The 2018 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: shaping the health of nations for centuries to come

The report draws on world-class expertise from climate scientists, ecologists, mathematicians, geographers, engineers, energy, food, livestock, and transport experts, economists, social and political scientists, public health professionals, and doctors. The Lancet Countdown's work builds on decades of research in this field, and was first proposed in the 2015 Lancet Commission on health and climate change,1 which documented the human impacts of climate change and provided ten global recommendations to respond to this public health emergency and secure the public health benefits available (panel 1). The following four key messages derive from the Lancet Countdown's 2018 report Present day changes in heat waves, labour capacity, vector-borne disease, and food security provide early warning of the compounded and overwhelming impact on public health that are expected if temperatures continue to rise. Correspondingly, global subsidies for fossil fuels continued to decrease, and carbon pricing only covers 13·1% of global greenhouse-gas emissions, a number that is expected to increase to more than 20% when planned legislation in China is implemented in late 2018 (indicators 4.6 and 4.7).