Population growth is just one of the many facets in the broad spectrum of phenomena linked to climate change. The build up of harmful green house gases in the atmosphere causing climate change is the combined result of both population growth and vast increases in energy consumption especially the use of polluting fossil fuels over recent centuries.
Addressing population growth alone will not halt climate change, we need to make bold changes to the way in which we use and consume energy. However there are ways in which population growth does and will interface with climate change both now and in the future, and this is what PSN is working to establish.
PSN is working in collaboration with other UK NGOs supporting efforts to mark fifteen years since the Cairo Programme of Action.
The POA was a watershed development where governments around the world made a commitment to improve the reproductive health and rights of some of the world's poorest women. But international support for the priorities is falling back.
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A major report called "Managing the Health Effects of Climate Change" was released on 14th May. The Report launched jointly by "The Lancet" and UCL says that climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st Century.
PSN worked closely with the UCL team to produce the section on population and migration. The other key areas of the report are: patterns of disease and mortality, food security, water and sanitation, shelter and human settlements and extreme events.
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A seminal publication; Making the Case for US International Family Planning Assistance , produced collaboratively by five former directors of the USAID Department for Population and Reproductive Health was released last month. The report calls for immediate action on family planning funding and for the US to restore its position as a global leader in the field by more than doubling its 2008 allocations for family planning funding to $1.2 billion in 2010.
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PSN launch event on 14th July for the 2009 Update of the Cross Party Parliamentary Report: The Return of the Population Growth Factor; Its Impact on the MDGs.
The Report warns that the failure to prioritise family planning in overseas development aid is resulting in population growth levels that present a serious threat to health, economic development and the environment in some of the poorest countries.
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