Investments to curb poverty and advance SDGs could contribute to reducing population growth by 2100, new research (pdf) commissioned by the Club of Rome suggests. Improvements in quality of life — ranging from more equality to better education — could mean declining birth rates. Experts project that with sufficient economic development, the global population could be down to 7 bn people as GDP is negatively correlated with fertility rates, the research shows.

The study compares different findings to assess what is sustainable: While Club of Rome’s projections forecast a population decline with higher anti-poverty investments, research conducted by the UN predicts, on the contrary, that the global population could breach 10 bn people by 2080. The Earth4All study juxtaposes these different scenarios, achieved through four different demographic approaches, to answer a number of questions including “how many people could Earth’s biosphere support?” and “how many people could live sustainably on Earth”?

The world population is not the first culprit: Whether the number of births increase or decrease over the coming century, one thing is certain: Population size is “not the prime driver” behind climate change, experts speaking on the subject were quoted as saying in an article by Sky News. Rather, what is more detrimental is inflated material footprints caused by a select elite at the expense of the majority, according to Jorgen Randers, one of the study’s lead researchers. “Luxury carbon and biosphere consumption” are the main obstacles standing between humanity and a more sustainable future.

Google has complained to EU regulators about alleged anti-competitive cloud practices from Microsoft, claiming that Microsoft is using “bundling practices […] and pricing and licensing restrictions” to make it harder for customers to choose other providers, Reuters reported. Google claims that Microsoft gained this “unfair advantage” by striking agreements with smaller European companies, which it says are just a way of co-opting smaller players and staving off probes by antitrust regulators after said players had filed complaints, an unnamed source told the newswire. Those agreements create an “unfair advantage to Microsoft and ties the people who complained back to Microsoft anyway,” Vice President Amit Zavery told Reuters. Despite its latest bargains, Microsoft still faces another complaint from CISPE — a group that includes the market’s top player, Amazon.

The stakes have never been higher as the cloud’s impact is unprecedented: A fact that calls for a serious change as Microsoft’s domination is contrary to the very premise of the cloud which was to provide openness and flexibility to customers’ softwares, Zavery said. Resolving particular issues with individual vendors does not address the issue of larger licensing controversies, he added.

Microsoft’s response has been underwhelming. The company’s answer to the barrage of accusations has been to refer to a months-old blogpost by company President Brad Smith in which he acknowledged that some of the antitrust issues raised are valid and the company is working to address them through five “cloud principles” including serving European player’s needs and values and supporting European software developers.

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