Girls’ education and rights-based family planning are critical climate solutions through their dual impact on slowing population growth and accelerating climate action.
The Climate Impact of Population Growth
Population dynamics directly affect emissions, for example slower population growth reduces demand for energy, transportation, housing, and food which are major contributors to global emissions.
Project Drawdown’s modeling shows that achieving the UN’s medium population projection of 9.7 billion by 2050 (rather than higher-growth scenarios) through expanded family planning and education could reduce CO₂ equivalent emissions by 68.9 gigatons by 2050.
Rights-based family planning strengthens climate resilience by preventing unintended pregnancies, reducing maternal mortality, and keeping girls in school. Scholarships tied to marriage/childbearing could reduce women’s educational attainment as these life events can often alter one’s ability to complete school.
Policies regarding women’s education and reproductive activities must remain rights-based, emphasizing autonomy and access—not coercion. Allowing women equal access to education and expanding family planning services are not just social imperatives but high-leverage climate solutions that address both mitigation and adaptation.
The Clash: Trump’s Pronatalist Agenda vs. Climate Progress
The Trump administration’s proposed pronatalist agenda, which includes baby bonuses, marriage-based educational privileges, and a “National Medal of Motherhood,” signals a return to traditionalist policies that ignore climate realities.
Trumps Core Pronatalist Policies
- Financial Incentives
- $5,000 “Baby Bonus”: A one-time cash payment to mothers per child
- Tax Credits: Expanded child tax credits, though specifics remain unclear
- Educational Privileges
- Fulbright Scholarships: Reserve 30% of spots for married applicants or parents
- Fertility Education: Government-funded menstrual cycle tracking programs to “optimize conception,” while cutting CDC reproductive health research funding
- Symbolic Recognition
- National Medal of Motherhood: Awarded to women with six or more children
- Cultural Campaigns: Promote marriage and large families as patriotic acts
Key Concerns:
- Incentivizing education through the act of childbirth puts women students at a disadvantage as data shows that women contribute 20.4 hours per week to childcare while fathers spend only 3.9 hours
- Period tracking programs can be weaponized by the government to criminalize women who have received reproductive care
- Maternal and child mortality rates rise as a result of increased child birth paired with decreased access to reproductive care
- Financial incentives such as a $5,000 baby bonus fail to cover the true cost of raising a child, especially in a climate-disrupted economy.
- Regressive policies reduce women’s voices and participation in the workforce—particularly in emerging climate sectors like clean energy, where women already make up only 33% of jobs.
- Fertility-focused education replaces comprehensive reproductive healthcare, reducing access to contraception and skewing public health priorities.
- Cuts to family planning programs, including Title X and CDC maternal health research, further restrict reproductive autonomy.
The proposed policies normalize financial incentive as coercion for sexual acts, stripping women of their humanity and ability to live their lives as they choose. Placing a $5,000 price tag on birth is offensive to the value life and the experience of motherhood, while attracting people who may only be incentivized by the “baby bonus” and are not equipped to raise a child.
Contradiction With Climate Mitigation Strategies
Energy and Emissions:
- Emissions Scaling Issue: Even modest population increases have outsized climate impacts. The U.S. already has one of the highest per capita emissions rates (14.44 metric tons CO₂/person). Adding millions more high-consuming Americans (as targeted by “baby boom” policies) would directly counteract emission-reduction targets under the Paris Agreement.
- Resource Demand Surge: More people = more:
Women’s Leadership Advances Climate Innovation and Governance
- Climate Policy: Countries with greater female representation in parliament not only adopt more stringent climate policies but are also 27% more likely to ratify environmental treaties—highlighting the impact of women’s leadership on accelerating effective climate action.
- Emissions Reductions: A 1-unit increase in the Women’s Political Empowerment Index is associated with an 11.51% decrease in CO₂ emissions
- Change Makers: Women are powerful changemakers in climate technology, policy, and research however they are underrepresented in each of these sectors, which could be further exacerbated by policies that erode reproductive rights and incentivize domestic labor.
- Intersectional Policies: Research and case studies demonstrate that women policymakers advance more inclusive and intersectional climate frameworks, addressing social disparities and leading to more effective climate action.
- Innovation: Women-led ventures are driving innovation in carbon capture, hydrogen energy, and sustainable agriculture
Working Against Proven Climate Solutions
- Girls’ Education: Educated women average 1.7 children vs. 2.5 for less-educated women in U.S. data. Scholarships tied to marriage/childbearing could reduce women’s educational attainment as these life events can often alter one’s ability to commit themselves to schooling.
- Family Planning: Promoting conception-focused “fertility education” (rather than comprehensive reproductive health) risks reducing access to contraception, which has prevented ~2.8 billion tons of annual CO₂ emissions globally by enabling smaller families.
Economic and Equity Concerns
- Direct Costs: Climate-driven disasters cost the U.S. $165 billion annually (NOAA 2022) – a burden worsened by population growth in vulnerable areas.
- Gender Equity Backslide: Cash incentives for mothers ($5k/baby) could pressure women into caregiving roles, reducing workforce participation and climate leadership opportunities
Demographic Myths
The Trump administration’s policies hinge on a misleading narrative: that declining birth rates threaten America’s future. In reality, U.S. population growth is slowing due to rising early adult mortality rates which experienced a sharp rise during the pandemic and remain elevated.
Conclusion: A Crossroads for Climate and Human Rights
As discussed above, educating and empowering women is a net-positive for people and the planet, however the Trump Administration’s framing of “Fertility Education” and incentives for Fulbright Scholarships weaponizes this positive connotation to increase traditionalist patriarchal power.
Coercive and regressive pronatalist policies pose a dual threat—accelerating emissions while exploiting the very people driving climate innovation.
Climate leadership demands a different focus—one rooted in lowering per capita emissions, not expanding the number of high-emitting households. Empowering women’s voices and rights-basedfamily planningnot only promotes gender equity but offers some of the most effective, evidence-based solutions to the climate crisis.
As climate impacts worsen, our policies must elevate—not restrict—human potential. A truly resilient future is one where women are empowered, populations are sustainable, and climate action is just, inclusive, and science-driven.
