Climate change is already impacting populations and ecosystems around the globe and threatens to set back develoment efforts by decades, profoundly affecting us all.  The defining challenge of the 21st century is to combine a rapid reduction in poverty and inequiality with a rapid reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions. Meeting this challenge requires an understanding of how the size, structure and dynamics of human populations influence, and are influenced by, our changing climate.

This book is in part the product of an Expert Group Meeting on Population Dynamics and Climate Change held on 24-25 June 2009.  This meeting was hosted by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, and IIED, the International Institute for Environment and Development, with the collaboration of UN-HABITAT and the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.