About the Lancet Countdown South America

Our Work

Climate change is threatening the health of populations across South America, intensifying storms and extreme weather events, affecting crop production, worsening flood and drought, altering the spread of infectious diseases including Dengue fever, and exacerbating poverty, migration and mental ill-health. Crucially the response to climate change could bring unprecedented benefits for human health, with cleaner air, healthier diets, and more liveable cities.

The Lancet Countdown: Health and Climate Change in South America 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.

South America has a diverse range of climates and populations, from the Caribbean coast and Amazon rainforest, to the glaciers of Patagonia. The Lancet Countdown South America 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 national-level research and ensuring that policymakers around the world recognise the health benefits of a robust response to climate change the Lancet Countdown is establishing new offices around the globe.

The Lancet Countdown South America  launched in May 2020 and is the regional centre of the global Lancet Countdown, based within the Clima centre at Cayetano Heredia University in Lima, Peru.

Learn more about the team leading the work of the centre here.

For news and updates about the work of the Lancet Countdown South America, follow us on Twitter @LCsudamerica.