The Human Footprint on Climate

As part of the "Demographics and Development in the 21st Century" series, Center for Global Development presented a discussion on The Human Footprint on Climate on Tuesday, June 23, 2009.

CGD senior fellow David Wheeler summarized the cross-country research he conducted with research assistant Dan Hammer on the economics of population policy for carbon emissions reduction. In their research, Wheeler and Hammer include assessments of the effects of family planning and female education on birth rates. Their global results indicate that carbon mitigation as a result of population policy has costs comparable to those of the least costly clean technology options. They also find that family planning and female education have very different carbon abatement economics across countries, so cost-effective policy may require careful targeting.

The president of the UN Foundation and the Better World Fund Timothy Wirth offered remarks and the discussion was moderated by Rachel Nugent, deputy director for Global Health at CGD.