Greater use of contraceptives could help reduce the global impact of climate change, according to medical journal The Lancet.
The Telegraph 18 Sep 09;
In an editorial, The Lancet said more than 200 million women worldwide wanted contraceptives but lacked access to them.
Addressing this unmet need could prevent 76 million unintended pregnancies each year, slow population growth, and reduce demographic pressure on the environment, it said.
The journal said: ''Countries in the developing world least responsible for the growing emissions are likely to experience the heaviest impact of climate change, with women bearing the greatest toll.
''In tandem with other factors, rapid population growth in these regions increases the scale of vulnerability to the consequences of climate change, for example, food and water scarcity, environmental degradation, and human displacement.''
The Lancet also criticised non-government organisations (NGOs) for ''working in silos'' and avoiding the varied approach needed to change social attitudes.
A study soon to be published by the World Health Organisation (WHO) showed that 37 of the least developed countries appreciated the link between population growth and climate change. However, only six of them identified family planning as part of their adaptation strategy. This was possibly because family planning fell under the remit of health rather than environment ministries, said The Lancet.
Only 7 per cent of 448 projects submitted by developing countries to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change involved the health sector.
The Lancet highlighted a successful programme in Ethiopia which trained people in sustainable land management at the same time as increasing the availability of family planning. It resulted in an immediate improvement to the environment with better agricultural practices.
''The sexual and reproductive health and rights community should challenge the global architecture of climate change, and its technology focus, and shift the discussion to a more human-based, rights-based adaptation approach,'' said the editorial. ''Such a strategy would better serve the range of issues pivotal to improving the health of women worldwide.''
Earlier this month, research by the London School of Economics said contraception is almost five times cheaper as a means of preventing climate change than conventional green technologies.
Every £4 spent on family planning over the next four decades would reduce global CO2 emissions by more than a ton, whereas a minimum of £19 would have to be spent on low-carbon technologies to achieve the same result, the research said.
Birth control could help combat climate change
Yahoo News 18 Sep 09;
LONDON – Giving contraceptives to people in developing countries could help fight climate change by slowing population growth, experts said Friday.
More than 200 million women worldwide want contraceptives, but don't have access to them, according to an editorial published in the British medical journal, Lancet. That results in 76 million unintended pregnancies every year.
If those women had access to free condoms or other birth control methods, that could slow rates of population growth, possibly easing the pressure on the environment, the editors say.
"There is now an emerging debate and interest about the links between population dynamics, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and climate change," the commentary says.
In countries with access to condoms and other contraceptives, average family sizes tend to fall significantly within a generation. Until recently, many U.S.-funded health programs did not pay for or encourage condom use in poor countries, even to fight diseases such as AIDS.
The world's population is projected to jump to 9 billion by 2050, with more than 90 percent of that growth coming from developing countries.
It's not the first time lifestyle issues have been tied to the battle against global warming. Climate change experts have previously recommended that people cut their meat intake to slow global warming by reducing the numbers of animals using the world's resources.
The Lancet editorial cited a British report which says family planning is five times cheaper than usual technologies used to fight climate change. According to the report, each $7 spent on basic family planning would slash global carbon dioxide emissions by more than 1 ton.
Experts believe that while normal population growth is unlikely to significantly increase global warming that overpopulation in developing countries could lead to increased demand for food and shelter, which could jeopardize the environment as it struggles with global warming.
http://www.lancet.com
Contraception vital in climate change fight: expert
Kate Kelland, Reuters 18 Sep 09;
LONDON (Reuters) - Contraception advice is crucial to poor countries' battle with climate change, and policy makers are failing their people if they continue to shy away from the issue, a leading family planning expert said on Friday.
Leo Bryant, a lead researcher on a World Health Organisation study on population growth and climate change, said the stigma attached to birth control in both developing and developed countries was hindering vital progress.
"We are certainly not advocating that governments should start telling people how many children they can have," said Bryant, an advocacy manager at the family planning group Marie Stopes International, who wrote a commentary in the Lancet medical journal on Friday.
"The ability to choose your family size...is a fundamental human right. But lack of access to family planning means millions of people in developing countries don't have that right," he told Reuters.
Bryant's study of climate change adaptation plans by governments in the world's 40 poorest countries showed that almost all of them link rapid population growth to environmental impact, but only six had proposed steps to tackle it.
"Acknowledgement of the problem is widespread, but resolve to address seems to be very much a minority sport," he said.
Bryant said 200 million women across the world want contraceptives, but cannot get them. Addressing this need would slow population growth and reduce demographic pressure on the environment.
In most countries with good access to birth control, average family sizes shrink dramatically within a generation, he said. But policymakers in rich donor nations are wary of talking about contraception for fear of being accused of advocating draconian ideas like sterilization or one-child policies.
Bryant's comments echo those by the head of Britain's science academy Martin Rees, who told Reuters this month that the stigma holding women back from getting access to birth control must be removed to reduce the impact of rising populations on climate change.
The world's population is forecast to rise by one third to more than 9 billion people by 2050, with 95 percent of this growth in developing countries.
In a study to be published in the WHO Bulletin in November, Bryant and colleagues said that population growth in poorer nations was unlikely to increase global warming significantly, as their carbon emissions are relatively low. But overpopulation combined with climate change would worsen living conditions by degrading natural resources, they said.
Climate change can also not only cause more natural disasters such as storms, but force people to live in areas at risk of floods, drought and disease.
Bryant said health policies targeting family planning must be combined projects to educate people about sustainable farming and land management.
"Then the gains that you make in environmental sustainability in the immediate term are going to be protected in the long term against a rapidly growing population," he said.
(Editing by Maggie Fox and Charles Dick)
