Copenhagen, Climate Change and Family Planning

This week as the world gathers in Copenhagen to seek effective strategies to fight climate change, population trends and related gender considerations should not be left out. Climate change is hitting the world’s poorest countries, the people least able to cope. Leaders in Copenhagen must integrate family planning into global efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The Ethiopia example in PAI's report below shows that we must fulfill the global demand for contraception to improve the lives of women and communities.

PAI staff will be in Copenhagen for the week of December 12-18th with Negash Teklu, Executive Director of Ethiopia's Consortium for Integration of Population, Health, and Environment, along with the Population and Climate Change Alliance (PCCA). PAI and the PCCA will be holding a side event and staffing a booth at the conference.

Links to the Ethiopia country case study and other reports are included on this page.

	New Online World Map Shows How Climate Change and Population will Change the World: Climate change impacts, demographic trends and reproductive health needs are likely to affect countries’ abilities to adapt to climate change, demonstrates a new world map from Population Action International (PAI). The map highlights the potential impacts of climate change on people and the environment, projected population changes in the short- and long-term, and why responses to climate change should include family planning and reproductive health. View the map.
	Let the Human Face of Climate Change Emerge in Copenhagen: As the Conference of Parties  of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change convenes in Copenhagen for its 15th meeting, all eyes are on targets to reduce carbon emissions. At the same time, the irony of climate change is that people in countries that have had the least to do with growing emissions are likely to experience the greatest difficulties in adapting to the impacts of climate change. Read more.
	Linking Population, Fertility and Family Planning with Adaptation to Climate Change: Views from Ethiopia: Population Action International (PAI) and Miz-Hasab Research Center (MHRC), in collaboration with the Joint Global Change Research Institute (JGCRI), have undertaken a study to explore how communities in Ethiopia react to and cope with climate variation, and the role of family planning and reproductive health in increasing resilience to climate change impacts. Click here to read the report.
	Population and Reproductive Health in National Adaptation Programs of Action: This paper reviews 41 National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) submitted by Least Developed Countries to the UNFCCC, and identifies the range of interventions included in countries’ priority adaptation actions. The review found near-universal recognition among the NAPAs of the importance of population considerations as a central pillar in climate change adaptation.
	Population, Gender and Climate Change: PAI’s Karen Hardee discusses the links between population, gender and climate change in her editorial in this month’s British Medical Journal. Click here to read the full article.
	The Human Faces of Climate Change in Ethiopia: While changes in industrialized country consumption patterns and technological solutions are needed to help stop the flow of dangerous greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and rendering the planet hotter and hotter, they will be insufficient to address the other side of climate change --helping the most vulnerable people adapt to its effects. Read the rest.

For more information or to contact PAI spokespeople:

In DC:
Michael Khoo, VP for Communications, (202) 669-7911, mkhoo@popact.org

In Copenhagen:
Kathleen Mogelgaard, Sr. Program Manager for Population and Climate, (202) 415-5287, kmogelgaard@popact.org