The 2023 Latin America report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: The imperative for health-centred climate-resilient development

Building from the first report, the 2023 report of the Lancet Countdown Latin America, presents 34 indicators that track the relationship between health and climate change up to 2022, aiming at providing evidence to public decisionmaking with the purpose of improving the health and wellbeing of Latin American populations and reducing social inequities through climate actions focusing on health. This report shows that Latin American populations continue to observe a growing exposure to changing climatic conditions.

Recommendations from the publication include:

• Latin American countries require intersectoral public policies that simultaneously increase climate resilience, reduce social inequities, improve population health, and reduce GHG emissions;
• Latin American countries need to increase climate f inance through permanent fiscal commitments and multilateral development banks to pave climate-resilient development pathways;
• Latin American countries need to accelerate an energy transition that prioritises people’shealth and wellbeing, reduces energy poverty and air pollution, and maximises health and economic gains.