“We know that a number of these countries in Africa have the least to do with climate change in terms of emissions, but they are the most vulnerable, and they are the ones with the least capacity to deal with the effects of climate change,” says Clive Mutunga in this week’s podcast. Mutunga, a senior associate at Population Action International, discusses the results of a study PAI conducted looking at the entwined and related impacts of climate change and population growth, as well as other factors like water scarcity, on Kenya and Malawi.

“[Family planning] has great value for women’s health, for children’s health, but it also has great value for the environment, and it can also help…to promote economic development,” says Eliya Zulu in this week’s podcast. Zulu talks about the research he has conducted as executive director of the African Institute for Development Policy and emphasizes the need to pay attention to population and climate issues both at higher levels of development policy discussion and grassroots action. “We need to make sure we integrate at all levels,” he says.

“We believe that if you want to respond to critical development issues like climate change, that you need to address the social dimensions of resilience,” says Roger-Mark De Souza of Population Action International (PAI) in this week’s podcast.

“If you want to address climate change and you only look at mitigation, you are missing some of the important components,” he said. PAI, which advocates for better access to family planning in developing countries, starts from the standpoint that allowing couples to decide how many children they have leads to “investments in education and technology, providing opportunities for additional economic growth, enhanced development, and ultimately helping to build resilience and adaptive capacity.”.