Review of TEQs by James Greyson (local designer of global economic instruments) http://www.blindspot.org.uk/teqs_review.html
James' review of Contraction and Convergence http://www.blindspot.org.uk/CandC_review.html
Recent article by Aubrey Meyer: http://www.gci.org.uk/articles/Lewes.pdf
... and a cartoon http://www.climatecartoons.org.uk/crisis.html

Contraction and convergence - a talk by Aubrey Meyer
Tradeable Energy Quotas - a talk by Shaun Chamberlain
Chaired by Cllr Eddie Collict, Lead Member for Environment, Lewes District Council
Wednesday 10th October, Pelham House, 8pm, £3

How to save the world: a two hour primer

Because our tape recorder did not work, I will try to capture from memory the essence of an extraordinary evening of talks about Climate Change Solutions.

Tonight Aubrey Meyer, whose Global Commons Institute has developed the idea called Contraction and Convergence, and Shaun Chamberlin, of Tradable Energy Quotas, spoke about their complementary frameworks dealing with how to avoid climate catastrophe.

Aubrey started the evening by playing the violin most beautifully against a wordless film about our beautiful planet’s demise. Music, he said, had helped him stay sane over the 20 years of trying to get governments to adopt C and C. The policy-level resistance to change he said was huge. It was more subtle than denial; more like, ‘we know what is happening but we do not want to act on it’.

Aubrey then moved on to the technical reality of C and C. He said it is like learning music: you learn to play the instrument, not the other way around. If we do not reduce our levels of carbon dioxide to under 450 parts per ml, we will reach the two degrees at which many scientists say will be a tipping point of runaway global meltdown. That’s a given; it’s non-negotiable.

He also spoke about the heart and soul of the matter: it’s almost unbearable to look at the big picture of what is happening, so heartbreaking, but it’s necessary that we feel that grief and not dwell on it but just take on the work.

At present, the British government is feeling very proud that it is proposing a 60% reduction by 2050. But, says Meyer, we need to achieve 100% by that time, if we are all to be allowed to use energy in the same way. Anything short of equal rights is to argue unequal rights, and, he says, he’s not yet seen a proposal for that.

Contraction and Convergence proposes that over the coming years all countries will be given a pathway for equalising their emissions. The contraction part is how the most emitting countries (1/3 of the people producing 2/3 of the pollution) will gradually reduce their emissions at preset levels. Meanwhile, the less emitting countries will gradually increase their right to emissions, to rise to meet the final level of western countries.

C and C, says Meyer, is a simple answer to a complex issue. In the questions, he spoke about how Andrea Merkel, the German PM, had travelled to India and China and was trying to rope them in, to join the African countries in endorsing the C and C approach to climate survival. When parliament convenes, he says, there will be a fierce debate about how this is going to pan out.

Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs) are the brainchild of David Fleming, an economist and one of the lead founders of the Green Party as well as an ex-chair of the Soil Association. With those impeccable credentials, one cannot dispute the intentions of a rationing scheme such as TEQs. The gist of it, according to Shaun Chamberlin, his incredibly young and verbally astute Development Director at The Lean Economy Connection, is that once a framework such as that put in place by C and C determines CO2 budgets for each country, TEQs would guarantee that those budgets are actually achieved.

Essentially, every person would have a weekly allocation of carbon credits, and if they were less profligate users they could sell those allowances to people who needed more TEQs. Every year, the overall amount of TEQs available nationally would reduce, leading us eventually to the zero net carbon emissions so glibly bandied about these days, yet so crucial to our survival.

Shaun’s first slide pointed out that if we had frameworks of C and C at an international level, TEQs at a national level, Transition Towns at a local level, and personal change – all those levels would work together to get us there. But it would take discipline and endurance. Otherwise, as Meyer said, we are dancing in the dark.

The evening was ably chaired by Cllr Eddie Collect, environment lead at Lewes District Council, and as a Lib Dem was clued up on these issues. About 60 people came to the talk, of whom quite a few were students of architecture at Brighton University. They’re spending the year in Lewes studying and planning for Transition Town Lewes. What, I wondered, did they make of all this?

Links for further information:

Contraction and Convergence: http://www.gci.org.uk

Tradable Energy Quotas: http://www.teqs.net

Sustainable economic reform (a way to implement C+C without enforced emissions limits): http://www.blindspot.org.uk/

Get involved: contact hello [at] TransitionTownLewes.org.uk