Report shows rapid growth in U.S. coast, metro areas, and the West, high-energy consuming households, and American's choices on "energy and family size" are all key links to U.S. climate change

New Canaan, CT - September 9, 2008 - With energy a top national priority in the U.S., there is a new concern - about the high energy demands of a large, fast growing America - that has unprecedented economic, environmental, and lifestyle costs nationwide.

A new report released today, "U.S. Population, Energy & Climate Change", shows how the nation's high per-capita energy use and its sizable, expanding population are combining to have a profound affect both on American's daily lives and on a broader scale, the world's climate. The report highlights the scientific evidence of how the nation's energy and demographic trends, together, are emerging as a new "twin-set" of major policy issues for the country. The science-based report was produced by the Center for Environment and Population (CEP), an independent non-profit research and policy organization.

"We all know that less 'unsustainable' energy use in America will help reduce our dependence on foreign oil and slow climate change. Yet, we haven't seriously considered the biggest overlooked 'climate change factor' – that is, population", said Vicky Markham, author of the report. "In the climate change equation, population is the 'big multiplier' - particularly when linked with American's unique high per-capita energy use and resource consumption - because it intensifies the rate, scale, and scope of both the root causes and effects of climate change in the U.S. and worldwide. Because of this, America's biggest 'population' issue today is its connection to energy use and climate change."

The new report documents how major U.S. demographic factors – including growth along the U.S. coasts, metropolitan areas, and in the West; increase in high-energy consuming households and per-capita vehicle use, and; widespread land development to accommodate the growth – are all inextricably linked to the causes and effects of climate change.

"Population factors simply aren't taken seriously as part of the energy and climate change equation, and must be, if we are to be effective in balancing our energy needs with the ability to sustain a growing U.S. and global population", said Ms. Markham. "If we don't, any gains made on energy or climate change will be undermined because of our growth in numbers of people, coupled with our high per-person energy use. In the U.S., we need to look at climate change and population as two sides of the same coin - that's not how it's been done up to now." 

This means "making population and demography a core part of the energy and climate change national debate, policy, and action, including considerations of where the U.S. growth is occurring (metro areas, coasts, South and West); how we live (vehicle use, land development, household energy use); every American's choices made regarding energy use, environmental sustainability, and family size, and; youth as a key audience", according to the report.

Other report highlights include:

• There is growing evidence that population, linked to energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, is a key factor in climate change. In the U.S., population is related to the causes of climate change mainly through high per-capita energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Population factors exacerbate climate change's effects in the nation when there is population pressure on the natural resource base at specific sites, for example, when there is high population density and continued rapid growth in coastal, urban, suburban or ecologically vulnerable areas in the U.S.

• In the global context of these issues, the U.S. stands out:  it has by far the largest population amongst other industrialized nations worldwide, the only sizable one with significant population growth, <u>and;</u> it uses more energy than any other nation and is the largest carbon dioxide (CO2) greenhouse gas emitter of industrialized nations in the world. This has major implications for global climate change because the American population's energy consumption habits are so disproportionate to the rest of the worlds'. The U.S. represents 5% of the world population, consumes 25% of the world's energy, and generates five times the world average of C02 emissions (the main greenhouse gas contributing to climate change).

• With 8,000 people added each day in the U.S. and 3 million people added each year, there’s real potential to reach 1 billion high-energy consuming Americans by 2100. Meeting the energy demands of this large and rapidly growing population that consumes elevated levels of resources and energy - while at the same time reducing the greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change - will prove daunting in the coming decades.

• U.S. "households" are a key demographic in the rise of per-capita energy use. The U.S. residential sector is the largest such energy use sector worldwide, with household appliances the fastest growing energy consumers nationwide, after vehicles.

• The South and West are  U.S. "population-climate change" hot spots, because they are the fastest growing, most heavily populated U.S. regions, <u>and</u> especially vulnerable to climate change impacts of sea level rise, increased incidence of severe storms and hurricanes, and severe droughts.

• Evidence shows that more American youth - a total demographic of over half of the U.S. population - are now beginning to make decisions about energy use and even family size based on new rationales that for the first time include "environmental sustainability" and "climate change".

To see the Report online, go to www.cepnet.org.

The "U.S. Population, Energy & Climate Change" report is produced by the Center for Environment and Population (CEP), a project of the Tides Center.  For more information see www.cepnet.org.

Contact:
Vicky Markham
Phone: 203-966-3425
Email: vmarkham(at)cepnet.org