Dear HIFA colleagues,
Today's Lancet includes The 2026 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: a decade of escalating health harms and a decisive moment for all
CITATION: Romanello M, Walawender M, Israelsson J et al.
The 2026 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: a decade of escalating health harms and a decisive moment for all
The Lancet, 2026; 408, 1979-2032
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)01779-4/fulltext?dgcid=raven_jbs_etoc_email
'A health-centred response to an intensifying global health emergency
A decade after the Paris Agreement entered into force, this report shows that action remains grossly insufficient to avoid the growing impacts of climate change on health, and that the health opportunities of climate change interventions remain largely undelivered. As the window of opportunity to prevent a potentially catastrophic future narrows, the evidence in this report informs urgent priorities to change course and protect the health and survival of present and future generations:
(1) recognise, prepare for, and respond to the health emergencies of climate change through established WHO and broader UN mechanisms, and develop a new WHO instrument to formally recognise and address climate change as a global health emergency.
(2) Align global governance and international systems around climate change and health as a top priority and optimise the deployment of international resources to address it.
(3) Prioritise and promote the urgent, just, and equitable reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as a global health imperative.
(4) Put health at the centre of climate action by placing present and future mortality reduction, health, and wellbeing as core objectives and key measures of success across all climate action.
(5) Establish a global climate change and health data commons as critical public infrastructure and a global public good.
(6) Increase the provision of grant-based and highly concessional finance for climate change and health interventions in alignment with international obligations.'
I would add (7) Ensure that every person has access to reliable information and understanding on the current and potential impact of climate change on health and humanity.
Awareness remains low, and is vital to drive political change.
Addition of this seventh priority would align with the authors' own report which states:
'Weakening multilateralism and growing climate change disinformation, denialism, and scepticism are now increasingly undermining collective action and threatening to reverse progress to date...'
'Lobbying and disinformation by fossil fuel interests and political allies continue to weaken support for action, countering the growing body of scientific literature on the links between health and climate change (indicator 5.3.1)...'
'Climate disinformation and propaganda are rising and translating into scepticism and policy delay, dilution, or roll-back...'
'Online newspaper coverage continues to influence the broader media ecosystem on climate change, as social media posts frequently link to content from major newspapers, and therefore has a central role in countering growing climate change disinformation and misinformation, which misleads the public about the urgency of action...'
'Countering disinformation by inoculation (pre-emptively warning about and refuting misleading arguments or strategies) or debunking (refuting disinformation after it has been seen) have been shown to reduce susceptibility to deceptive claims...'
'Exposing the industry's documented history of deception enhances support for climate accountability litigation, political investigations, and other initiatives. Efforts such as these to challenge the structural power of the fossil fuel sector are essential to addressing disinformation as a barrier to climate action'
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Separately there is debate about whether climate change should be formally recognised as a public health emergency of international concern. From my understanding, it does not fit the current PHEIC framework, which is geared more to infectious disease. However, WHO and the UN have described climate change as the single biggest health threat facing humanity. https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/2021/08/fastfacts-health.pdf
The debate is not really about whether climate change threatens health — the evidence for that is overwhelming. It is about whether a PHEIC declaration would be legally appropriate, practically useful and likely to achieve more than other forms of international action.
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HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org