December 08, 2009

Farida Akhter on Climate Change and Population

As the Copenhagen climate summit was about to start, we received this important analysis from longtime activist-researcher Farida Akhter: "Climate Change and Population: the old game of blaming women and the poor."

Excerpt:

"The population debate is associated with the debate on consumption. There is no doubt that the wealthier countries and wealthy people in particular are responsible for the high level of consumption which is again responsible for carbon dioxide emissions. The Population report, 2009 quotes environmental journalist Fred Pearce (2009) that “[T]he world’s richest half-billion people—that’s about 7 per cent of the global population— are responsible for 50 per cent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions and the poorest 50 per cent are responsible for just 7 per cent of emissions.” Therefore, even with large numbers of people in the developing countries, their carbon emissions are only 7% -- only one-seventh of what the wealthy nations are contributing. Blaming population growth as an influence on climate change has also been refuted by environmental activists from Bangladesh who say that “Climate change is far more sensitive to consumption patterns than to demographic considerations.”

According to the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Report 1998 Overview, which focused on patterns of consumption, the inequalities in consumption are stark. Globally, the 20% of the world’s people in the highest-income countries account for 86% of total private consumption expenditures — the poorest 20% a minuscule 1.3%. More specifically, the richest 20% of population: consume 45% of all meat and fish, 58% of total energy, 84% of all paper and own 87% of the world’s vehicle fleet, while the poorest 20% consume 5% of all meat and fish, 4% of total energy, 1.1% of all paper, and own less than 1% of the world’s vehicle fleet. The overwhelming growth in consumption in the past 50 years is putting heavy strains on the environment.

Despite these statistics, the efforts to blame population growth for climate change did not stop. The arguments to prove that populations in the developing countries, and particularly in the poorest countries, contribute to greenhouse gas emissions have been very weak. Even if we reduce population growth in the poorest countries, their contribution to the reduction will be not be significant because they are not the big consumers."...

"Climate Change and Population: the old game of blaming women and the poor." in pdf format here. (5 pages)

Farida Akhter "is the executive director of UBINIG and the publisher of Narigrantha Prabartana, the first and the only feminist publishing house in Bangladesh. UBINIG is the abbreviation of its Bengali name Unnayan Bikalper Nitinirdharoni Gobeshona, in English, Policy Research for Development Alternatives. “We are essentially a policy advocacy and research organisation. At the same time, we do implement the ideas which come out of our research works in the form of various programmes and projects. The implementations are elements of our living interaction with the community. As a result they strengthen the empirical foundation of our investigation and analysis…”
(source: Planet Diversity speakers list)

For information on Farida's publications see:
http://www.spinifexpress.com.au/fasiapub/bangladesh/ngp.htm