Solution for tackling climate change: Universal family planning access 

The Guardian (UK)
13 July 2009

Demographic factors will play a significant role in determining future emissions. The most obvious such factor is the global population, which is expected to rise to around nine billion by 2050.

Although the fastest population growth is happening in countries with relatively low emissions per person, the addition of two or three billion people to the existing population will inevitably make it even more difficult to reduce global emissions to a sustainable level – especially in the context of other demographic trends such as urbanisation and aging.

Rising population is significant not only as a driver of emissions but also as a key factor in determining the vulnerability of developing countries to the impacts of global warming. In almost all of the climate change adaptation plans submitted to the United Nations by least-developed countries, rapid population growth is mentioned as something that either exacerbates vulnerability or impedes adaption. More than half of these least-developed countries will at least double in population by the middle of the century.

Ensuring universal access to family planning services and investing in female education is a pivotal climate change solution, Louise Carver of the Population and Sustainability Network (PSN) told the the Manchester panel. According to Carver, 200 million women wish to delay or prevent their next pregnancy but lack access to contraception. Despite this fact, and the sharp projected growth rate in potential contraception users, global investment in family planning is at an all-time low, having declined by 30% in real terms since the mid-1990s.

In addition to being a relatively inexpensive way to tackle emissions and climate vulnerability, family planning services can help improve maternal and infant health and offer expanded opportunities for women's employment and social participation.

Visit the Population and Sustainability Network website.