Climate change has taken global centre stage in recent months following three reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that paint a dire picture of the future which governments fail to take action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate Change – Is Birth Control the Answer? It is estimated that approximately 44% of pregnancies around the world (currently around 60 million each year) are either unplanned or unwanted. This problem is particularly acute in developing countries where poverty, unemployment, lack of education and lack of (or zero) access to contraceptives are key contributors.

Two lesser-known solutions to control climate change are: girl’s education and family planning. The link between the education of girls and a smaller carbon footprint isn’t as intuitively obvious as, say, phasing out fossil fuels.

But dig a little deeper, and the evidence is overwhelming. It’s clear that getting more girls into school, and giving them a quality education, has a series of profound, cascading effects: reduced incidence of disease, higher life expectancies, more economic prosperity, fewer forced marriages, and fewer children.

Better educational access and attainment not only equips women with the skills to deal with the antagonizing effects of climate change, but it gives them influence over how their communities militate against it.

Then there’s family planning, something that’s indivisible from the education of girls. The planet is overpopulated, and the demands of its citizens greatly exceed the natural resources provided by our environment.

The education of girls and family planning can be considered as a single issue involving the empowerment of women in communities across the world.