Launch of the MJA-Lancet Countdown Report

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 Paul Beggs - Macquarie University

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 

Professor Kathryn Bowen - Deputy Director of Melbourne Climate Futures