Why Pronatalism Fails the Planetary Health Test

Source: Journal of Population and Sustainability

What happens when leading voices from environmental and climate science, law, reproductive health and rights, anthropology, and economics come together to examine the rise of pronatalism? In this academic commentary, published in The Journal of Population and Sustainability, an interdisciplinary group of researchers, including Senior Fellow and Director of FP/Earth Céline Delacroix, argues that debates about declining fertility cannot be separated from the realities of ecological limits, planetary health and reproductive rights. Drawing on evidence across disciplines, the authors examine the growing pronatalist movement and ask whether policies designed to increase birth rates are compatible with a world facing climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, and mounting ecological pressures. Read the commentary here. Find the article adapted for the Stimson Center’s New Security Beat here.