Demand on the living resources of our planet has doubled since 1966, according to The 2012 Living Planet report. Increasing demand from the industrialisation of developing countries and from rising populations is not being matched by improvements in productivity or efficiency. This has consequences: for example, biodiversity health in the tropics has fallen by forty per cent since 1970. Freshwater and marine resources are also under huge pressure with the global marine fish catch rising five fold from 1950 to 2005.

We continue as a species to consume 1.5 times the amount that the planet produces sustainably each year. By 2030, that could rise to 2 times as population and per capita consumption rise across the world. Climate change poses further challenges.

The WWF rightly calls for the protection of biodiversity, improved efficiencies in production and consumption, a move to sustainable sources, for developed countries to move to a less meat based diet and for financial and governance frameworks to support sustainable resource use.

However, a key element to advancing sustainability must be to retard and reverse the growth in human numbers. This means providing universal access to family planning, something that is highly affordable, and which pays for itself through an immediate reduction in health and social costs and through freeing up productive labour. It also means promoting the benefits for sustainability and the environment of having smaller families, particularly in developed countries.

Commented Simon Ross, Population Matters chief executive: “We need to move away from both our fixation on economic growth and our bias for growing human numbers. Many resources are finite and are being grossly overexploited. We can only preserve our environment and create the headroom for the poorest of the world to improve their living standards if we improve resource use efficiency, rein in excessive consumption AND take steps to slow and reverse the growth in human numbers. As we approach Rio+20 and consider the emerging discussion on Sustainable Development Goals, we should be including strategies for population reduction in our discussions.”