Climate change has posed a serious threat to human health. If greenhouse gas emissions and global temperatures are allowed to deteriorate, climate change can become one of the major threats to global health in this century. To cope with the crisis, University College London and Tsinghua University established "Lancet Countdown:Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change" project jointly with more than 30 top academic institutions globally in 2016 and cooperated together to write the "Lancet Countdown:Health and Climate Change" reports, to track the impact of climate change on population health and the health benefits of tackling climate change and carry out public propagandization and policy recommendation. The latest 2020 global report, which tracked annual changes in 43 indicators across five areas, found that indicators of climate change impact, exposure and vulnerability were all deteriorating while efforts to mitigate climate change were clearly inadequate, and that it would be difficult to meet the temperature rise target set in the Paris Agreement according to current trends. The report drew three key conclusions:1) no country-whether rich or poor-is immune from the health impacts of climate change; 2) the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change represent converging crises which need to be tackled in unison. 3) A joint response to converging crises can deliver a triple win:better public health, a sustainable economy and environmental protection.

Lancet countdown  /  climate change  /  health