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Dear Aubrey

I am very happy to support the GCI C&C approach to achieving climate stability and reducing global CO2 emissions in a fair and equitable way.

Regards

Paul Jowitt

Professor of Civil Engineering Systems, Heriot Watt University
Executive Director, The Scottish Institute of Sustainable Technology


“Atmospheric CO2 levels are reaching critical levels and there must be a strategy to stabilise concentrations to a (relatively) safe level, and with the Kyoto process in limbo, some other process or protocol will be required to arrest the asymmetric pattern of ‘Expansion and Divergence’ and which leads to a more equitable and less self-destructive use of the earth’s resources.

The “Contraction and Convergence” (C&C) Strategy proposed by the Global Commons Institute offers such a process, drawing widespread interest and support, for example from the Indian Government, the Africa Group of Nations40 and the USA41. In December 1997 at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Kyoto and shortly before they withdrew from the Kyoto negotiations the USA stated: “Contraction and convergence contains elements for the next agreement that we may ultimately all seek to engage in.”

“The fundamental attraction of Contraction & Convergence to me is that it’s logically based. It’s not based on essentially market issues and arbitrary decisions about how many tons of CO2 permits are going to be allowed. It also doesn’t have the risk in my view of one of the real issues with trading that some of the poorer nations and poorer peoples of the world will mortgage their future on a futures market of trading permits.”
Prof Paul Jowitt - President ICE

The Global Commons Institute (GCI), founded in 1990 by musician Aubrey Meyer after the Second World Climate Conference, is an independent group concerned with the protection of the “Global Commons”. GCI has contributed to the work of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UN FCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

 

 

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