About the event:

A changing climate will have an array of direct and indirect effects on human health and wellbeing, from injury and death caused by extreme weather events to food insecurity, novel diseases and mental health impacts.

To mark the launch of the 2025 MJA-Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, Melbourne Climate Futures and the University of Melbourne are pleased to host this panel of experts as they discuss its findings and analyse the implications for the year ahead.

We invite you to join us for this in-depth discussion and to add your voice to the conversation.

Published annually, the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change is an international, multidisciplinary collaboration, dedicated to monitoring the evolving health profile of climate change, and providing an independent assessment of the delivery of commitments made by governments worldwide under the Paris Agreement.

About the speakers:

Professor Sant-Rayn Pasricha - Head of the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health

Professor Sant-Rayn Pasricha MBBS(Hons) MPH PhD FRACP FRCPA FAHMS, is a haematologist, epidemiologist and biologist, and leads a comprehensive research program addressing the problem of maternal and child undernutrition (especially anaemia) through international field trials, experimental biology, and support for WHO policy and implementation. In January 2025, he was appointed as Head of School at the University of Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. He leads the WHO Collaborating Centre for Anaemia Detection and Control. He collaborates deeply across the School, University, precinct, and internationally. He is also a laboratory head at WEHI, where he previously served as acting Deputy Director and Division Head, and is a consultant haematologist at The Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. 

His research program has a record of resolving key evidence gaps, making transformative scientific discoveries, and translating knowledge into policy at the highest international level, including informing WHO guidelines. He has published as lead author in Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Medicine, Lancet Global Health, Lancet Haematology, and Blood among others, and his work has attracted support from the NHMRC and international donors including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Professor Paul Beggs - Macquarie University

Paul is a Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He is the Director of the Lancet Countdown Oceania Regional Centre, which tracks progress on health and climate change in this region and produces the annual MJA-Lancet Countdown report. An environmental health scientist with a background in biological and climate sciences, he is an international authority on the impacts of climate change on allergens and allergic diseases. He previously won the Eureka Prize for Medical Research for his ground-breaking work in this area, and in 2023 he and his Countdown colleagues were presented with the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) Tony McMichael Public Health Ecology and Environment Award. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society in 2023.

Dr Selina Namchee Lo - Executive Director of Australian Global Health Alliance

Dr Lo has nearly three decades experience in global and international health with qualifications in medicine (University of Melbourne), tropical medicine (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) and a Masters in Public and International Law (University of Melbourne).

She is currently also Consulting Editor (Global and Planetary Health Commissions) for The Lancet medical journal where she was previous Senior Editor based in London and Beijing. She has been handling editor of a number of global health peer reviewed commissions including the Rockefeller Lancet Planetary Health report, the first Lancet series on Transgender Health and Global Health 2035: Investing in Health.

Selina has worked in Afghanistan, Myanmar, China, Thailand, and Bangladesh specifically with refugee, stateless, ethnic minority, and IDU and sex worker communities. She was a Medical Director for Essential Medicines for Médecins sans Frontières based in Geneva. She has worked for Save the Children UK and was Clinical Advisor for the seminal Clinton Foundation national HIV AIDS treatment partnership based in China CDC, and inaugural CEO for Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA). As a consultant Selina has worked with WHO HQ on Common Goods for Health, Victorian Department of Health COVID19 response, and was a visiting fellow to the UN International Institute of Global Health Malaysia on Gender and Health.

Selina sits on the steering committee of SESH global which builds crowd funding capacity for lower and middle income country researchers in infectious diseases and the International Advisory Board of the Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH). Selina came to the Alliance from the Monash Sustainable Development Institute (MSDI). She retains an active interest in the arts and local community – supporting Correspondences and by writing the occasional art review.

Rebekkah Markey-Towler - PhD candidate at the Melbourne Law School

Bek Markey-Towler is a PhD candidate at the Melbourne Law School and a Research Fellow with Melbourne Climate Futures at the University of Melbourne. Her research interests are in climate litigation and sustainable finance, with her PhD examining the regulation of mortgage lending in a changing climate. She is a co-host and producer of the Climate Talks podcast and manages the database on climate litigation in Australia. Prior to working at the University, Bek was the Executive Associate to a judge on the Federal Court of Australia.

Arthur Wyns - Research fellow at the University of Melbourne

Arthur Wyns is a research fellow at the University of Melbourne, where he studies government responses to the health impacts of climate change. Arthur is an editor of the Journal of Climate Change and Health, and is an experienced advisor on climate policy and global environmental governance and regularly advises national governments, UN agencies, and academic institutions. In the past, Arthur was the senior policy advisor for the Lancet Countdown. He also was a climate change advisor for the World Health Organization and has represented WHO and the global health community at UN climate negotiations since COP23.

Professor Kathryn Bowen - Deputy Director of Melbourne Climate Futures

Kathryn is Professor in the Melbourne School of Global and Population Health, and an Affiliate Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam, Germany. Kathryn works at the nexus of global environmental change, global health and governance issues primarily in low and middle-income settings. She holds a PhD (ANU), MSc (International Health) (Humboldt & Frei Universities, Berlin) and BA/Psyc (Hons) (Newcastle).

Kathryn holds several key international roles, including Lead Author on the IPCC 6th Assessment Report, a member of the Science Committee of the World Adaptation Science Program; a member of the Steering Committee of the Future Earth Health Knowledge Action Network (Health KAN), and a member of the Taskforce on Planetary Justice Research as part of the Earth System Governance network.

Kathryn regularly advises the World Health Organization on climate change and health, as well as other national and international organisations, including the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the German Organisation for International Development, UNDP, Global Environment Facility, the Asian Development Bank and the City of Melbourne.