Contraction and Convergence Campaigns

Aubrey,

Sorry to be slow. I'm in Glasgow at a conference. Of course I'm very happy to support the GCI C&C proposal. You really don’t need to ask. It is so important, yet everyone is burying their heads in the sand.

Climate is so off the mainstream agenda right now. I fear climate change may happen faster than most people think - like the economy changes are not linear but exponential.

Best

Anthony

Anthony Costello
MA MB BChir FRCP FRCPCH FMedSci
Professor of International Child Health and Director of the UCL Institute for Global Health

"Luxury emissions are different from survival emissions, which emphasises the need for a strategy of contraction and convergence, whereby rich countries rapidly reduce emissions and poor countries can increase emissions to achieve health and development gain, both having the same sustainable emissions per person."

Contraction and convergence
Climate change requires two possibly conflicting actions. Carbon emissions must be reduced to avoid the worst outcome of climate change. Poor countries need rapid economic development so that no country, community, or individual is too poor to adapt to climate change. The concept of contraction and convergence, developed by the Global Commons Institute, considers the need to pursue both these actions simultaneously. Contraction and convergence reduce overall carbon emissions to a sustainable level but do so according to an equal share of emissions per person globally. Industrialised countries would dramatically reduce their emissions whilst developing countries would increase theirs to allow for, and stimulate, development and poverty reduction."
Lancet and University College London Institute for Global Health Commission
Managing the Health Effects of Climate Change - Anthony Costello, Mustafa Abbas, Adriana Allen, Sarah Ball, Sarah Bell, Richard Bellamy, Sharon Friel, Nora Groce, Anne Johnson, Maria Kett, Maria Lee, Caren Levy, Mark Maslin, David McCoy, Bill McGuire, Hugh Montgomery, David Napier, Christina Pagel, Jinesh Patel, Jose Antonio Puppim de Oliveira, Nanneke Redclift, Hannah Rees, Daniel Rogger, Joanne Scott, Judith Stephenson, John Twigg, Jonathan Wolff, Craig Patterson

The health sector has a crucial role in helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to bring about ‘contraction and convergence' across the world. High-emitting countries in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere must drastically reduce emissions by up to 90 percent by 2050 with an individual annual limit eventually capped at about 2 tons per head of CO2 equivalent (industrialized countries currently emit 10-20 tons per head). Low-emitting developing countries, who have contributed almost nothing to the problem, should be able to increase emissions up to the same level.
Climate Skeptics step aside
Global Health Council 'Global Health Magazine'
Anthony Costello

Dr Anthony Costello speaking on C&C
at the Medics/Military Conference at the BMA Monday 17th October 2011