The latest report from the Lancet Countdown Oceania tracks progress on health and climate change in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
The eighth iteration of the Oceania report, it monitors progress across 28 indicators over five broad domains.
This report was compiled with the contribution of 41 experts from 18 institutions across Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
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The 2026 Lancet Countdown Oceania Report
HEALTH HAZARDS, EXPOSURES, AND IMPACTS
A changing climate has profound implications for human health, with more frequent heat waves and extreme weather events, changing patterns of infectious disease transmission, deterioration of food and water resources, impacts on socioeconomic conditions, and the exacerbation of existing health challenges around the world. Indicators in this section track the multiple ways in which climate change threatens human health and wellbeing.
1.1 Exposure of vulnerable populations to heatwaves
Between 2016 and 2025, infants experienced on average 4.6 heatwave days per infant per year in Australia and 7.4 in New Zealand, representing increases of 66% and 109%, respectively, relative to baseline, with similar increases experienced by older adults.
1.2 Heat and physical activity
In 2025, people in Australia were, on average, exposed to 480 hours where environmental conditions posed at least a moderate level of heat stress risk during moderate-intensity outdoor physical activity (e.g., brisk walking). This represents an increase of 47.5% compared with the 1990–1999 baseline period.
1.6 Mental health and climate change
Young people (often defined as up to 25 years) face a longer lifetime exposure to climatic changes, which could predispose them to unique mental health impacts. Approximately half of Australian teenagers aged 14–19 surveyed are worried or sad about the impacts of climate change, and 1 in 7 are negatively impacted by these feelings in daily life.
ADAPTATION, PLANNING, AND RESILIENCE FOR HEALTH
With climate change increasingly threatening the health and wellbeing of populations in every country, actions to build resilience and adapt to climate change are urgently needed. This section tracks how communities, health systems, and governments are understanding the health risks of climate change, the strategies and resources they are deploying, and how adaptation and resilience measures are being implemented globally.
2.2 Climate information for health
Australia and New Zealand have overall ‘advanced’ climate services capacities, with Australia having progressed to this level from the mid-range ‘essential’ in 2019 and New Zealand having maintained this highest level since 2019. This places both countries among just 23 of 193 World Meteorological Organization member countries to achieve this highest level.
2.5 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and climate change
The increasing intensity and duration of heatwaves in remote Central Australia are reducing opportunities to conduct ceremony and care for Country. Indigenous Knowledges are critical to informing place-based climate adaptation strategies that strengthen Country and support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander well-being.
2.4 Migration and displacement
Weather-related disasters (floods, storms, bushfires) displaced 32,177 people in Australia in 2024, including 25,000 due to flooding in Queensland. In New Zealand, 1672 people were displaced in 2024 by weather-related disasters (bushfires, erosion, flooding).
MITIGATION ACTIONS AND HEALTH CO-BENEFITS
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is essential to limit the health threats of climate change. Simultaneously, many of the interventions required to mitigate and adapt bring enormous benefits for human health and wellbeing in the form of cleaner air, healthier diets, and more liveable cities. Tackling climate change could be the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century. Indicators in this section track the world’s efforts to mitigate climate change, and the health benefits of this response.
3.1 Energy systems and health
Australia’s energy supply remains heavily fossil-fuel dependent. Australia recorded some progress, with carbon intensity falling to 64.6 tCO2/terajoule in 2023 from 66.6 tCO2/terajoule in 2022, though it remains among the highest analysed alongside China (66.1 tCO2/terajoule).
3.2 Household energy use
In 2024, 40% of Australia’s electricity came from renewables, continuing an upward trend from 20% in 2019. Australia surpassed 4 million rooftop solar installations in 2024, and home battery sales rose to around 75,000 units, up from 46,127 in 2023.
3.3 Sustainability and healthy transport
Analysis of images from Melbourne and Sydney consistently indicated increased detection rates of active transport, especially within the central CBD and adjacent areas. Across all Australian cities, image analyses suggested a decrease in active transport activity when moving further away from the centre of the city, highlighting the importance of the urban form in enabling physical activity for its residents.
ECONOMICS AND FINANCE
The health impacts of climate change have profound economic implications. This section tracks the economic costs of the health impacts of climate change and its drivers, as well as the extent to which the world’s economy and financial systems are enabling the transition to a health-promoting, zero-carbon economy.
4.1 Economic losses due to climate-related extreme events
For New Zealand, following the unprecedented and highly damaging floods in 2023, which resulted in cumulative insured losses of nearly NZ$4 billion, annual losses from catastrophes fell to NZ$63.5 million in 2024 and NZ$119.3 million in 2025.
4.2 Cost of heat-related mortality
In Australia, costs of heat-related mortality reached an average US$1.49 billion per year in 2021–2025, a 119% increase from the 2000 to 2004 average cost of US$680 million. In New Zealand, costs reached an average US$229 million per year in 2021–2025, a 342% increase from the 2000 to 2004 average cost of US$52 million (Figure 12B).
4.3 Country preparedness for the transition to net zero
On a scale of 0 to 1 to estimate countries’ overall preparedness for the low-carbon transition (with higher scores indicating better preparedness), in 2025, Australia achieved an overall score of 0.60 (down from 0.84 in 2023) and New Zealand a score of 0.61 (down from 0.81 in 2023), with the resilience of these two countries to transition risk in particular dropping substantially from 2023 to 2025.
PUBLIC AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT
Public and political engagement underpins the foundations of the world’s collective response to climate change, with reductions in global emissions at the speed required by the Paris Agreement depending on engagement from all sectors of society. The indicators in this section track the links between health and climate change in the media, national governments, the corporate sector, and the broader public.
5.1 Media coverage of health and climate change
Newspaper coverage of health and climate change peaked in 2022, followed by a 60% decline to 124 articles in 2025.
5.4 Government engagement in health and climate change
In 2024 and 2025 there was more engagement on climate health in the Australian state and territory parliaments, primarily through parliamentary inquiry but also Bills put forward by more left-leaning governments. Twenty-four Bills were introduced and 40 Inquiries were held across the jurisdictions on topics discussing climate health issues.
5.6 Health and climate change litigation
Health featured in 13 Australian climate cases from 2024 to 2025. Of the 13 cases, 4 related to coal mines, 1 related to a gas project, 1 related to a duty of care and 7 cases related to planning. The planning cases were connected to climate change through the potential for increased risks associated with flooding and associated threat to life.
Director of the Lancet Countdown Oceania
“Australia is President of Negotiations at the upcoming COP31, which presents a unique and unprecedented opportunity for our country to get the world on track to effectively limit climate change and adapt to the threats that cannot now be avoided. Human health must be central to all climate change negotiations, with clear and plentiful evidence from the latest Lancet Countdown report now showing the impacts of climate change not only in Australia and New Zealand but also among our Pacific island country neighbours.”