Why Ignoring Population Growth is Hurting Climate Efforts
Philippines, ManilaWed Nov 27 2024
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Despite decades of UN climate and biodiversity conferences, greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss keep rising. Recent summits, like COP29, fell short, offering developing countries mere fractions of the needed funds to tackle climate change. Delegates criticized the agreements as "outrageous" and "a joke, " pointing out that these meetings are broken and require major reforms.
The problem isn't just about emissions. It's about our growing population and how much we consume. Both are driving factors behind climate change and the loss of biodiversity. Proposals to switch to clean energy and tech fixes won't save us if we keep consuming at the same rate. While renewable energy adoption grows, greenhouse gas emissions are still on the rise, and ecosystems are being destroyed.
The UN Biodiversity Summit, held every two years, tries to address these issues. This year, they talked about reducing subsidies for harmful companies and increasing urban green spaces, among other things. But none of these efforts have been effective. In the past 30 years, biodiversity has taken a nosedive, with monitored wildlife populations crashing by 73%. One million species could go extinct in the next century.
Agriculture, especially livestock farming, is a major contributor to both greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss. It occupies around 40% of the world's ice-free land, making it inhospitable for other creatures. Overfishing is also a significant threat, with global fish and seafood production quadrupling over the last 50 years.
Adopting plant-based diets could be a solution, but meat industry lobbyists at these summits make it challenging. Additionally, the world's population has grown by 4 billion in the last 50 years, with many aiming for a meat-heavy diet. This growth is concentrated among the middle class, which will reach 5 billion by 2030, mainly in China and India.
It's not just about population or consumption—they work together to harm the environment. Extinction rates and human population growth have been rising in lockstep since 1800. To protect the environment, we need to stabilize and reduce our population through family planning.
Global population is still growing by 80 million people each year, mostly in poorer countries where women lack reproductive choice. Empowering women to control their reproductive choices can lower birth rates and protect the environment. However, neither biodiversity nor climate summits have seriously considered this.
After decades of ineffective summits, it's time for the UN, NGOs, and world leaders to aim for reducing our impact on the planet. This involves investing in family planning and women's empowerment. Avoiding population and consumption will be key to stabilizing the climate and saving biodiversity.
