The 2026 Lancet Countdown China report highlights how expanding early-warning coverage protects people today, while the first drop in carbon emissions reduces long-term health risks. BEIJING, Oct. 29, 2026

As China records its hottest and wettest year on file in 2025, the 2026 Lancet Countdown China Report, launched today at Tsinghua University, highlights the country's dual strategy to combat climate-related health risks. By rapidly scaling up national heat-health early-warning systems and recording its landmark first fall in carbon emissions, China is pairing immediate adaptation with long-term mitigation, offering practical insights for other nations facing similar climate health challenges.

Building on last year’s city-level analysis, the report places individual health at the center, using population- and worker-normalized metrics to show who bears the heat. “Heat no longer shows up as a national death toll—it shows up as a lost workday, a broken night’s sleep, a vulnerable neighborhood,” said Professor Cai Wenjia, Director of the Lancet Countdown Asia Centre at Tsinghua University. “Adaptation protects people today; the first decline in carbon emissions shows positive momentum towards a long-term solution.”

Key findings on both climate-health impacts and response measures include:

·The average worker loses 47.7 hours—six full working days—a year to heat, with outdoor laborers losing 7.3 times more than office workers

·Rising night-time temperatures cost each resident 136 minutes of sleep a year; compound heatwaves now run 346% above baseline

·Total heat deaths concentrate in eastern megacities, but per-person risk rises fastest in northern inland cities—rewriting the adaptation map

·China’s first national heat-health early-warning system reached 767 million people in 2025. Driven jointly by the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration (NCDCPA) and the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), cross-departmental health-meteorological coordination now covers 20 provinces, with heat-health forecasts extended to 141 cities.

·In 2025, China’s carbon emissions fell by 0.8% compared to 2024 while GDP grew 5.1%; thermal power generation dropped for the first time in a decade

·Air quality improvements since 2015 have already avoided an estimated 185,000 premature deaths -- the health dividends of mitigation are already arriving

The report frames adaptation and mitigation as two sides of one health strategy: heat warning systems and urban green space protect people from extremes today, while the shift away from coal shrinks those extremes tomorrow. It outlines five priority actions, from embedding health in the 15th Five-Year Plan to scaling people-centered early warning and framing the fossil-fuel transition as a health and security strategy.

Complementing these findings, the launch hosted two focused round‑tables. Participants discussed emerging compound climate‑health risks and practical protection measures, and explored new investment avenues for healthcare decarbonization and climate‑resilient health adaptation. Drawing together scientists, clinicians, enterprise ESG specialists, WHO representatives and green‑finance experts, the dialogues stressed that cross‑sector multi‑stakeholder cooperation is critical to translate research evidence into real‑world health protection and sustainable investment.

“These are not abstract climate indicators. They are measures of human health and human lives,” said Mr. Martin Taylor, WHO Representative to China. “If extreme is becoming the new normal, protecting health must become the new normal of climate action — and China’s experience and solutions can make an important contribution beyond its borders.”

The full report is available at：

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(26)00191-X/fulltext