Many perspectives, both scientific and popular, on the causes of anthropogenic climate change take a simplistic view of the role of population, either reducing it simply to a question of size and growth or ignoring it altogether. This presentation explores how changing population composition is contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, and how such insights can contribute to mitigation policies. The data used focus mainly on China, India and Indonesia.

The discussion considers (among other things) urbanization in Asia, changing age structure, and the rise of the consuming classes, each in relation to climate change. It also suggests that a population perspective helps integrate the many human dimensions of climate change – economic, political, social and cultural, as well as demographic – into a common framework which can be used to guide policy formulation. Finally, we comment on the new generation of climate scenarios and how it promises to facilitate more productive involvement in the future of social scientists in climate research.  

Dr Adrian Hayes is a Research Associate at ADSRI, and currently serves as Chair of the IUSSP Scientific Panel on Climate Change.