Families should have no more than two children – thinktank

Families should have no more than two children if they want to help combat climate change, according to new research by a thinktank.

According to the report, published by the Optimum Population Trust, Britain’s high birth rate is a major factor in the current level of climate change, which can only be combatted if families voluntarily limit the number of children they have.
The report calls for a ‘two-child’ policy in the UK that would reduce the nation’s population from 60 million, as it currently stands, to no more than 55 milllion by 2050.

With the UK having the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in western Europe the thinktank is also calling for the Government to increase investment in family planning clinics and to look at ways of discouraging teenage girls from becoming pregnant.

At its current rate the report estimates that the UK’s mid-century population is projected to be 68-69 million with the planet having the largest generation of young people in history – what it terms a ‘youthquake’.

High population and accelerating consumption means that humans are outstripping the planet’s biological capcity, says the report. By 2050, with the global population rising to 9.2 billion, humans will be using twice the Earth’s natural capacity.

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