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The Economics of Population Policy for Carbon Emissions Reduction in Developing Countries - Working Paper 229

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  • David Wheeler and Dan Hammer

Abstract

Female education and family planning are both critical for sustainable development, and they obviously merit expanded support without any appeal to global climate considerations. However, even relatively optimistic projections suggest that family planning and female education will suffer from financing deficits that will leave millions of women unserved in the coming decades. Since both activities affect fertility, population growth, and carbon emissions, they may also provide sufficient climate-related benefits to warrant additional financing from resources devoted to carbon emissions abatement. This paper considers the economic case for such support. Using recent data on emissions, program effectiveness and program costs, we estimate the cost of carbon emissions abatement via family planning and female education. We compare our estimates with the costs of numerous technical abatement options that have been estimated by Naucler and Enkvist in a major study for McKinsey and Company (2009). We find that the population policy options are much less costly than almost all of the options Naucler and Enkvist provide for low-carbon energy development, including solar, wind, and nuclear power, second-generation biofuels, and carbon capture and storage. They are also cost-competitive with forest conservation and other improvments in forestry and agricultural practices. We conclude that female education and family planning should be viewed as viable potential candidates for financial support from global climate funds. The case for female education is also strengthened by its documented contribution to resilience in the face of the climate change that has already become inevitable.

Suggested Citation

  • David Wheeler and Dan Hammer, 2010. "The Economics of Population Policy for Carbon Emissions Reduction in Developing Countries - Working Paper 229," Working Papers 229, Center for Global Development.
  • Handle: RePEc:cgd:wpaper:229
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    File URL: http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/1424557/
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    Cited by:

    1. Nicholas Lawson & Dean Spears, 2018. "Optimal population and exhaustible resource constraints," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(1), pages 295-335, January.
    2. John Cleland, 2013. "World Population Growth; Past, Present and Future," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 55(4), pages 543-554, August.
    3. Olaronke T. ONANUGA, 2017. "Elasticity of CO2 emissions with Respect to Income, Population, and Energy Use: Time Series Evidence from African Countries," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 4, pages 651-670, December.
    4. Dao, Thang & Kalkuhl, Matthias & Vasilakis, Chrysovalantis, 2022. "The Slow Demographic Transition in Regions Vulnerable to Climate Change," IZA Discussion Papers 15646, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Colin Bangay, 2022. "Education, anthropogenic environmental change, and sustainable development: A rudimentary framework and reflections on proposed causal pathways for positive change in low‐ and lower‐middle income coun," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 40(6), November.
    6. J. Joseph Speidel & Jane N. O’Sullivan, 2023. "Advancing the Welfare of People and the Planet with a Common Agenda for Reproductive Justice, Population, and the Environment," World, MDPI, vol. 4(2), pages 1-29, May.
    7. Leonardo A. Lanzona Jr., 2013. "Family Planning as an Investment in Human Capital: Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Programme in Malaybalay, Bukidnon, the Philippines," Millennial Asia, , vol. 4(1), pages 41-66, April.
    8. Sudeshna Ghosh, 2018. "Globalization and Environment: An Asian Experience," Journal of International Commerce, Economics and Policy (JICEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 9(03), pages 1-27, October.
    9. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Kablan, Sandrine & Hammoudeh, Shawkat & Nasir, Muhammad Ali & Kontoleon, Andreas, 2020. "Environmental Implications of Increased US Oil Production and Liberal Growth Agenda in Post -Paris Agreement Era," MPRA Paper 99277, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 19 Mar 2020.

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    Keywords

    Population Policy; Carbon Emissions Reduction;

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