The Climate Justice Project

Carbon Countdown
The Campaign for C&C
http://www.gci.org.uk/kite/Carbon_Countdown.pdf

Announced in “The Actuary”
Premier Journal of the Insurance Industry

“In the crucial run-up to Copenhagen, the Global Commons Institute is
seeking support from business and industry via its Carbon Countdown
campaign. I would urge every company in the insurance sector to sign up
now and use its enviable clout and reputation to ensure that C&C is
adopted.”

Details of the launch event in London in May to be announced
Download the Carbon Countdown prospectus at: -
www.gci.org.uk/kite/Carbon_Countdown.pdf

http://www.the-actuary.org.uk/746696
http://www.gci.org.uk/articles/Actuary_McGuire.pdf

Professor Bill McGuire is director of the Benfield UCL Hazard Research
Centre at University College, London. His new book, Seven Years to Save
the Planet, is published in July.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Actuary is the official publication of the actuarial profession in
the United Kingdom, published in London by the Staple Inn Actuarial
Society.

The magazine is distributed to all members of the profession (both
qualified actuaries and students) at home and abroad. The average net
circulation for July 2006 - June 2007 was 17,570 (ABC audit figure) –
62% in the UK and 38% in other countries.
The Actuary is the accepted medium for advertising and reporting
vacancies and appointments within the profession.

The Actuarial Profession

Members of the actuarial profession provide commercial, financial, and
technical advice underpinning the operation of insurance companies,
pension funds, and other institutions, helping them and the public at
large to make financial sense of the future.

The Staple Inn Actuarial Society (SIAS) arranges a wide variety of
activities both professional and social, which are designed to appeal
primarily to students and recently qualified actuaries.
The Actuary is produced for SIAS by Incisive Media.

Of course there will be some who quibble, but . . .

“We have reached the critical moment of decision on climate change.
There are few if any, genuine doubters left. Even on the mildest
application of the precautionary principles, failure to act on climate
change now would be deeply and unforgivably irresponsible. It’s true
that the issue is now centre stage. But, the amount of emissions, adding
to the stock already in the atmosphere, continues to rise, 30% of that
rise still coming from the developed world.

So though it now occupies its rightful place at the top of the agenda
and though there is acute awareness, from political leaders and the
public, that it is time to act, the unavoidable fact is that the problem
continues to get worse.

What is more, when we examine future trends, the reality of the scale of
change necessary to bring about a reversal of the rise and deal with the
problem, becomes uncomfortably obvious.

*Per capita GHG emissions are over 20 tonnes per year in the USA; in
Europe and Japan over 10 tonnes; in China close to 5 tonnes. Some
estimate they will need to be around 2-2.5 tonnes as a world average by
2050 to allow the necessary reduction of 50% in the global total. But
since the poorer nations will see their emissions rise as they
industrialize and since the world population may well grow from 6 to 9
billion, the emissions in the richer nations will have to fall close to
zero and those in the poorer countries, will have overtime to fall as
they industrialize.*

Put it like that and you can see the vast nature of the challenge. In
fact, I would go further; the scale of what is needed is so great that
the purpose of any global action is not to ameliorate or to make better
our carbon dependence; it is to transform the nature of economies and
societies in terms of carbon consumption and emissions. If the average
person in the US is say, to emit per capita, one tenth of what they do
today and those in the UK or Japan one fifth, we’re not talking of
adjustment, we’re talking about a revolution.

Which brings me to this inescapable conclusion. To transform the way the
world grows, is unlikely to be done by measures, however well meaning,
taken by individual people, companies and countries. I’m not saying
these things are worthless. Far from it. They create innovation. They
create awareness of the options. And taken together, have a real impact
on the problem. And in theory, each nation, acting unilaterally could
take action that together amounted to the necessary change. But in
practice that is unlikely. In practice, without collective action,
collectively agreed, at a global level, the revolution is unlikely to
occur.

Hence the need for a global deal. The purpose of such a deal is to set
an overall global target for the world; and to establish a framework for
its implementation, one that is effective, efficient and equitable.”

Whole speecch at: -
http://tonyblairoffice.org/2008/03/tony-blair-speech-to-gleneagle.html

Cambridge Programme for Industry
Monthly London Alumni Evening
By Invitation

Mitigating climate change:
what economic and political frameworks do we need?

March 13th, 18.00 – 21.30
PricewaterhouseCoopers,
1 Embankment Place,
London WC2N 6RH

Session Chair: -
Jonathon Porritt, Founder Forum for the Future

Format of Evening:
18.00 – 18.30: Registrations, tea & coffee
18.30 – 18.35: Welcome – by Polly Courtice and Host, John Manning PWC
18.35 – 18.40: Introductions – by Chair, Jonathon Porritt
18.40 – 18.45: Brief update – Emily Shuckburgh
18.45 – 19.10: Plenary Presentation – Aubrey Meyer
19.10 – 19.30: Plenary Presentation – Nick Butler
19.30 – 20.00: Discussion & Q&A
20.00 – 21.30: Drinks Reception & canapés

Following the Welcome and Introductions, there will be a brief 5 minute
update from scientist Emily Shuckburgh of the British Antarctic Survey
on the output of the 3 day Leverhulme Climate Symposium, which concludes
that afternoon.

The Symposium will have brought together leading scientists from around
the world to explore how knowledge gained from understanding past
climate change may be applied to the modelling of the Earth’s present
and future climate and likely sensitivity to anthropogenic forcing.
http://www.leverhulmeclimatesymposium.org/

Aubrey Meyer
Director, Global Commons Institute

Providing participants with an understanding of principles which
underlie ‘contraction and convergence’, the mechanics of how it works,
and its potential as an international policy framework for mitigating
climate change.

Nick Butler
Director, Cambridge Centre for Energy Studies

Presenting current realities of where we are in terms of international
policy frameworks and targets following Bali and where are likely to get
to in the Copenhagen negotiations. He will consider the current systemic
pressures in policy making, how energy security is driving the outcomes
and how far we have yet to go in terms of reaching any real solution.

The Chair will then open and lead a discussion where there will be
opportunity for questioning both speakers for 30 minutes.

Please contact Kelly Lavelle (kelly.lavelle@cpi.cam.ac.uk) for further
information about this session.

GCI’s resource Doucument for the Chevening Fellows course at Wolfson
College Cambridge last Tuesday is at: -
http://www.gci.org.uk/briefings/CPI.pdf