Population growth and climate change: fewer people does not mean more CO2 | Letters

Your editorial's argument about a causal link between slowing population growth and increased economic growth (Fewer people means more carbon: the population paradox, 3 August) is dangerously out of date.

In its 2014 report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change showed how the reduction through efficiency of CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels was wiped out by population increase, the real paradox being why it then offered pages of energy policy advice, but not a word on population. Could it be that the IPCC - and you - are blinded by the logic that regards economic growth as more important than carbon emissions and misery for lots of women and children?