The Climate Justice Project

Vocal support is growing for C & C in a variety of areas. The Society for the Environment (SocEnv), the leading professional body in environmental matters in the UK, unanimously agreed on 19^th March on the value of the Contraction and Convergence framework in helping all sectors of community, business and government understand how we can tackle climate change.  

Addressing the Scottish National Party’s Spring Conference at Glasgow Science Centre, SNP Shadow Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs Minister Richard Lochhead MSP said that it was time for environmental action of an SNP Government.

“We owe it to future generations to act now…We owe it to the international community especially the developing countries on whose backs the industrialised nations have built their wealth and modern day standards of living…We should be proud that it is already SNP policy to support the internationally recognised principle of Contraction and Convergence”.

-Tor Lupton

Cambridge, Durham, Oxford and LSE have all passed motions to support Contraction & Convergence. On the 29th/30th March, a motion on Contraction & Convergence will be debated by over 1000 delegates at the National Union of Students (NUS) Annual Conference. The NUS represents over 5 million students and around 700 students’ unions, so it will be a real asset to C&C to have them onside. We will be working exteremely hard over the next few days to ensure that the motion goes through.

Colin Challen MP, Chair of the House of Commons All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group, addressed the Society’s Board, at it’s meeting on 7th March, on the value of ‘Contraction and Convergence‘ – the so called ‘C & C’ framework for delivering sustainable and equitable low carbon economies worldwide.

The Society for Environment is an umberella organisation whose seventeen members and Constituent Bodies include the Royal Meteorological Society and the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, among others.

The Society’s Board unanimously agreed that the ‘Contraction and Convergence’ framework provides an important step forward in helping all sectors of community, business and government to understand how we can move forward together, on a global scale, to tackle climate change. John Brady, Chair of the Society welcomed this approach and said, “On behalf of the Society for the Environment I am proud to endorse the ‘Contraction and Convergence’ framework which will be important in helping us to work towards a sustainable and equitable future, not just for the UK but communities and economies worldwide.”

If you had any doubts as to whether or not greenhouse gas emissions are imbalanced between the Global North and Global South, please have a look at this animation, courtesy of Michael Buchwitz of the Institute of Environmental Physics at the University of Bremen:

http://www.iup.uni-bremen.de/sciamachy/NIR_NADIR_WFM_DOAS/scia_ch4_ani.gif

Contraction & Convergence would seek to even out these imbalances, by distributing equal rights to emit (by population) among developed and developing nations.

Last night, the Cambridge University Student Union (CUSU) passed a motion in support of Contraction & Convergence!  Cambridge is also running several Climate Change actions right now, so we’re delighted about this progress.