Family Planning, No-Cost Condom Distribution Could Reduce Global Warming, UNFPA Says

November 20, 2009 — Slowing global population growth through no-cost condom distribution and wider access to family planning services would help aid the fight against climate change, the United Nations Population Fund said in a report released Wednesday, the AP/Yahoo! News reports. The agency said that women with access to reproductive health services "have lower fertility rates that contribute to slower growth in greenhouse gas emissions." The report added, "As the growth of population, economies and consumption outpaces the earth's capacity to adjust, climate change could become much more extreme and conceivably catastrophic."

Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of UNFPA, said that global warming would be catastrophic for people in low-income countries, especially women. She said, "We have now reached a point where humanity is approaching the brink of disaster."

The report said that there is no doubt that "people cause climate change," adding that developed countries have been responsible for a much larger share of the world's greenhouse gas emissions than developing countries. The connection between climate change and population control is "in most cases complex and indirect," the report said. A 2006 U.N. report found that the world's population is likely to increase from 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion by 2050, with a majority of the growth occurring in developing regions (Cheng, AP/Yahoo! News, 11/18).