The 2022 Europe report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: towards a climate resilient future

In the past few decades, major public health advances have happened in Europe, with drastic decreases in premature mortality and a life expectancy increase of almost 9 years since 1980. European countries have some of the best health-care systems in the world. However, Europe is challenged with unprecedented and overlapping crises that are detrimental to human health and livelihoods and threaten adaptive capacity, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the fastest-growing migrant crisis since World War 2, population displacement, environmental degradation, and deepening inequalities. Compared with pre-industrial times, the mean average European surface air temperature increase has been almost 1°C higher than the average global temperature increase, and 2022 was the hottest European summer on record. As the world's third largest economy and a major contributor to global cumulative greenhouse gas emissions, Europe is a key stakeholder in the world's response to climate change and has a global responsibility and opportunity to lead the transition to becoming a low-carbon economy and a healthier, more resilient society.Peer ReviewedArticle signat per 44 autors/autores: Institute for Global Health (K R van Daalen MPhil, M Romanello PhD), Institute for Sustainable Resources (P Drummond MSc, D Scamman EngD), and Energy Institute (Prof I Hamilton PhD, H Kennard PhD), University College London, London, UK; Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK (K R van Daalen); Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany (Prof J Rocklöv PhD, Prof J C Semenza PhD); Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine (Prof J Rocklöv, Z Farooq MSc, M O Sewe PhD, H Sjödin PhD) and Department of Epidemiology and Global Health (Prof M Nilsson PhD), Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden; Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), Barcelona, Spain (C Tonne ScD, H Achebak PhD, J Ballester PhD, S J Lloyd PhD, C Milà MSc, Prof J C Minx PhD, Prof M Nieuwenhuijsen PhD, M Quijal-Zamorano MSc, Prof J M Anto MD); Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain (C Tonne, C Milà, M Nieuwenhuijsen, M Quijal-Zamorano, J M Anto); CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain (C Tonne, C Milà, J C Minx, M Nieuwenhuijsen, J M Anto); BC3 Basque Centre for Climate Change, Bilbao, Spain (Prof A Markandya PhD); School of Government, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK (N Dasandi PhD); Data Science Lab, Hertie School, Berlin, Germany (Prof S Jankin PhD, H Bechara PhD, O Gasparyan PhD); Priestley International Centre for Climate, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK (M W Callaghan MPP); Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, Berlin, Germany (M W Callaghan); Energy Efficiency Group, Institute for Environmental Sciences (ISE), University of Geneva, Switzerland (J Chambers PhD); Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC), Venice, Italy (S Dasgupta PhD); Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE), UK (S Dasgupta, Prof E J Z Robinson PhD); Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Barcelona, Spain (N Gonzalez-Reviriego PhD, B Solaraju-Murali MSc, Prof R Lowe PhD, M Lotto Batista MSc); Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Helsinki, Finland (R Hänninen DSci, J Palamarchuk PhD, M Sofiev PhD); European Environment Agency, Copenhagen, Denmark (A Kazmierczak PhD); European Centre for Environment and Health, WHO Regional Office for Europe, Bonn, Germany (V Kendrovski PhD, O Schmoll Dipl Ing); Air Quality and Greenhouse Gases Programme, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria (G Kiesewetter PhD); Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Department of Epidemiology, Brunswick, Germany (M Lotto Batista); Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (Prof J Martinez-Urtaza PhD); Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food and Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK (M Springmann PhD); Department of Electronics and Computer Science, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago, Spain (J Triñanes PhD); Centre for Climate Change and Planetary Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), London, UK (Prof R Lowe); Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain (Prod R Lowe)Postprint (published version