date: Fri, 6 Oct 2000 16:22:09 +0100 (GMT Daylight Time)
from: Julie Burgess <J.Burgess@uea.ac.uk>
subject: URGENT - Join the call for 'Equity and Survival' in Climate Change
to: cru.all@uea.ac.uk

--- Begin Forwarded Message ---
Date: Fri, 6 Oct 2000 10:24:54 EDT
From: CJJHM@aol.com
Subject: URGENT - Join the call for 'Equity and Survival' in Climate Change 
negotiations
Sender: CJJHM@aol.com
To: cru@uea.ac.uk

Reply-To: CJJHM@aol.com
Message-ID: <a7.7f90cb2.270f3ab6@aol.com>


Invitation to join the appeal that 'Equity and Survival' define the 
International Solution to the Climate Change being negotiated at the United 
Nations.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------"The future of our planet, our 
civilisation and our survival as a human species... may well depend on [our 
responding to the climate crisis by] fusing the disciplines of politics and 
science within a single coherent system." 
Michael Meacher, UK Environment Minister

"'Contraction and Convergence' is such a system."
Svend Auken, Danish Environment Minister
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------In November 2000 a UN meeting - 
COP6 - will take place in The Hague to decide the action that will be taken 
by the governments of the world to combat global warming.  It is essential 
that the decisions taken here are effective, realistic and fair - nothing 
less than the survival of our planet is at stake.  

Over the last ten years, the Global Commons Institute has pioneered the 
concept of "Contraction and Convergence" of greenhouse gas emissions which 
has already met with considerable success. We are now working to enlarge the 
Global Commons Network of support for "Contraction and Convergence" so that a 
mandate for the adoption of these global organising principles can be secured 
at COP6. (For more information about COP6, see below).

To support this, all you need to do is co-sign the letter below (originally 
from GCI to the UK's Independent newspaper, published 24th December 1999) in 
support of Contraction and Convergence and send your response to us by email. 
 Please give your name, occupation/title, organisation details if applicable, 
and your postal address. 

What is "Contraction and Convergence"?
Contraction is the reduction of CO2 emissions - as Sir John Houghton, Chair 
of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently told the 
British Association for the Advancement of Science, global greenhouse 
emissions need to be reduced by at least 60% in less than a hundred years. 

When governments agree such targets for reduction, the diminishing amount of 
carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gases that the world could release 
while staying within the target can be calculated for each year in the coming 
century. 

Convergence proposes that each year's tranche of the global emissions budget 
is shared among the nations of the world in a way that ensures that every 
country converges on the same allocation per inhabitant by, say, 2030, the 
date Sir John suggested. Countries unable to manage within their allocations 
would, within limits, be able to buy the unused parts of the allocations of 
other, more frugal, countries.  

Many individuals and a wide variety of government and non-government 
organisations now support "Contraction and Convergence" globally. While this 
support has not yet achieved critical mass, it is now growing at a globally 
significant rate. Documentation of this can be retrieved from the web at: - 
http://www.gci.org.uk/Refs/C&CRefs3.pdf.  

COP6 is the 6th 'Conference of the Parties' to the United Nations Framework 
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It is the meeting at which the 
principles governing the Kyoto Protocol (KP) to the UNFCCC are supposed to be 
resolved.  It is the contention of the Global Commons Network that a mandate 
for future negotiations to be based on "Contraction and Convergence" will 
make a resolution easier to achieve. 

Thank you for your time and consideration.  

Yours, 

Clare Melia
GCN Coordinator

Letter for your co-signature (originally from GCI to the UK's Independent 
newspaper, published 24th December 1999):
Dear Sir 

The debts that the wealthy countries have recently forgiven their poorer 
neighbours are as nothing in comparison with the amount that these countries 
already owe the rest of the world for the increased global warming they have 
caused and are still causing. Inevitably there are links between this and the 
rising frequency and severity of storms, floods, droughts and the damages 
these are causing in many places across the world.

While debts worth roughly $3 billion have just been conditionally written off 
by the UK, the cost of the infra-structural damage done by the recent floods 
in Venezuela alone has been put at $10 billion. In addition, tens of 
thousands of lives have been lost there. Is anybody brave enough to put a 
monetary value on these? 

Moreover, the greenhouse gases the energy-intensive countries have discharged 
into the atmosphere in the past two centuries will stay potentially even 
beyond the new century, causing death and destruction year after year. The 
debt relief, on the other hand, is a one-off event. Fifty-six countries were 
affected by severe floods and at least 45 by drought during 1998, the most 
recent year for which figures are available.  In China, the worst floods for 
44 years displaced 56 million people in the Yangtze basin and destroyed 
almost five per cent of the country's output for the year, for which climate 
change was one of the causes. In Bangladesh, an unusually long and severe 
monsoon flooded two-thirds of the country for over a month and left 21 
million people homeless.  

Paul Epstein of Harvard Medical School has estimated that in the first eleven 
months of 1998, weather-related losses totaled $89 billion and that 32,000 
people died and 300 million were displaced from their homes. This was more 
than the total losses experienced throughout the 1980s, he said.  The rate of 
destruction will accelerate because greenhouse gases are still being added to 
the atmosphere at perhaps five times the rate that natural systems can remove 
them. By 2050, annual losses could theoretically amount to anywhere between 
12 per cent and 130 per cent of the gross world product. In other words, more 
than the total amount the world produces that year could be destroyed and 
life as we know it could collapse. For the industrialized countries, the 
damage could be anywhere between 0.6 per cent and 17 per cent of their annual 
output, and for the rest of the world, between 25 per cent and 250 per cent.  

Michael Meacher, the UK Environment Minister, has recognised this. He 
recently told the Royal Geological Society that, "the future of our planet, 
our civilisation and our survival as a human species... may well depend on 
[our responding to the climate crisis by] fusing the disciplines of politics 
and science within a single coherent system."  "Contraction and Convergence" 
is such a system. As Sir John Houghton, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel 
on Climate Change (IPCC) recently told the British Association for the 
Advancement of Science, global greenhouse emissions need to be reduced by at 
least 60% in less than a hundred years. 

When governments agree to be bound by such a target, the diminishing amount 
of carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gases that the world could release 
while staying within the target can be calculated for each year in the coming 
century. This is the contraction part of the process. 

The convergence part is that each year's tranche of this global emissions 
budget gets shared out among the nations of the world in a way which ensures 
that every country converges on the same allocation per inhabitant by, say, 
2030, the date Sir John suggested. Countries unable to manage within their 
allocations would, within limits, be able to buy the unused parts of the 
allocations of other, more frugal, countries. 

Sales of unused allocations would give the countries of the South the income 
to purchase or develop zero-emission ways of meeting their needs. The 
countries of the North would benefit from the export markets this 
restructuring would create. And the whole world would benefit by the slowing 
the rate at which damage was being done.  Because "Contraction and 
Convergence" provides an effective, equitable and efficient framework within 
which governments can work to avert climate change, even some progressive 
fossil fuel producers have now begun to demonstrate a positive interest in 
the concept. Consequently, as Jubilee 2000 and Seattle have shown, 
governments and powerful interests are helped to change by coherent 
coordinated pressure from civil society. 

Yours sincerely 

Aubrey Meyer - Global Commons Institute (GCI) 
Richard Douthwaite - Author of the Growth Illusion, Ireland
Mayer Hillman - Senior Fellow Emeritus Policy Studies Institute, UK
Titus Alexander - Chair Westminster UNA/Charter 99 
Tom Spencer - Secretary General GLOBE Council 
David Chaytor MP, Chair GLOBE UK All Party Group. 
Andrew Simms - Global Economy Programme, New Economics Foundation 
Annikki Hird - Student Cincinnati Ohio USA
George Monbiot - Journalist UK
J N von Glahn - Chairman, Solar Hydrogen Energy Group
Nick Robins - Director, Sustainable Markets Group IIED
John Whitelegg - Eco-Logica Ltd
Nicholas Hildyard - The Corner House, UK
Helen N Mendoza - Haribon Foundation and SOLJUSPAX, Philippines
Sam Ferrer - Green Forum Philippines
Ramon Sales Jnr. - Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement
Larry Lohmann - The Corner House, UK
Daniel M. Kammen - Associate Professor of Energy and Society, Director,
Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL) Energy and Resources Group 
(ERG) University of California Berkeley, USA
Hans Taselaar - Association for North-South Campaigns, Programme Manager ESD, 
Netherlands
Anil Agarwal - Director Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, India
Dr Frances MacGuire - Climate Change Policy Coordinator Friends of the Earth 
(England Wales and Northern Ireland)
Matthias Duwe - Student, SOAS, London, UK
Krista Kim - Student, UC Berkeley, CA US
Agus Sari - Executive Director Pelangi, Indonesia
Patrick Boase - Chairperson, Letslink, Scotland
Joerg Haas - Germany
Tony Cooper - MA DipStat MBCS CEng GCI
Thomas Ruddy - Chairperson and editor "Computers and Climate"
Paul Burstow - UK
Mark Lynas - Co-ordinator, Corporate Watch, UK
Philippe Pernstich - Global Commons Institute
Rohan D'Souza - Yale University, USA
Boudewijn Wegerif - Project Leader, Monetary Studies Programme
Jyoti Parikh - Senior Professor Indira Gandhi Institute of Development 
Research, India; National Project Coordinator, Capacity Building Project, 
UNDP; Chairperson, Environmental Economics Research Committee EMCaB; Worldbank
Aniko Boehler - Chairperson, Senso Experience & Projects
Marc van der Valk - Barataria, Netherlands
Charlotte Pulver - UK 
Charlotte Rees - UK
Paul Ekins - Forum for the Future, UK
Lara Marsh - Tourism Concern UK
Angie Zelter - Reforest the Earth, UK
Peter Doran - Foyle Basin Council (Local AGenda 21 Derry)
Paul Swann - Global Resource Bank
Adam Purple - Zentences
Martin Piers Dunkerton - Director Paradise Films UK
Alan Sloan - GRB Ecology Department UK
John Thomas - Energy Spokesperson Calderdale Green Party UK
Rick Ostrander - Relax for Survival USA
Christopher Harris - US
Carol Brouillet - Founder- Who's Counting Project, CA US
John Pozzi - Acting Manager Global Resource Bank
Icydor Mohabier - Georgia State University US
Christopher Harris - US
David Thomas - UK
Christopher Keene - Globalisation Campaigner/Green Party of England and Wales
Piet Beukes - Industrial Missionar, ICIM South Africa
John Devaney - International Co-ordinator, Green Party of England and Wales
Jama Ghedi, Abdi - Msc&MA - Gawan Environmental Centre, Somali NGOs
Julie Lewis - Centre for Participation, New Economics Foundation
Juliet Nickels - UK
Dr Caroline Lucas MEP - Member of European Parliament, Green Party
Dr David Cromwell - Oceanographer, UK, author "Private Planet"
Colin Price - Professor of Environmental and Forestry Economics, University 
of Wales, Bangor
Patrick McCully - International Rivers Network Berkeley, California USA
Samantha Berry - Post-graduate student (PhD)
Caspar Davis - Victoria, BC Canada
David J. Weston - Monetary Reform Group UK
Joseph Mishan - Stort Valley FOE local group
Ryan Hunter - Center for Environmental Public Advocacy, Slovak Republic
Dr. Elizabeth Cullen - Irish Doctors Environmental Association 
Tom Athanasiou - Writer, USA
Jamie Douglas Page - UK
Rosli Omar - SOS Selangor, Malaysia
Michal Kravcik - People and Water, Slovak Republic
Daphne Thuvesson - Trees and People Forum, Editor/Forests Trees & People 
Newsletter,  SLU Kontakt Swedish Uni. Agricultural Sciences 
Chris Lang - Germany
Sarmila Shrestha - Executive Secretary, Women Acting Together for Change
Narayan Kaji Shrestha - Volunteer, Women Acting Together for Change
Wong Meng-chuo - Co-ordinator, IDEAL Malaysia
Amanda Maia Montague - international spiritual activist
Soumya Sarkar - Principal Staff Writer, The Financial Express
Sujata Kaushic - Editor Wastelands News, SPWD, New Delhi, India
Xiu Juan Liu - student Department of Geography University of Sydney, Australia
Ross Gelbspan - Author 'The Heat Is On' and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Barry Coates - Director, World Development Movement UK
Aubrey Manning - UK
Andy Thorburn - Composer, Pianist and seed potato inspector, Scotland
Mike Read - Mike Read Associates, Australia
Shalmali Guttal - Focus on the Global South, Chulalongkorn University, 
Bangkok THAILAND
Jennie Richmond - Policy Officer Christian Aid
Lavinia Andrei - Co-ordinator Climate Action Network Central and Eastern 
Europe (Romania)
Dr. Ing. Joachim Nitsch - DLR, German Aerospace Center; 'System Analysis and 
Technology Assessment' 
Karla Schoeters - Co-ordinator Climate Network Europe
Sibylle Frey - Researcher UK
Dr Ben Matthews - Global Commons Institute
Wolfgang Sachs - Wuppertal Institite Germany, IPCC TAR WG3 Lead Author
Bernd Brouns - University of Lneburg Germany
Jindra Cekan, PhD - American Red Cross, Washington DC USA
Rohan D'Souza - postdoctoral Fellow, Agrarian Studies Program Yale University 
John Tuxill - School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University
Olav Hohmeyer - Prof. Dr. University of Flensburg
Grant Harper - Victoria, Australia
Frances Fox - Asst. Manager, Global Resource Bank
Ernst von Weizsaecker, MP (SPD) - President, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, 
Environment & Energy, Germany
Marci Gerulis- Graduate Student, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Andrs Lukcas - President Clean Air Action Group, Budapest, Hungary
Srisuwan Kuankachorn - Director, Project for Ecological Recovery, Bangkok, 
Thailand
Devinder Sharma - journalist and author New Delhi, India
Ryan Fortune - journalist, Cape Times, Cape Town, South Africa
Emer O Siochru - Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability (FEASTA) 
Ireland
Anne Ryan - National University of Ireland, Maynooth
David O'Kelly - Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability (FEASTA) 
Ireland
Youba Sokona - Executive Secretary for International Relations of ENDA-TM, 
Dakar, Senegal
Jia Kangbai - Managing Editor, The Propgress Online, Sierra Leone
James K. Boyce - Economics Dept University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA
Judit.Halasz - Green-Women, Hungary
Dr.Saleemul Huq - Executive Director Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies
Dr. Jean-Michel Parrouffe - Association Qubcoise des nergies Renouvelables
Guy Dauncey - Author Victoria, Canada
Dr. Alex Casella - Prof.& Director of Energy Studies, University of Illinois
Michael R. Meuser - Clary Meuser Research Associates, Santa Cruz, CA USA
Arthur H. Campeau Q.C. - Ambassador for Environment and Sustainable 
Development
Professor Jack Dymond - Oregon State University
Donald L. Anderson - Biologist,USA (Maine)
Douglas G. Fox, Ph.D. - President, Fox & Associates, Former President, Air & 
Waste Management Association & Chief Scientist, USDA-Forest Service USA
Clive Hamilton - Executive Director, The Australia Institute
Emilio Sempris - Coordinator, National Climate Change Program (Panama)
Michael Roth - Queensland Transport, Australia
Carrie Sonneborn - Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Renewable 
Energy, Western Australia
Ali Bos - Postgraduate student, Canberra, Australia
Ilona Graenitz - Director, GLOBE Europe
Sungnok Andy Choi - Student/The Graduate Institute of Peace Studies
James Robertson - Prog. Mgr., Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change 
Research, Japan
Thomas Bernheim - Expert Federal Planning Bureau, Belgium
Julian Salt - Project Manager, Natural Perils, Loss Prevention Council UK
Yves Bajard, D.Sc.- Secretary, National Centre for Sustainability, Victoria, 
BC, Canada 
Winona Alama - South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP)
Fatu Tauafiafi - Information and Publications Officer, South Pacific Regional 
Environment Programme (SPREP)
Maria Lourdes 'Pinky' Baylon - University of Cambridge UK
Ying Shen - student of environmental chemistry Oklahoma City, US
Susan Engelke - student Sacramento, California, US
Pierre-Jean Arpin - France
Dr. Muawia H. Shaddad - Sudanese Environment Conservation Society
Christer Krokfors - University of Uppsala, Finland 
Jesus Ramos-Martin - MSc Ecological Economics Keele University, UK
Lelei LeLaulu - Counterpart International
John Vandenberg - Resource Planning & Development Commission, Tasmania, Aust. 
Pervinder Sandhu - ART
Paul Gregory - Researcher
Eleanor Chowns - Co-Ordinator GLOBE UK
Jurgen Maier - Forum Umwelt & Entwicklung, Germany
Grace Akumu - Executive Director Climate Network Africa
Robert Engelman - Vice President for Research, Population Action International
Tim O'Riordan - Associate Director, C-SERGE, UK
Ted Trainer - Author 'Developed to Death', Austrialia
Barry Budd - Australia
Tim Lenton - Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, UK 
Tony Whittaker - retired solicitor, founder member Green Party
Lesley Whittaker - writer, consultant and member of Devon County Council, 
founder member Green Party
Freda Sanders - research psychologist and finance director, founder member 
Green Party
Dr. Michael Benfield - ethicist, development consultant and investor, founder 
member Green Party
Oras Tynkkynen - climate campaigner, Friends of the Earth Finland
Prof David Crichton - Environmental Consultant to the Association of British 
of Insurers
Teddy Goldsmith - Editor The Ecologist Special Issues
Simon Retallack - Deputy Editor, The Ecologist Special Issues
Ian Meredith - Canadian Association for the Club of Rome
Peter Dinnage - London UK
Jeremy Faull - Ecological Foundation, UK
Alistair Neill Stewart - Student Canada
Alina Averchenkova - PhD student, University of Bath, UK 
Lars ke Karlgren - member of regional parliament Vstra Gtaland, Sweden
Ferdinand - Researcher, Centre for Economic and Social Studies Environ.
Kathrin Eggs - Germany
Mrs Deirdre Balaam - UK
Dr John Kilani - Environmental Adviser, Chamber of Mines of South Africa 
Jennie Sutton - Co-Chair "Baikal Environmental Wave" Irkutsk, Russia
Javier Blasco - Information officer - Carrefour de Aragon (Spain)
Alistair Neill Stewart - student, Canada 
Dilip Ahuja - ISRO Professor of Science & Technology Policy, National 
Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science 
Gerald Leach - Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute
Prof Neil E. Harrison - Executive Director, The Sustainable Development 
Institute, University of Wyoming
Robert L. Randall - President, The RainForest ReGeneration Institute, 
Washington, D.C. USA
Brian Grant - Director, Geonomics Association of BC 
Paaniani K Laupepa -
Reggie Norton - Association of Artists for Guatemala
Dr Alberto di Fazio - Astrophysicist, Director Global Dynamics Institute Rome
Lewis Cleverdon - interdependency researcher, GCI, UK
Prof. Edita Stojic-Karanovic - President,International Forum "Danube -River 
of Cooperation"
Alina Congreve - Local Gov campaigner Herts FoE
Donna Andrews - Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) South 
Africa 
Richard Sherman - Earthlife Africa Johannesburg
Nick Drake - Southampton UK
Miguel Castellon - President Nicaraguan Development Association
Truls Gulowsen - environmental camapigner Norway
Helena Paul - the GAIA Foundation London
John Mead - Independent consultant
Catherine Budgett-Meakin - Freelance consultant
Richard Loxton-Barnard - UK
Emily Shirley - Green Party UK
Ulrich Duchrow - Kairos Europa
William C.G. Burns - Co-Chair, American Society of International Law - 
Wildlife 
Richard Page - UK
Dr. Lennart Olsson - Director of Centre for Environmental Studies, Lund, 
University, Sweden 
Alex Begg - UpStart Services Ltd
John Dougill - London UK
Richard Parish - Churchill Community School UK
William J. Collis - Fisheries Scientist, Ecosystems Sciences, Bangladesh
Danielle Morley - UNED Forum UK
Michael Roy - Community Management Consultant, Bangladesh
Richard J.T. Klein - Senior Research Associate, Potsdam Institute for Climate 
Impact Research, Germany
Sarwat Chowdhury - Ph.D. candidate, University of Maryland, USA
Helen Chadwick - IESD, De Montfort University UK
Ritu Kumar - Director, TERI-Europe, London UK 

Global Commons Institute (GCI)
Aubrey Meyer (Mr) 42 Windsor Road London NW2 5DS UK
Ph      020 8451 0778           Mob     0771 282 6406
Fx      020 8830 2366           e-mail      aubrey@gci.org.uk

Technical support, information concerning "Contraction and Convergence" (C&C) 
and model (CCOptions) at: - web URL http://www.gci.org.uk

Global Commons Network (GCN) Please join GCN by registering your political 
support for C&C at: - web URL   http://www.gci.org.uk/indlet.html

With GCN membership you receive updates and have access to: - web URL 
http://www.igc.topica.com/lists/GCN/prefs/info.html

Full C&C support, advocacy, and reference list at: - web URL 
http://www.gci.org.uk/Refs/C&CRefs3.pdf


--- End Forwarded Message ---


********************************************************
Julie Burgess
Climatic Research Unit
University of East Anglia
Norwich NR4 7TJ
Tel. +44 (0)1603 592722
Fax. +44 (0) 1603 507784
CRU web site: http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/

