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Birth rates in many countries, including China, Japan, Italy and the UK have dropped below replacement level. Clare McNeil asks if we should be concerned about this, and the burden it will place on taxpayers and the young, or welcome it as a good thing for climate change, where some think that the fewer consumers and CO2 emitters the better. But with fertility rates of 1.58 in England and Wales, and only 1.29 in Scotland, society is aging, with the higher healthcare and pension costs to be borne by the taxpayers of working age. What role could or should the government play in increasing the birthrate?

Presenter: Clare McNeil\nProducer: Arlene Gregorius\nEditor: Jasper Corbett

Speakers: \nAngie Hobbs, Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy, the University of Sheffield \nLord David Willetts, President of the Resolution Foundation \nGeorge Monbiot, environmental campaigner and author \nFelix Pinkert, Assistant professor of Philosophy and Economics, University of Vienna \nJacob Hacker, Professor of Political Science, Yale University\nJade Sasser, Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of California, Riverside \nRonald Lee, emeritus professor of Demography and Economics, University of California, Berkeley