• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022 January 31, 2023
Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB January 31, 2023
Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty January 31, 2023
Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds January 31, 2023
Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing January 23, 2023
Next
Prev

Demographers Urge Contraceptive Access, Lower Birth Rates to Counter Climate Threat

October 17, 2019
Reading time: 2 minutes

USAID in Africa/Flickr

USAID in Africa/Flickr

9
SHARES
 

With 44% of the world’s annual pregnancies unwanted, the global population projected to hit 10.8 billion by 2100, and the need to curb greenhouse gas emissions growing ever more urgent, the New York-based Population Council is urging especially sub-Saharan leaders to expand access to contraception.

With both global temperatures and resource scarcity on the rise, “finding ways to reduce unwanted births should be a priority,” the Council states in the journal BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health—even though the Thomson Reuters Foundation says the recommendation will run into fears of unwarranted pressure to restrict births.

  • Concise headlines. Original content. Timely news and views from a select group of opinion leaders. Special extras.
  • Everything you need, nothing you don’t.
  • The Weekender: The climate news you need.
New!
Subscribe

Demographer and Population Council vice president John Bongaarts told Thomas Reuters he’s sympathetic to the concern, adding that “the one-child policy in China is something nobody ever wants to repeat. So there’s significant worry that some governments will take an approach that is too coercive.”

But he said some countries, like Ethiopia, are tackling the charged issue, training thousands of young women as community health workers who “travel from village to village, offering basic health care, advice and free contraception.” Thanks to that outreach, “contraceptive use is now close to 40% in the country,” Thomson Reuters writes, “and the lower birth rate has cut demand for [often highly carbon-intensive] construction of more schools, roads, clinics, and other government facilities.”

Contraceptive use remains very low in countries like Nigeria, however, where efforts to reduce population growth rates are hampered by both faith and economics. “Policies that allocate income from the country’s oil resources by numbers of people give its provinces little incentive to hold down population, though some are trying,” Bongaarts said. Thomson Reuters says one United Nations estimate has the country’s population growing from 180 million today to 750 million in 2100.

Without lower birth rates, the sub-Saharan population as a whole will hit four billion in that year, resulting in “greater hunger, migration, and unrest, as young people fail to find enough work and governments struggle to provide services, particularly as climate pressures such as droughts and harvest failures grow,” Bongaarts warned. And these “many, many problems…will spill over to the rest of the world.”

While government and philanthropic dollars are available to improve contraception access, he added, “leaders have to say this is important. That’s how social norms change.”



in Africa, Demographics, Drought, Famine & Wildfires, Environmental Justice, Food Security & Agriculture, Heat & Temperature, International Agencies & Studies, International Security & War

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

CONFENIAE
Ending Emissions

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61
Ken Teegardin www.SeniorLiving.Org/flickr
Clean Electricity Grid

Virtual Power Plants Hit an ‘Inflection Point’

January 31, 2023
125
/snappy goat
Climate Denial & Greenwashing

Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds

January 31, 2023
94

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Mike Mozart/Flickr

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
328
Sam Balto/YouTube

Elementary School’s Bike Bus Brings ‘Sheer Joy’ to Portland Neighbourhood

October 16, 2022
261
EcoAnalytics

Albertans Want a Just Transition, Despite Premier’s Grumbling

January 23, 2023
325
RL0919/wikimedia commons

Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing

January 23, 2023
2.4k
Joshua Doubek/Wikipedia

No New Jobs Came from Alberta’s $4B ‘Job Creation’ Tax Cut for Big Oil

October 6, 2022
502

Recent Posts

Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
196
CONFENIAE

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61
Ken Teegardin www.SeniorLiving.Org/flickr

Virtual Power Plants Hit an ‘Inflection Point’

January 31, 2023
125
/snappy goat

Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds

January 31, 2023
94
Victorgrigas/wikimedia commons

World Bank Climate Reforms Too ‘Timid and Slow,’ Critics Warn

January 31, 2023
42
Doc Searls/Twitter

Guilbeault Could Intervene on Ontario Greenbelt Development

January 31, 2023
132
Next Post
Schwnj/Wikimedia Commons

Taiwan Plans Fast Solar Buildup While Cambodia Records Lowest-Ever Price for Southeast Asia

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}