The first The Lancet Countdown China Report was released. …

　　The latest Global Report on Countdown to The Lancet in 2020 (hereinafter referred to as the Global Report) and the first China Report on Countdown to The Lancet (hereinafter referred to as the China Report) focus on the impact of climate change on the health of people in the world and China respectively. According to the report, since 1990, the death toll related to high temperature and heat wave in China has increased fourfold. Experts said, "The report reveals that achieving carbon neutrality will bring huge health and economic dividends, and China needs to constantly improve its health care system to enhance its resilience and cope with the impact of climate change."　　
　　Global Report: No country is immune from the health hazards of climate change.
　　The global report was jointly completed by more than 120 experts from more than 30 top academic institutions around the world. By continuously monitoring the health impacts caused by climate change, the global report should make an independent assessment of the actions on climate change and provide policy recommendations to governments. This year is the fifth global report released by The Lancet countdown.
　　The global report includes 43 indicators. Compared with last year, the new indicators include: heat-related premature death, climate migration and displacement, accessibility of urban green space, extreme high temperature, and economic cost of heat-related labor productivity loss.
　　New evidence shows that in the past 20 years, the number of elderly deaths related to high temperature has increased by 54%; In 2019, the number of days that people over 65 were exposed to the risk of heat wave increased by 2.9 billion days, almost twice the previous record.
　　In terms of coal consumption, it continued to rebound after a brief decline in previous years. In 2018, it increased by 1.2% compared with 2017 and 74% higher than that in 1990. In terms of outdoor air pollution, the total number of premature deaths related to outdoor air pollution in the world is still rising.　
　　China report: Climate change has aggravated health inequality.
　　On the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the landmark Paris Agreement, the first China report compares the significance of climate action to the health of people in China through 23 indicators. The report was written by more than 70 experts from 19 domestic and international institutions, including Tsinghua University and University College London.
　　Shockingly, since 1990, the death toll related to high temperature and heat wave in China has increased fourfold. Like the COVID-19 epidemic, climate change has aggravated health inequality. Compared with the early 2000s, every elderly person in China will have to endure 13 days of high temperature and heat wave in 2019, and the death risk of the elderly in high temperature days is 10.4% higher than that in non-high temperature days.
　　The report shows that all provinces and cities in China are affected by various health problems caused by climate change to varying degrees. Cai Wenjia, one of the chief authors of the China Report and an associate professor of the Department of Earth System Science in Tsinghua University, said: "Judging from the special weather and climate events this year, the Northeast has been hit by a typhoon’ triple whammy’ within half a month, which has never happened before." At the same time, the health threats faced by different regions are different, and targeted measures need to be taken.
　　In fact, China’s policy changes in recent years have proved that actively responding to climate change can significantly improve the health level of people in China. Affected by the surge in renewable energy investment, the share of coal in the total primary energy supply has decreased year by year, which has reduced the concentration of fine particulate matter pollution (PM2.5) by 28%, directly leading to a decrease of 90,000 deaths caused by air pollution every year.
　　At present, 51 countries in the world have formulated national adaptation planning documents combining climate change with population health, and 48 countries have completed scientific assessment of the impact of climate change on population health. At present, only three provinces and cities in China have formulated the above-mentioned planning documents, and six provinces and cities are carrying out related evaluation work.
　　"On the one hand, our report shows that China is facing huge health challenges, and it also reveals that achieving carbon neutrality will bring huge health and economic dividends." Professor Gong Peng, director of the Department of Earth System Science in Tsinghua University and co-director of Countdown Asia Center in The Lancet, added, "To do this, China needs to constantly improve its health care system to enhance its resilience and cope with the impact of climate change."

(Author: Lu Jian Source: "China Meteorological News" December 11, 2020 Third Edition Editor: Wang Meili)