First, why on Earth did this get printed? It's just an unimaginative statement of the Contraction and Convergence policy. The Guardian could have just printed the Wikipedia entry. Isn't Peter Singer, the author, supposed to be an original thinker? Why is he just repeating an idea that has been endlessly repeated for over a decade?
It isn't even a good idea he's restating. The idea of cutting emissions in the developed world both enough to prevent global warming and to equalise emissions with the developing world or face large financial penalties. Now, while the US emits a lot of carbon per person it emits relatively little per unit of GDP. It doesn't have a lot more room to cut emissions without cutting its income. That means emissions reducing to the same level per capita of emissions as in the Chinese economy will do huge damage to US incomes.
What will happen to China's, export-driven, economy if the US economy is collapsed?
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To get a better idea of how Contraction and Convergence bears on the chaging climate siutation we're non in, a DVD commissioned by the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Climate Change presenting Contraction and Convergence has been distributed to all UK MPs and Peers.
This may help to correct the error in Mr Sinclair's assessment of C&C. The error is making an assumption that convergence happens divorced from contraction the result of which is that the rate of climate change continues to accelerate out of control.
The DVD clearly shows the marriage of C&C as the global framework of account necessary to avoid this and it is endorsed by numerous eminent spokespersons who are interviewed at length on the DVD.
Copies of the DVD can be obtained by written request to GCI aubrey.meyer [at] btinternet.com
Alternatively, as a large file [overnight download] interview material is retrievable at this link: -
http://www.gci.org.uk/images/Contraction_and_Convergence_Challen_et_al.mpg
The DVD also includes a heuristic animation of Contraction and Convergence for a risk analysis of different rates of sink-failure endorsed by prominent industry persons. This is a large file [overnight download] and is retrievable at this link:
http://www.gci.org.uk/images/Contraction_and_Convergence_Risk_Analysis_Sink_Failure.mpg
A context animation the arguments, presented at the Royal Institute of British Architects [RIBA] international conference in Venice last October, is here: -
http://www.gci.org.uk/images/Final_presentation.exe or
http://www.gci.org.uk/images/CandC_model_context_animation.swf
[Note: - touch buttons to advances *within* scenes and touch logos to advance *between* scenes].
GCI’s definition statement for C&C is here: -
http://www.gci.org.uk/briefings/ICE.pdf
General referencing for the C&C provenance is here: -
http://www.gci.org.uk/links/detail.pdf
A concept/context map of C&C comparing three rates of change for
[a] Contraction and Concentrations
[b] Contraction and Convergence
[c] Benefits of Growth versus Damages from Climate
[d] Contraction and Conversion
is here: - http://www.gci.org.uk/images/Deepat_Bonn.pdf
Some promotional material is here: -
http://www.gci.org.uk/Movies/Contraction_and_Convergence_Promo.mpg
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