Climate Change Symposium
An International Population and Climate Change Symposium was co-hosted by PSN to address the links between population dynamics, sexual and reproductive health and rights and climate change.
A collaborative event
The event which took place in London on March 1st 2010 was organized by PSN, Commat (the Commonwealth Medical Trust) and the British Medical Association (BMA) and Partners in Population and Development African Regional Office (PPD ARO). Many other organisations sponsored the event, and the event was financially supported by DFID and the UNFPA.
Complex but critical links
Population dynamics, such as urbanization, migration and fertility rates have a clear impact on climate change, particularly climate change adaptation. The world’s population is projected to reach 7 billion early in 2012, up from the current 6.8 billion, and surpass 9 billion people by 2050. Thirty seven out of forty National Adaptation Programmes of Action mention population growth as a factor confounding developing country efforts to adapt to the effects of climate change.
Generating international consensus
With the need to take forward the Copenhagen agenda and to mark the 10th anniversary of the Millennium Development Goals in 2010, this important event brought together policy-makers from Africa, including four government ministers from sub-Saharan Africa, and UK to discuss the links between securing sexual and reproductive health and rights for all, tackle the challenges presented by climate change, and generate consensus on the critical actions needed to address them effectively.
Having senior policymakers at the seminar created an extraordinary opportunity to link research and programmes with policy options and challenges. It fostered discussions of responsibilities of developed and developing countries, national leadership and responsibility versus development assistance, and evidence-based programming and the challenges of scale up.
Find out more
Presentations and speeches made at the event are available here and for further information read a news item about the symposium.
You can also read a summary of the symposium on the Commat website.
Read about the launch of the report of the symposium.