Population policy and environmental degradation: sources and trends in greenhouse gas emissions HamiltonClive TurtonHal 2017 The impact of population growth on the state of the environment has become a subject of vigorous public debate and has led to a number of official reports. This paper is the first systematic analysis of the implications of population growth in Australia on one of the most important environmental problems, the emission of greenhouse gases that are associated with climate change. This is especially important since Australia has signed up to international emission reduction obligations under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Copyright. Monash University and the author/s