Nestled in the category of Women and Girls is the number seven way to draw carbon back to earth, Family Planning! ❤

Ranking and Results by 2050

• 59.6 gigatons of reduced CO2
• Inappropriate to monetize a human right

For women to have children by choice rather than chance and to plan their family size and spacing is a matter of autonomy and dignity. The ability to choose contraception is not available to everyone, and results in 74 million unintended pregnancies each year. In the US, 45 % of all pregnancies are unintended. We need to secure the right to voluntary, high quality family planning services around the world. This would have powerful impacts on the health, welfare, and life expectancy of women and their children. Family planning can also have a huge impact on drawing down greenhouse gas emissions.

Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren developed the now famous equation known as “IPAT” in the early 1970’s. Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology. It argues that the impact humans have on the environment is a function of number, level of consumption, and the kind of technology used.

The world currently falls short $ 5.3 billion dollars for providing the access to reproductive healthcare that women want to have. This is about freedom and opportunity for women and the recognition of basic human rights. Currently, family planning programs receive just about 1 % of all overseas development assistance. That number could easily double, with low income countries aiming to match it – a moral move that happens to have meaning for the planet.

— from Paul Hawken and his book “Drawdown”