Project details
This project is a major study investigating the relationship between changes in population size, distribution and age structure, consumption and the implications for human wellbeing.
Population is a global issue which is moving back up the agenda. In the run-up to the December 2009 Copenhagen conference on climate change, a number of academics and NGOs called for a fresh look at the factors affecting and affected by changing population. Yet debates remain polarised: some people still see population as a distraction from the more urgent imperative of reducing resource consumption in the wealthiest countries. Others argue it is an issue that will solve itself, as global population size is projected to peak and then fall from the middle of the 21st century.
The aims of the study are to provide policy guidance to decision makers and inform interested members of the public based on a dispassionate assessment of the best available evidence. The scope of the study is global. It will explicitly acknowledge regional variations in population dynamics. It will look at the implications of population decreases, and increases that are projected for different parts of the world, consumption, and the implications for human wellbeing.
It is planned that the study will be completed by early 2012, when the world’s population is expected to exceed 7 billion. It will be a high profile contribution to the 2012 ‘Rio+20’ UN Earth Summit and also mark the 40th anniversary of ‘The Limits to Growth’.