Michael Herrmann is Senior Adviser, Economics and Demography, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The Global Population Will Soon Reach 8 Billion—Then What?

Children in Namarjung, Western Development Region, Nepal, 2017. Rebecca Zaal/Pexels
Mothers wait with their babies to be attended by a midwife at Ntimaru Sub County Level 4 Hospital in Kehancha, Migori County, Kenya, 8 June 2022. UNFPA
Health worker Aydah Mohamed attending to neonatal babies at Al Shaab Hospital in Aden, Yemen, 24 February 2022. UNFPA

Meeting the needs and lifting the living standards of a large and growing world population will require higher levels of production and result in greater consumption. Without green reforms in energy, manufacturing and transport, as well as changes in human behaviour, this will place mounting pressures on the natural environment.