About the Lancet Countdown Asia

Our Work

Climate change is threatening the health of populations across Asia, increasing morbidity and mortality from high temperatures and heatwaves, affecting the frequency and severity of extreme weather events such as typhoons, changing the suitability for a range of infectious diseases and affecting crop production. Worsening flooding and landslides from glacier melt are altering urbanisation and population relocation – exacerbating poverty, migration and mental ill-health. Crucially the response to climate change could bring unprecedented benefits for human health, with cleaner air and healthier diets.

The Lancet Countdown: Health and Climate Change in Asia exists to track both the effects of climate change on human wellbeing and the national and local response, monitoring a transition from threat to opportunity.

Asia has a diverse range of climates and populations, from the mountains of the Himalayas to the banks of the Yangtze, to the coastal cities on the South China Sea. The Lancet Countdown Asia works to ensure that health is at the centre of how governments across the continent understand and respond to climate change. This ranges from ensuring policymakers have access to high-quality evidence-based guidance, through to providing the health profession with the tools they need to improve public health.

Our Structure and History

With the aim of promoting research in different regions of the world and ensuring that policymakers recognise the health benefits of a robust response to climate change the Lancet Countdown is establishing new offices around the globe.

The Lancet Countdown Asia is a regional centre of the global Lancet Countdown, based within the Tsinghua University in Beijing.