On July 19, 2023, Georgian– and Ukrainian-language Facebook users shared Ursula von der Leyen’s video with the caption, “Aunt Ursula speaks openly about the need to stop population growth.” In the video, the President of the European Commission talks about the “The Limits to Growth” report published 50 years ago, according to which our planet will not survive in the future unless economic and population growth is stopped.
The claim that Ursula von der Leyen is talking about stopping population growth is being disseminated without context. The president of the European Commission indeed began her speech at a conference in 2023 with these words, although she emphasized that the results of the study refer to a model adjusted to exhaustible energy, which is very outdated. The main idea of her speech is that the world should move to the use of renewable, environmentally friendly resources and, instead of population control, to base the model of economic growth on this approach.
The disseminated video is from the May 2023 conference “Beyond Growth”, which featured von der Leyen as a speaker. Von der Leyen started the conversation by talking about the report published by the “Club of Rome” and noted that the researchers’ conclusions were completely correct. However, she also explained that the fossil fuel-based growth model is outdated and needs to be replaced. In her opinion, the main need is the decarbonization of the economy, for which it is first necessary to switch to renewable, clean resources. The President also noted that the “Club of Rome” failed to calculate the potential of hydrogen 50 years ago. They also could not imagine that today humanity would already be using electric cars and other renewable resources. It is for these reasons that their conclusions can only be justified in the presence of an economy dependent on fossil fuels. As a result, it follows from the words of Ursula von der Leyen that for the growth of the world, it is not necessary to control the population, but to use clean and renewable resources as much as possible.
In 1972, researchers from the “Club of Rome” and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published a report known as “The Limits to Growth” in the form of a book. The main goal of the research was to determine how much it was possible to maintain economic and population growth rates against the background of limited resources, which they tried to determine using computer simulation. Within the framework of the research, five factors that influence growth rates were studied: population; agricultural production; natural resources; industrial production; Environment pollution. The conclusion of the report states that without serious changes in the process of resource consumption, the planet will reach the limit of economic growth in the next 100 years. As a result, it is most likely to be accompanied by an uncontrolled decline in industrial strength and population.
The conclusion of the study also mentions that it is possible to avoid these consequences if these growth trends are reversed, and ecological and economic stability is established, which will be much more sustainable. According to the researchers, the main goal should be the creation of a global equilibrium system, which implies access to basic needs for any person and an equal opportunity to reveal individual potential.
The conference “Beyond Growth” was held in the hall of the European Parliament, and the “Club of Rome” was one of its organizers. In addition to Ursula von der Leyen, the list of speakers included other high-ranking officials of the European Union. The main focus of the conference was to discuss the relationship between environmental, social, and economic challenges and talk about future plans. During its course, it was repeatedly pointed out that the main problem is climate change, pollution, and dependence on exhaustible resources, and the current economic model needs to be changed significantly as it cannot adequately respond to today’s problems.
About the Source
Facebook user Nini Khundadze is a supporter of the pro-Kremlin “Conservative Movement” party and its affiliate TV company Alt-Info. The false information spread by the user has been repeatedly debunked by fact-checking organizations, including Myth Detector (1, 2, 3)
Ukrainian-speaking Facebook user “Olena Gotty” has previously published disinformation about the alleged plans to artificially reduce the world population.
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