Reducing population growth and climate stress through better education of girls

By Stephanie McCauley
April 13, 2016

A proactive and cost effective way to address climate change is through girls’ education. Better educated women have fewer children, as World Bank data shows the difference between women with 0 and 12 years of school is 4-5 children/woman. Such a reduction in future populations could contribute greatly to reducing emissions and lowering demand for natural resources. Additionally, education can improve health, livelihoods, and adaptation knowledge.

Climate Protection: Lowers emissions from population growth Resilience: Introduces women to alternate livelihoods and ways to adapt to climate change Food & Water: Decreases stress on food and water resources Jobs & Assets: Allows for families to save money by providing for fewer people Health, Well-Being, & Safety: Improves the health of women and children Connection: Increases women’s connection to each other and society

This post is part of a series on examples of ​multisolving, or climate-smart policies that simultaneously work to mitigate climate change while providing co-benefits such as the ones described above. The multiple benefits analysis was done using the ​FLOWER framework.