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The Lancet Countdown: tracking progress on health and climate change was established to provide an independent, global monitoring system dedicated to tracking the health dimensions of the impacts of, and the response to, climate change. The Lancet Countdown tracks 41 indicators across five domains: climate change impacts, exposures, and vulnerability; adaptation, planning, and resilience for health; mitigation actions and health co-benefits; finance and economics; and public and political engagement. This report is the product of a collaboration of 27 leading academic institutions, the UN, and intergovernmental agencies from every continent. The report draws on world-class expertise from climate scientists, ecologists, mathematicians, geographers, engineers, energy, food, livestock, and transport experts, economists, social and political scientists, public health professionals, and. doctors. The Lancet Countdown’s work builds on decades of research in this field, and was first proposed in the 2015 Lancet Commission on health and climate change,1 which documented the human impacts of climate change and provided ten global recommendations to respond to this public health emergency and secure the public health benefits available (panel 1).

www.thelancet.com Vol 385 June 13, 2015 e49 Submissions should be made via our electronic submission system at http://ees.elsevier.com/ thelancet/ public health. If benefi ts of mitigation policies are often seen as long-term investments with many uncertainties, immediate cobenefi ts on health can be far more convincing arguments. In this regard, the upcoming conference “Climate, Health, Inequalities: solutions?” in Paris June 18–19, organised by the French Ministry of Health ahead of COP21, represents a huge opportunity. Importantly, COP21 is only one battlefi eld in the fi ght against climate change. Before and after December 2015, health professionals and researchers should commit to get informed on climate change, and mobilise their creativity to develop studies that will support decision making, both in the fi elds of adaptation and mitigation.