Opinion | As people live longer, fewer babies can be good for the planet. Hong Kong can show how

As a scientist, I am intrigued and fascinated by the recent spate of articles in the local and global press on ageing populations. They include the impact and proposed solutions and the parallel, perceived problem of falling birth rates, and how the effects of these trends need to be dealt with.

One thing we can do is to make better use of the experience, expertise and energy of our healthier-for-longer seniors. Indeed, many wealthy, developed counties are raising the retirement age beyond 65 while some sectors in Hong Kong set this at 60.

As fertility rates fall in Hong Kong and the mainland, the issues that arise include the closing or combining of schools due to lower enrolment and the shutting down of hospital obstetrics units. This has prompted much online discussion about China’s dramatically falling birth rate and what to do about it.

Last year, this reached a nadir of 9.56 million babies born, and China’s population shrank for the first time in 60 years. For most, this is an unwelcome trend that threatens China’s prosperity and growth. But does it have to be this way?

With careful management, increasing use of artificial intelligence, robotics, health advances, efficiencies, recycling, resource adaptation, re-employment and policy reconsideration, we can re-engineer society to become more sustainable, balanced and less destructive. Common prosperity is one thing, unrestricted growth is quite another.