The Lancet Countdown tracks progress on health and climate change and provides an independent assessment of the health effects of climate change, the implementation of the Paris Agreement, and the health implications of these actions.
The Lancet Countdown’s 2017 report tracks 40 indicators across five areas, arriving at three key conclusions:
- The human symptoms of climate change are unequivocal and potentially irreversible.
- The delayed response to climate change over the past 25 years has jeopardised human life and livelihoods.
- The past 5 years have seen an accelerated response, and in 2017 momentum is building across a number of sectors; the direction of travel is set, with clear and unprecedented opportunities for public health.
The latest report follows on from the work of the 2015 Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change, which concluded that anthropogenic climate change threatens to undermine the past 50 years of gains in public health, and conversely, that a comprehensive response to climate change could be “the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century.”
