The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change

Lancet Countdown on Public Health and Climate Change from Security & Sustainability Forum on VimeoView the slides here

Aired on 12/22/2016

The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change is an international, multidisciplinary research collaboration between academic institutions and practitioners across the world.

Announced at COP 22, the Lancet Countdown tracks progress on health and climate change.  It follows on from the work of the 2015 Lancet Commission, which concluded that the response to climate change could be “the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century”.  The Lancet Countdown develops indicators to track the world’s response to climate change, and the health benefits that result.  The Lancet Countdown actively seeks to engage with existing monitoring processes, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals and World Health Organization’s climate and health country profiles.  The indicators also evolve over time through ongoing collaboration with experts and a range of stakeholders, and be dependent on the emergence of new evidence and knowledge.  This is especially relevant to the public health practitioner and public health research communities, because of the collaborative nature of the initiative. Watch Island Press, the Public Health Institute and the Security and Sustainability Forum in the US introduction of Countdown.


PANELISTS

Ian Hamilton is a Senior Researcher and Sustainable Design Engineer at the UCL Energy Institute, UCL in London, UK., with expertise in energy demand in housing, indoor environmental quality and health impacts.  Ian has also undertaken research and consultancy on evaluating UK government housing and energy policy, environmental masterplanning design and sustainable development, research on energy demand and energy efficiency in buildings and low carbon technologies.


Peter Byass is a Professor of Global Health at the University of Umeå and is the Director of the Umeå Centre for Global Health Research. He has unique expertise in global health, examining the relationships and synergies between sustainable development and climate change with global health.


Paul English is state environmental epidemiologist and branch scientific advisor for the Environmental Health Investigations Branch at the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). Paul has more than 15 years of experience working in environmental public health for the CDPH. He focuses on the public health impacts of climate change, and was a World Health Organization advisor contributing to a systematic review of health indicators of climate change.


John M. Balbus, M.D., M.P.H., serves as a senior advisor to the Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences on public health issues and as NIEHS’ liaison to its external constituencies, stakeholders, and advocacy groups. He also leads NIEHS efforts on climate change and human health.


The webinar is moderated by Linda Rudolph, the Director for the Center for Climate Change and Health, Public Health Institute. Linda was the founding chair of the California Health in All Policies Task Force, and of the California Climate Action Team Public Health Work Group.