The Lancet countdown: Tracking progress on health and climate change 2016

The Lancet Countdown aims to report annually on a series of indicators across five thematic working groups: the health impacts of climate change; health resilience and adaptation; health co-benefits of mitigation; finance and economics associated with health and climate change; and political and broader engagement. The report outlines potential indicators and indicator domains to be tracked by the Lancet Commission, with suggestions on the methodologies, and data sets available to achieve this end.

The proposed indicator domains require further refinement and mark the beginning of an ongoing consultation process to develop these domains, identify key areas not currently covered, and change indicators where necessary. Indeed, the indicators and metrics used will continuously evolve to make use of emerging evidence and data availability.

The central finding is that tackling climate change could be the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century. Key messages include the following:

• The effects of climate change are being felt today, and future projections represent an unacceptably high and potentially catastrophic risk to human health;
• Tackling climate change could be the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century;
• Achieving a decarbonised global economy and securing the public health benefits it offers is no longer primarily a technical or economic question—it is now a political one;
• The health community has a vital part to play in accelerating progress to tackle climate change;
• To help drive this transition, the 2015 Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change will develop a new, independent Countdown to 2030: Global Health and Climate Action, to provide expertise in implementing policies that mitigate climate change and promote public health, and to monitor progress over the next 15 years.

These key messages are accompanied by ten underlying recommendations to accelerate action in the next 5 years.

Watts, N., Adger, W. N., Ayeb-Karlsson, S., Bai, Y., Byass, P., Campbell-Lendrum, D., ... & Depoux, A. (2016). The Lancet Countdown: tracking progress on health and climate change. The Lancet.