If climate change is to be negated women in developing countries must be empowered to have means and right to family planning, says minister

Family planning and access to contraception are key proponents of fighting climate change, according to Minister for Development Cooperation Ulla Tørnæs.

Tørnæs was speaking at the University of Copenhagen on Tuesday in connection with the launch of the latest ‘State of World Population’ report from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The seminar focused on the correlations among climate change, population growth and gender equality in developing countries.

According to the report, the poor are ‘especially vulnerable’ to the effects of climate change and the majority of the 1.5 billion people living on $1 a day or less are women.

‘Poor women in poor countries are among the hardest hit by climate change, even though they contribute the least to it,’ said UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid. 

And Tørnæs was quick to agree, adding that she had the backing of the prime minister in her call for more family planning rights for women.

‘Denmark has for many years now been a strong advocate for a woman’s right to decide how many children she wants and when she wants them. Improving women’s right to choose will be crucial in stabilising population growth, sustaining development and reducing poverty,’ she said.

‘In my view the key is to accelerate access to modern contraception and family planning.’

The UNFPA report highlighted the negative effect of climate change in achieving Millennium Development Goals such as eradicating poverty and disease. It also looked at how a rapidly increasing world population, especially in low lying costal areas, is at particular risk from changing climates.

According to Tørnæs, more than 200 million women in developing countries lack access to modern contraception, leading to 76 million unintended pregnancies each year.