Fertility rates must be reduced in order to slow the increase of the global population, which is on course to reach 10.5 billion by 2050, according to a United Nations (UN) report.
The report states that reduction of greenhouse gas emissions would be better helped by investing in birth control than by building nuclear power stations or wind turbines, according to the The Times newspaper.
Preventing one billion births by 2050 would have an effect on carbon dioxide levels comparable to constructing 2 million giant wind turbines.
The current global population stands at 6.8 billion, but even a medium-growth forecast of 2.3 billion more people by 2050, presuming a fall in average fertility from 2.56 to 2.02 children per woman, would make it difficult to prevent catastrophic climate change.
"No human is genuinely carbon neutral. Therefore, everyone is part of the problem, so everyone must be part of the solution in some way," said the report. "Each birth results not only in the emissions attributable to that person in his or her lifetime, but also the emissions of all his or her descendants."
The idea of Chinese-style laws to control population are rejected by the report, which states the outcome can be achieved by promoting contraception and education among women.
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