Panel : Population and climate change Geneviève FERONE Climate Change IV: “Anticipating climate risk” Geneva, September 1 er 2009

Total population "Out of every 100 persons added to the population in the coming decade, 97 will live in developing countries." Hania Zlotnik, 2005

Population 2050 "The choices that today's generation of young people aged years make about the size and spacing of their families will determine whether Planet Earth will have 8, 9 or 11 billion people in the year 2050." United Nations Population Fund, 2005 By 2050 it is estimated that the earth's human population will be 9.07 billion. 62% of the people will live in Africa, Southern Asia and Eastern Asia - numerically this is the same as if all the world's current population lived just in these regions. In addition another will be spread across the rest of the world.

Elderly population "We live in an era of unprecedented, rapid and inexorable global ageing." HelpAge International, 2005 In 2002, 7% of the world population was over 65 years old. Only 1% of the population of the United Arab Emirates was over 65 years old. China has the largest elderly population (92 million) but this is only 7% of the Chinese population. Growing proportions of elderly people are partly a result of people living longer and, often, of fewer births reducing the size of the younger population. Africa is home to only 6% of the world's population aged over 65.

Elderly population

City growth "Massive urbanisation means hundreds of already near-bankrupt cities trying to cope in 20 years with the kind of problems London or New York only managed to address with difficulty in 150 years." John Vidal, 2004  A total increase of 888 million people living in urban areas is predicted in 186 territories. In the remaining 14 territories, no change or a fall is expected, totalling 6.5 million.  By 2015, an extra 22% of the 2002 population of Indonesia is expected to live in urban areas. An extra 25% of people living in the Philippines will be urban dwellers by this time.

Migrations Global estimates  There are more than 200 million estimated international migrants in the world today.  Migrants comprise 3% of the global population.  The number of the migrants worldwide would constitute the fifth most populous country in the world.  Women account for 49.6 per cent of global migrants.  In 2007, remittance flows are estimated at USD 337 billion worldwide, USD 251 billion of which went to developing countries.  There are roughly 20 to 30 million unauthorized migrants worldwide, comprising around 10 to 15 per cent of the world's immigrant stock.  In 2007, there were 26 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in at least 52 countries as a result of conflict compared to 24.5 million IDPs in 52 countries the year before.  In 2007, the global number of refugees reached an estimated 11.4 million persons.

Migrations