is an international research collaboration that monitors and reports annually on the relationship between health and climate, and its implications for national governments. It was launched following the 2015 Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change, which concluded that unmitigated climate change would undermine 50 years of public health gains, but that responding to climate change could represent “the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century.”

The Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change exists to monitor this transition from threat to opportunity. It is a collaboration of over 120 leading experts from academic institutions and UN agencies across the globe, bringing together climate scientists, engineers, energy specialists, economists, political scientists, public health professionals and doctors.

It works to ensure that health is at the centre of how governments understand and respond to climate change. Work ranges from ensuring policymakers have access to high-quality evidence-based guidance, through to providing the health profession with the tools they need to improve public health.

Each year its findings are published annually in medical journal The Lancet ahead of the UN climate change negotiations. Data makes clear how climate change is affecting our health, the consequences of delayed action and the health benefits of a robust response.

The Lancet Countdown: Health and Climate Change in Europe focuses specifically on tracking the connections between public health and climate change across Europe.