Social Solutions
- Radhesh Amin
- Nov 26, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 5, 2020
What are social solutions to climate change?
Social solutions like education and family planning are key to effective climate change policy. They reduce greenhouse gas emissions and progress society which make them great champions for policymakers to promote to the general public that don’t just rely on abstract technological advances. Education for one is a basic human right but due to a variety of reasons like poverty and race, girls face massive barriers to entry. They are also much more likely to be pulled out of school to help with domestic jobs like fetching water. The impacts of natural disasters socially, economically, and even health wise are felt at heightened levels by women and girls. Women’s mortality rates are higher than men’s during natural disasters that only compound with our GHG emissions [1].
A 2017 Brookings Institute study showed that every additional year of education a girl receives, the resilience to climate change disasters of their country improves significantly [2]
Educating girls has a tremendous impact on society as a whole as it leads to better outcomes for them and their families, less births and at a later age, and even creates some amazing new climate scientists!
What is the impact of this social solution?
It is hard to quantify the reduced GHG emissions as a result of education and its place in elevating a society but we can more accurately account for the resulting reduction in population. The U.N. estimates the world population will rise from 7.3 billion today to 9.7 billion in 2050, with most growth in developing nations [3]. However, if girls education was made a priority, there would be 2 billion less people by 2050 [2]. Focusing on the United States, there are about 6.1 million pregnancies each year but over 45% of them are unintended [4]. Research has shown that one less child reduces emissions in the average developed nation by 58.6 tonnes CO2eq per year [5]. Assuming the 45% of pregnancies are reduced, there would be a reduction of 0.16 GtCO2eq per year.
What is the scale and timeline of this solution?
An education campaign for girls would have a TRL most likely around 6-9 (representing early demonstration to commercial scale) as the United States already has an expansive education system in place but will need to develop the proper curriculum. It would cost very little to implement climate change education in our school curriculum, and it would cost only a few billion dollars to provide reproductive healthcare around the world, and much less in the United States. As most of this education can be implemented in the K-12 system with some R&D efforts on revamping of standards and effective communication and since we have the means to provide reproductive healthcare, this solution can be implemented easily in less than 10 years.
Are there issues with the solution?
Politically, most climate change solutions are ideologically close to solutions that provide education and reproductive healthcare so there is no issue here. Plans like those of incoming President Joe Biden focus on environmental justice and would mesh well with these social solutions. However there are concerns that these solutions are a scapegoat blaming the population in developing countries or the poor people in the U.S. for climate change. Also there is some resistance to education being an actual climate solution as educated people live more affluent lives and they typically emit more. There is in fact a problem with affluence and the GHG emissions of the top 1% that must be reduced but that is not to say the emissions of each nation and every individual must go down too. Education and reproductive health provide a better lifestyle and are one of the pieces of the puzzle to preventing climate disaster.
“Educational response to climate change must be integral rather than additional to broader quality/relevance debates and to any reform they generate” [6]
What policies should we implement?
The main thing to implement will be an effective, comprehensive climate change and family planning and health curriculum across the nation. This will require lots of state support from boards of education and governors. There also needs to be access to reproductive healthcare by every community in the U.S.A. This will require a federal response along the lines of Medicare For All. Also, increasing women's representation in Congress and the upper echelons of government is something to strive for as women often support stronger environmental protections and education reform.
References
[1]Kwauk, C.; Cooke, J.; Hara, E.; Pegram, J. Girls’ education in climate strategies https://www.brookings.edu/research/girls-education-in-climate-strategies/ (accessed Dec 6, 2020).
[2]Rapid Transition Alliance Staff. Educating girls is more effective in the climate emergency than many green technologies https://www.resilience.org/stories/2020-02-24/educating-girls-is-more-effective-in-the-climate-emergency-than-many-green-technologies/ (accessed Dec 6, 2020).
[3]World population projected to reach 9.8 billion in 2050, and 11.2 billion in 2100 https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-population-prospects-2017.html (accessed Dec 6, 2020).
[4]Unintended pregnancy in the United States https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/unintended-pregnancy-united-states (accessed Dec 6, 2020).
[5]Wynes, S.; Nicholas, K. A. The Climate Mitigation Gap: Education and Government Recommendations Miss the Most Effective Individual Actions. Environ. Res. Lett. 2017, 12 (7), 074024.
[6]Bangay, C.; Blum, N. Education Responses to Climate Change and Quality: Two Parts of the Same Agenda? Int. J. Educ. Dev. 2010, 30 (4), 359–368.
Kwauk, C., & Braga, A. (2017). 3 platforms for girls’ education in climate strategies. Brookings. https://i2.wp.com/www.brookings.edu/wpcontent/uploads/2017/09/girls-climate_fig2.pngw=768&crop=0%2C0px%2C100%2C9999px&ssl=1.
Care International. Educating Girls. https://www.careinternational.org.uk/sites/default/files/education-infographic-CARE-women-girls.png.
CAMFED. Girls’ education & gender equality - at the core of effective climate action. https://camfedorg2015.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/files/camfed_website_gender_equality_climate_action_profile_educate_graphic.png.
Comments