December 2, 2020

expert reaction to ‘Countdown on health and climate change’, as published in The Lancet

The Lancet Countdown’s fifth annual report tracks 40+ indicators on links between health and climate change. 

Dr Philip Staddon, Principal Lecturer at the Countryside and Community Research Institute, University of Gloucestershire, said:

“This is a very thorough and detailed account of the health impacts of climate change, although maybe overly rich-world focussed. The rich world will have the resources to cope with these predicted changes and mitigate them much better than the Global South. For many poorer countries, the health impacts of climate change will be nothing short of a calamity.

“It is interesting how Covid-19 is alluded to, but more could have been made of this comparison. The amount of money allocated to fight Covid-19 and the accepted negative impact on economies is phenomenal, and yet it is clearly arguable from the data in this report that the recurring annual health costs of climate change, and from associated fossil fuel burning, are of a similar magnitude and yet comparatively little is being done.”

‘The 2020 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: responding to converging crises’ by Nick Watts et al. was published in The Lancet at 23.30 hrs UK time on Wednesday 2nd December.

Declared interests

None received.