Population Dynamics and Climate Change

Publisher: UNFPA, IIED


This book broadens and deepens understanding of a wide range of population-climate change linkages. Incorporating population dynamics into research, policymaking and advocacy around climate change is critical for understanding the trajectory of global greenhouse gas emissions, for developing and implementing adaptation plans and thus for global and national efforts to curtail this threat.

Substantial resources are being dedicated to research and policy efforts to mitigate climate change and support adaptation to the current and future impacts of greenhouse gas emissions. Yet the lack of consideration of population dynamics hampers the development of stronger, more effective solutions to the challenges climate change poses. The papers in this volume provide a substantive and methodological guide to the current state of knowledge on issues such as population growth and size and emissions; population vulnerability and adaptation linked to health, gender disparities and children; migration and urbanization; and the data and analytical needs for the next stages of policy-relevant research.

In 2010 and beyond, as the world develops and implements new climate-change strategies, and as the need for action heightens every day, this volume will help to fill one of the most significant gaps in the global response to date.