The 2023 China report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: taking stock for a thriving future
Shihui Zhang, Chi Zhang, Wenjia Cai, Yuqi Bai, Max Callaghan, Nan Chang, Бин Чэн, Huiqi Chen, Liangliang Cheng, Hancheng Dai, Xin Dai, Weicheng Fan, Xiaoyi Fang, Tong Gao, Geng Yang, Dabo Guan, Yixin Hu, Junyi Hua, Cunrui Huang, Hong Huang, Jianbin Huang, Xiaomeng Huang, John S. Ji, Qiaolei Jiang, Xiaopeng Jiang, Gregor Kiesewetter, Tiantian Li, Lü Liang, Borong Lin, Hualiang Lin, Huan Liu, Qiyong Liu, Xiaobo Liu, Zhao Liu, Zhu Liu, Yufu Liu, Bo Lü, Chenxi Lu, Zhenyu Luo, Wei Ma, Zhifu Mi, Chao Ren, Marina Romanello, Jianxiang Shen, Jing Su, Yuze Sun, Xinlu Sun, Xu Tang, Maria Walawender, Can Wang, Qing Wang, Rui Wang, Laura Warnecke, Wangyu Wei, Sanmei Wen, Yang Xie, Hui Xiong, Bing Xu, Yu Yan, Xiu Yang, Fanghong Yao, Le Yu, Jiacan Yuan, Yiping Zeng, Jing Zhang, Lu Zhang, Rui Zhang, Shangchen Zhang, Shaohui Zhang, Mengzhen Zhao, Dashan Zheng, Hao Zhou, Jingbo Zhou, Ziqiao Zhou, Yong Luo, Peng Gong
Abstract
With growing health risks from climate change and a trend of increasing carbon emissions from coal, it is time for China to take action. The rising frequency and severity of extreme weather events in China, such as record-high temperatures, low rainfall, severe droughts, and floods in many regions (along with the compound and ripple effects of these events on human health) have underlined the urgent need for health-centred climate action. The rebound in the country's coal consumption observed in 2022 reflected the great challenge faced by China in terms of its coal phase-down, over-riding the country's gains in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.