last updated 1st December 05
by 4ecotips.com

A world first for contraction and convergence

UK MP Colin Challen has launched the Climate Change (Contraction and Convergence) Bill, the first instance in any parliament of the C&C framework being placed in a legislative format.

Contraction and Convergence is the framework devised by the Global Commons Institute (GCI) for tackling climate change, in which contraction refers to the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a sustainable level, and where convergence means that within the same timescale emissions rights are distributed on an equal per capita basis. This is the principle which says that no individual has a greater right to carbon emissions than any other.

C&C is becoming the benchmark framework against which other proposals have to be measured against. With the Montreal COP 11 climate change talks underway, the launch of this Bill puts all negotiators on notice that they have to have a far more serious and disciplined approach to climate change than has so far developed, notwithstanding Kyoto or other lesser agreements.

Colin Challen says: "The urgency of climate change is relentlessly bearing down on all of us, and we need to shake off the old way of doing things, which was all about tweaking the controls and hoping for the best. We need to change direction.

"I hope that this Bill will help start a parliamentary movement, not just here but in parliaments around the world, which adds to the pressure on governments to move further, faster. People in Kenya, where one of our speakers is from, and from other developing nations see that climate change could threaten any benefit they may get from the development agenda. They are not looking for our charity, but for us in the developed world to work with them to address what is now the greatest threat we all face, but which will hit them harder and earlier than it will us.

"C&C is a comprehensive framework which has sufficient internal flexibility for us all to make real headway."