PSN and the PCCA at Copenhagen Climate Change Summit

22 December 2009

Source: UN; Population and Sustainability Network

The keenly anticipated UN Climate Change Conference has closed in Copenhagen this week.  Representatives from 192 countries were in attendance, where PSN and the Population and Climate Change Alliance had a strong presence.

Mixed achievements of the summit

The Conference in Copenhagen failed to reach a deal on reduction targets of industrialized and emerging nations for greenhouse-gas emissions, but succeeded in setting the goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius over the coming years, and secured aid from developed nations to help poor nations cope with the effect of climate change.

PSN and the PCCA at Copenhagen

PSN had a high profile presence at the conference, as part of the Population and Climate Change Alliance (PCCA).

The PCCA had three key inputs to the summit:

1. An exclusive lunch-meeting for approximately 75 MPs from both the South and the North - with a specific focus on adaption and how voluntary and rights based family planning can help reduce vulnerability in the developing countries most hit by climate change
   
   
2. A lunch-meeting for approximately 50 youth leaders from environmentalist NGOs from the South - with a specific focus on adaption and how voluntary and rights based family planning can help reduce vulnerability in the developing countries most hit by climate change. This meeting will naturally have a focus on how young people can work with this agenda and try to influence policy and decision makers in their own countries
   
   
3. A side event - with a broader focus on the linkages between climate change and reproductive health and rights.
   

Reaching out to parliamentarians and youth

PSN's Karen Newman was one of the three speakers/ facilitators at both VIP lunch events, giving an introduction to the controversial, complex but critically important links between population dynamics and climate change. 

MSI's Leo Bryant summarized research carried out by MSI, PSN and other colleagues showing that 37 out of 40 of the National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) prepared by developing countries as part of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) dialogue specifically mentioned population growth as one of the factors confounding efforts to adapt to climate change.

Negash Teklu from the Ethiopia Consortium for Integration of Population, Health and Environment (PHE), spoke about PHE's project work which specifically addresses these links.

Sharing resources

PSN also had an information stand and distributed PSN resources, including copies of the WHO bulletin article sharing findings from the NAPAs; focusing on Climate change and family planning: LDCs define the agenda, co-authored by PSN's Louise Carver.

Take a look at the resources available from PSN to raiseawareness of the links between population, consumption and sustainable development issues.