REPORT ON THE INTERSECTION OF POPULATION GROWTH AND CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY ARGUES FOR INCLUDING GENDER EQUITY AND FAMILY PLANNING IN CLIMATE PLANS
WASHINGTON, July 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A report released today by the NGO Population Institute, "Population and Climate Change Vulnerability: Understanding Current Trends to Enhance Rights and Resilience," explores the intersection of population growth and climate change impacts, and underscores the need to incorporate population trends, gender equity, and reproductive health and rights into climate adaptation plans.
Climate change is not gender-neutral. For example, climate-related deaths were 56% higher among women in Europe's most recent heat wave. In the United States and elsewhere, women face heightened risk of gender-based violence and reduced access to contraception after natural disasters.
Women and girls are more vulnerable to climate impacts and disproportionately responsible for recovery and adaptation. Climate impacts aggravate gender inequities, reduce resources available to women and girls, limit their self-determination and economic status, restrict their access to family planning, and increase incidence of child marriage and early childbirth, along with gender-based violence.
These are factors in rapid population growth, which correlates with and exacerbates climate vulnerability, and complicates climate adaptation and resilience. In the 80 countries ranked most vulnerable to climate change, the average rate of population growth is twice the global average, the Population Institute report found.
It points out that including gender equity and reproductive health in climate adaptation plans would help slow population growth, empower women, and increase climate resilience. Most climate planning ignores these issues, but the report profiles specific examples of efforts to address them in five countries: Bangladesh, Niger, the Philippines, Uganda, and the United States.
"Our report looks at how population trends intersect with people's climate change exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity," said Kathleen Mogelgaard, CEO of Population Institute. "It shows that population is growing disproportionately in countries already highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. We need deeper consideration of population trends in climate adaptation. We can put population growth on a sustainable path by lifting up family planning, gender equity, and autonomy for women and girls. Unfortunately, public funding for family planning is moving in exactly the wrong direction, in the United States and around the world. But incorporating these measures into climate planning is one of the most hopeful, impactful things we can do to build resilience today and address climate vulnerability over the long term."
Contact: Stephen Kent, [email protected], 914-589-5988
SOURCE Population Institute
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