Schumacher Briefing 5 - Contraction & Convergence

	CONTRACTION & CONVERGENCE: The Global Solution to Climate Change by Aubrey Meyer Published by Green Books on behalf of The Schumacher Society. For prices and to order a Briefing click on the ORDER FORM button above.
The global climate is now visibly changing because of human pollution of the atmosphere. According to eminent scientists and businesspeople, its 'devastating trends' are the greatest challenge ever to face humanity. This Briefing describes the global policy framework of 'Contraction & Convergence' (C&C), developed by a small organisation called the Global Commons Institute (GCI) to avert these trends. The C&C framework, which has been pioneered and advocated by GCI at the United Nations over the past decade, is based on the thesis of 'Equity and Survival'. It seeks to ensure future prosperity and choice by applying the global rationale of precaution, equity and efficiency in that order. "Many leaders from government, business and environmental organisations now support C&C as a realistic framework within which the international community can take the necessary action to solve the critical problem of climate change. "Man-made climate change is probably the most serious environmental threat we face. This book offers useful and interesting ideas exploring the concept of Contraction & Convergence as one way to address the global climate challenge." -Michael Meacher, UK Environment Minister, October 2000 "The GLOBE Equity Protocol-Contraction & Convergence-and its mechanism for financing sustainable development is the only proposal so far which is global, equitable and growth-oriented."-John Porter, US Congressman, Chair, GLOBE USA
	Aubrey Meyer was born in Bradford in 1947. He grew up in South Africa and studied music at the University of Cape Town during the 1960s, from where he graduated B. Mus. in 1968 and later M. Mus. After a brief period at the Royal College of Music in London in 1970, he played as Principal Viola in the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast, the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, the CAPAB Orchestra in Cape Town and then as a section player in the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1980s. Intermittently throughout this period he wrote music for various ensembles including two prize-winning orchestral ballet scores.
It was while searching for a subject for a musical in 1988 that stories of the death of the Brazilian social activist Chico Mendez led him to join the UK Green Party in 1989 and then to co-found the Global Commons Institute (GCI) in London in 1990. He spent the next decade contributing to the policy working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and campaigning at the United Nations negotiations on climate change to win acceptance of the global ethic of 'equity and survival' and the policy framework known as 'Contraction and Convergence' (C&C). C&C is now becoming the most widely supported global framework within which to resolve policies and measures to avert dangerous climate change. In 1998 he won the Andrew Lees Memorial Award with the following citation: "Aubrey Meyer, almost single-handedly and with minimal resources, has made an extraordinary impact on the negotiations on the Climate Change Treaty, one of the most important of our time, through his campaign for a goal of equal per capita emissions, which is now official negotiating position of many governments, and is gaining acceptance in developed and developing countries alike." In 200 he received the Schumacher Award for the continuation of these efforts.