October 29, 2025

expert reaction to the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change

Scientists comment on the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change. 

Dr Chloe Brimicombe, Climate Scientist, Royal Meteorological Society, said:

“This report is important and in its ninth year has always been a strong call to action on climate change, demonstrating health impacts. 

“The methodology in calculation of heat related mortality – a new indicator in this years’ report – is robust. To take this forward, countries should use these figures as a base to create their own indicators that become part of a country’s own tracking data that can be used operationally by policymakers. We need to support countries more to do this and provide actionable solutions to reduce the negative indicators. 

“We should note that sometimes putting in a health intervention like improving access to clean water can reduce vulnerability to climate related health conditions. This is difficult to capture in an indicator and can be useful to get climate action in other parts of policy.” 

The 2025 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change’ by Marina Romanello et al. was published in The Lancet at 00:01 UK time on Wednesday 29^th October. 

DOI: /10.1016/ S0140-6736(25)01919-1

Declared interests

Dr Chloe Brimicombe: I don’t have any disclosures