Far fewer children were born last year than the year before. Although the figures for December have not been made public, the trend of lower birth rates continues, and around 10,000 fewer children are born now than ten years ago, according to Statistics Norway Today, the average age of childbirth for women is 31.6 years. Ruben M. Oddekalv, who is the leader of the Norwegian Environmental Protection Association, is pleased that the birth rate in Norway is going down. – It is a huge plus and something I very much welcome. There is no reason to celebrate population records or try to stimulate increased population growth, says Oddekalv. It was a dark day for Norway’s Environmental Protection Association when the world passed 8 billion inhabitants last November. – Virtually all environmental problems are inextricably linked to our consumption. The more people we become, the greater burden we place on the planet, also on a Norwegian scale. Ruben Oddekalv sees not having children as a real climate measure. – We know that there are people in Norway today who, both with regard to the environment and uncertainty for the future, refrain from having children. In Norway, fewer children are being born and the number of elderly people is increasing. It will be challenging to get hold of enough labor and the economy will worsen if we do not adapt. – This problem is the perfect storm: The more children we have today, the more old people we have in the next generation. At one point or another, we must find an answer to that question that does not involve producing even more people. The sooner we start finding other alternatives, the better, says Oddekalv. He points to labor immigration as one of several solutions to the problem. To stimulate increased population growth is not the way to go, says Ruben Oddekalv. MDG: – Not a goal to increase population growth MDG leader Arild Hermstad rejects that the solution to the climate threat is to stop having children. – Our use of resources must take place within a framework that is compatible with taking care of the resources on the planet. There we know that we have blown the limits. The challenges for us as a society is to reduce resource consumption. The solution to that is obviously not to stop having children. – We should not have as an independent goal the recovery of population growth, says MDG leader Arid Hermstad. Photo: Stein Ove Korneliussen/news But it is also not a big goal for the authorities to do a lot to stimulate increased population growth, Hermstad believes. – We should not have as an independent goal the recovery of population growth. What we must aim for is to have better arrangements for people who have children. It should be safe and good to grow up in Norway. Regardless of how many children are born, our economic activity must change so that we can solve both the climate challenge and the fact that we are building down more and more nature, he says. Fewer children have the greatest climate impact Fewer children have a greater climate impact than cuts in air travel and car use, shows a study carried out by researchers at the University of Lund in Sweden and the University of British Columbia in Canada. The study is restricted to apply to the industrialized part of the world, which accounts for the largest share of emissions of greenhouse gases and therefore must also take the largest emission cuts. The fact that fewer children are born is a good climate measure, a Swedish study shows. Photo: Shutterstock Fewer children top the list of measures such as cuts in air travel, green energy, reducing the car fleet and a plant-based diet. – Population growth is the big elephant in the room. How are we going to get enough energy when the world’s population has to get out of poverty? The fact that there are more and more of us is a major climate problem, says Kjell Traa, who is a civil engineer and chairman of the consulting company Eureka Energy Partners AS. Paying little attention to climate and environment Researchers Sara Cools and Marte Strøm at the Institute for Social Research have researched why fewer and fewer children are being born in Norway. They have asked more than 7,600 men and women between the ages of 24 and 46 about: How many children they want What should be in place before they have children How do they think children will affect their professional and other lives What kind of policy can make them have more children than they otherwise imagined The survey shows, however, that although both men and women want a little more than two children on average, it is more often women who want the third child, Cools writes in an e-mail to news. Fewer cited considerations for the climate and the environment, and concern for the future as a reason for not having children in the survey. Sara Lena Yri Cools, researcher at the Department of Social Research. Photo: Institute for Social Research / Institute for Social Research – I am not aware of any research that shows that consideration for the environment has been an important reason why fewer children are born in Norway, but it may be something that affects younger adults. We cannot rule it out, but those who responded to our survey did not attach the most importance to it. – Must allow for more flexibility KrF believes, however, that there is good reason to stimulate increased population growth. Ida Lindtveit Røse (KrF) believes that the government’s policy encourages families to plan births, among other things, because the parental leave scheme is too inflexible and rigid. – The follow-up of the mother after birth is too poor, and far too many leave the maternity period with bad experiences. – It is completely absurd that politicians should decide down to the level of detail how the child’s first time should be. The families should be allowed to decide that themselves, writes Røse. Photo: Stian Lysberg Solum / Stian Lysberg Solum In addition, Ida Lindtveit Røse believes that it is a problem that you do not have the right to a nursery place for your one-year-old if you gave birth in winter. – It is particularly crazy that we encourage families to have children, but at the same time do not make it possible for everyday life to improve. Furthermore, Røse urges the government to make arrangements for each individual family and not push everyone into the same funnel. Ida Lindtveit Røse wants it to be easier to start a family when you want, without planning to the same extent as today. – Instead, we must allow for far more flexibility. The possibility of a home office, the possibility of being able to work at times other than normal core hours, making arrangements to be able to step down for a period without it meaning that one has put ambitions on the shelf for that reason.
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– A climate measure not to have children – news Nordland
