Contraction & Convergence: The Global Solution to Climate Change (Schumacher Briefings) [Paperback]

Aubrey Meyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2001 | Series: Schumacher Briefings (Book 5)

This Briefing explains the origins of the climate crisis and describes some of the dangerous trends created by global warming. It describes the global policy framework of 'Contraction & Convergence' (C&C) and how this was created and introduced to the United Nations in the 1990s by the Global Commons Institute (GCI) to avert these trends. Based on the thesis of 'Equity & Survival', C&C seeks to ensure future prosperity and choice by applying the global rationale of precaution, equity and efficiency in that order. GCI has campaigned for C&C since that time and it has become the most widely cited and arguably the most widely supported framework proposal in the global debate on what to do about climate change. Winning approval and awards, it is now regarded by many as the only basis on which achieving the objective of the UN Climate Treaty is possible: - see www.gci.org.uk.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you read only one book on climate change - its past and future, politics and solutions - read this one. This is the global picture and the key to a global solution." - Tom Spencer, Professor of Global Governance, University of Surrey and President, GLOBE International 1994-99 "Man-made climate change is probably the most serious environmental threat we face. This book offers interesting and useful ideas exploring the concept of 'Contraction and Convergence' as one way to address the global climate challenge." - Michael Meacher, UK Minister for Environment "It is clear that urgent action is called for not only by government and industry but also by ourselves. If our lives are to be conducted according to principles of conscience and survival, we cannot continue to evade our responsibility on this portentous issue. I can think of no better investment of time and no more effective means of jolting people out of their complacency on the ramifications of global warming than by reading this remarkable book." - Mayer Hillman, Town & Country Planning Feb 2001

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Green Books (February 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1870098943
• ISBN-13: 978-1870098946
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #750,780 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Could this book hold the solution to climate change?, June 26, 2001

By 

Mark Lynas (Oxford, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Contraction & Convergence: The Global Solution to Climate Change (Schumacher Briefings) (Paperback)

There is little doubt now - even amongst mainstream political and scientific circles - that climate change poses humankind's greatest ever challenge. "I am not being alarmist," says Meyer. "[But in] the worst case scenario, the survival of all but a tiny minority of the human race comes into question."

This is not simply because of the increasing amounts of CO2, methane and other greenhouse gases that humans are still pumping into the atmosphere, but because the earth's natural regulating systems are themselves in danger of being knocked out of kilter. In a recent model the UK-based Hadley Centre found that warming temperatures would kill tropical rainforests in Brazil - turning vast swathes of Amazonia into desert and grassland, and pouring still more carbon into the atmosphere. Several more 'positive feedbacks' threaten to have just as much of a catastrophic effect.

Yet the solutions which have been proposed so far, like the Kyoto Protocol, have failed to garner world-wide support. This book, which proposes the Contraction and Convergence model as an alternative way to bring down global emissions fairly, could hold the key.

It's really very simple. The Earth's biosphere only has the carrying capacity to absorb a certain amount of carbon per year - and humans have to cut their emissions to a safe level within it. That's 'contraction'. Within this carbon 'budget', every human being on the planet has an equal right to the use of the atmosphere, so countries which emit more than their per-capita fair share must reduce their emissions, whilst those which emit too little are allowed an increase. That's 'convergence'. In a world where 4% of the world's population in the US are able to emit 25% of its CO2, this brings the concept of equity - fairness, basically - to the fore.

For many, equity is a moral standpoint. But it also acts at the level of realpolitik - bringing into the climate process those heavily-populated countries like India and China which are planning to dramatically increase their fossil fuel consumption in the near future. Remember: even if the Kyoto cuts are implemented in full (which they won't be), world carbon emissions are set to increase anyway by some 30% mainly because of the developing world. Why should these countries deny themselves the benefits of electricity, heat and transport simply to support the profligate consumption of rich Europeans, Australians and Americans? In contrast, by recognising these countries' per capita emissions rights, and even allowing them to acquire a tradeable market value, Contraction and Convergence establishes an incentive for clean development.

If you want to know more, read this book. It's an invaluable and readable contribution to a complex - but incredibly important - issue.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful, persuasive and fuelled by compassion, June 27, 2001

By 

"[e-mail]" (Southampton, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Contraction & Convergence: The Global Solution to Climate Change (Schumacher Briefings) (Paperback)

Human-induced climate change is the greatest environmental threat today. Rising to this terrible challenge means overturning the global apartheid between rich and poor. For example, the United States, with a twentieth of the world's population, usurps a quarter of the global atmosphere to dump its pollution. Such inequity motivates this book's author: Aubrey Meyer, a musician who grew up in South Africa. In 1990, Meyer helped found the London-based Global Commons Institute to promote a simple and powerful concept that may yet break the deadlock of climate negotiations.

Simply put, everyone in the world has an equal right to emit greenhouse gas emissions. First, take the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change figure of 60 per cent cuts to stabilise global atmospheric carbon dioxide levels by 2100. Second, calculate the level of pollution each nation should be allowed. The book's eye-catching computer graphics illustrate past emissions and future allocation of emissions by country, achieving per capita equality by 2030. Emissions thereafter fall to reach safe levels by 2100. Climate damage will still result, but disaster should be averted. Global emissions trading of per capita shares will ease transition costs to a zero-emissions lifestyle, Meyer argues.

This `contraction and convergence' (C&C) framework has gathered the support of a majority of the world's countries, including China and India. It may be the only approach that developing countries are willing to accept. That, in turn, may spur even the US to ratify the Kyoto protocol. However, Meyer warns that the `sub-global framework' of the protocol with its `guesswork' of market mechanisms and `inadequate' cuts `could prove worse than useless' because the public would be lulled into a false sense of security `that something is at last being done'. Meyer's argument is powerful, fuelled by compassion for the poor.

The crux of the matter is whether grassroots support for global equity will defeat the powerful elite interests that currently enjoy the status quo. As one US delegate put it: `We won the Cold War. Contraction & Convergence is Communism'!

Communism or not, accepting C&C would require that the developed world eschews dirty economic growth. If global weather-related damage continues its present trend of doubling every 7 years, then by around 2050 the costs of climate change could exceed the total value of everything that humanity produced over one year. Has global capitalism finally destroyed itself by its own success? Let's hope so.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary Achievement, December 10, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Contraction & Convergence: The Global Solution to Climate Change (Schumacher Briefings) (Paperback)

Meyer's book on C&C has caused a sensation in the UK. C&C is now the basis of UK government policy and opinion forming in the media [see this comment from the Independent on Sunday newspaper last 07 12 2003].

"The future of the planet now rests in the hands of three people: President George Bush, President Vladimir Putin - and the unlikely figure of one Aubrey Meyer, a former concert violinist from east London. President Bush has set out to kill the Kyoto Protocol. Despite growing support in the US for addressing climate change, he has spared no effort in stopping it coming into effect. He is putting the screws on President Putin. Under the protocol's rules, it now only needs Russia's ratification to come into force. The signals from Moscow are mixed, but Putin is thought to be waiting to see whether the US or the European governments, who support Kyoto, will come up with the best price.

"And Mr Meyer? He is the still relatively unknown originator of a body that is fast becoming the leading contender in the fight against global warming, after Kyoto. To that end, he has set up the Global Commons Institute. Michael Meacher, the former Environment minister, endorses the plan - dubbed "contraction and convergence" - on page 22. The Royal commission on Environmental Pollution, the World Council of Churches, and African governments have all adopted it. Under the plan, every person on the planet would have the right to emit the same amount of carbon dioxide, which is the main cause of global warming. Each nation would be set quotas, adding up to a figure the world's climate could tolerate. They would be expected to meet them, say by 2050, and could buy and sell parts of them.

"Kyoto must be brought into force: there is no alternative. Then nations should start negotiating bigger cuts in pollution on this equitable basis - worked out in an unprepossessing London flat."