Population key to fight against climate change

Copenhagen: Population and climate change are intertwined with each other but population issue has remained a blind spot when countries are discussing ways to mitigate the climate change and slow down the global warming, according to Zhao Baige, vice minister of National Population and Family Planning Commission of China (NPFPC).

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A lot of studies link population growth with emissions and the effect of climate change upon the populace.

"Calculations of the contribution of population growth to emissions growth globally produce a consistent finding that most of past population growth has been responsible for between 40 per cent and 60 per cent of emissions growth," so stated by the 2009 State of World Population, which was released earlier by the United Nations Population Fund.

Although China's family planning policy has received a lot of criticism over the past three decades, Zhao said that the very population program that China has been carrying out has in effect made a great historic contribution to the well-being of the human society.

As a result of the family planning policy, China has seen 400 million fewer births, which has resulted in 18 million fewer tons of CO2 emissions a year, Zhao said.

This holistic approach that integrates policy on population and development, a strategy promoting sustainable development of population, resources and environment, should serve as a model for integrating population programs into the framework of climate change adaptation.