Condoms and Climate Change

A recent snippet from a home energy efficiency periodical that I read:


A recent study conducted by the London School of Economics for the organization Optimum Population Trust concludes that expanding access to family planning is five times more cost-effective at reducing greenhouse gas emissions than low-carbon technology. Based on recent estimates that the world population in 2050 would be half a billion smaller than projected if all women who want contraception now had access to it, the researchers calculated that CO2 emissions could be reduced by 34 gigatons.

Putting the cost of providing the contraception at a total of $220 billion, that amounts to $7 per ton of CO2 averted. Among more conventional technologies, per-ton costs were found to be $24 for wind power, $51 for solar, $57–$83 for coal plants with carbon capture and storage, and $92 and $131 for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles, respectively. The full study is available online: “Fewer Emitters, Lower Emissions, Less Cost: Reducing Future Carbon Emissions by Investing in Family Planning”.

Heh. Pretty cool.

Although I wonder about the phrase, "study conducted by the London School of Economics"--is this an actual endorsement, or did OPT just pay a grad student at LSE to crunch the numbers for them?

Incidentally, that image above is a Hand silkscreened giant condom pillow with giant fabric condom. Something I found while doing random image searches; thought it was amusing enough to share.