Resurgence: A Green Agenda for the Copenhagen Climate Summit

The Resurgence Event held in Camden on 3rd October was an inspiring event with a whole range of knowledgeable and well-informed commentators, activists and politicians.

Crispin Tickell, former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, opened with the worrying if not new mesage that the world was crossing the boundary in a whole range of areas: from Climate Change to the nitrogen cycle, water availability and population. He spoke of the need leadership and bemoaned that feature of US politics where naked self interest still affects debate.

There was some optimism too - about the gains that China and India bring to the table as they are beginning to face the problems of climate change already.

He spoke of the importance of continued public pressure in the run up to Copenhagen, but wondered whether benign catastrophes would be necessary to push things along. Unfortunately, as Crispin Tickell pointed out it may take "benign catastrophes" to provide the impetus for change. It may take the actual expereince of the consequences of climate destabilization where we can see the link to climate change to help us address these grve issues.

He asked how we will cross the long and rickety division between science and policy? The key to this in his view are the Kyoto modalities or requirements, reviewing and reforming our energy systems and also our, water systems from reservoirs to drainage.

John Sauven, the head of Greenpeace bemoaned the fact that mainstream politicians and journalists don't have developed view of how to green our economies. Though some like, surprisingly enough, Adair Turner, ex-chief of the CBI, and Nick Stern, ex-Chief World Bank economist, do recognize that we need radical change and that we need to be moving away from pursuit of growth of GDP.

He made the point very clearly and forcefully that our current system based on the pursuit of self-interest by business and debt fuelled growth was is not in society's interest. The irony of the situation is that Gordon Brown, Greenspan and others, he explained, continue to retain their faith in this flawed system. And thats an important point that needs to be picked up on - its our current system with risk takers with a "I'll be gone, you'll be gone" attitude that needs to be changed. When will the leaders of the mainstream political parties wake up to this?


Later in the day, we had some excellent discussion about how we achieve this change. Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party, spoke about the Green New Deal as well as the need for a positive vision of a post-climate change world. George Marshall gave us environmentalists some real insight into how the ordinary person views the climate change debate and responds to this threat to their way of life by denial. It was obvious to all, if not already clear, that we needed to think much harder about how we get a much wider section of society seeking and pushing for change. Stephen Hale spoke about Green Alliance's 10 manifesto proposals which seek to develop a "common cause" across all the political parties.

I'd like to finish with Tony Juniper's excellent campaign which he is working on, on behalf of the Prince of Wales Rainforest project. A package has been put forward for addressing deforestation which leads to 1/5 of the worlds emissions - a massive contributor to climate change.

The aim of this is to address the deadlock which is expected in respect of the negotiations on Reducing Emissions from Climate Change (REDD), under the auspices of the UNFCC. This emergency package asks OECD governments to pledge action irrespective of what happens in Copenhagen. It would involve about £15 - 20 bill being spent over 5 yrs which should lead to 25% reduction in emissions worldwide. That is more than total emissions of UK and France plus others. It is apparently the cheapest way to get a big hit. Some OECD countries have alreadybought in: Norway, Brazil.

We should all sign up on line to persuade world leaders to do this in time for Copenhagen. http://www.rainforestsos.org/ or see http://www.princesrainforestsproject.org/blog/category/deforestation







Add links: Resurgence and REDD

2009 - the Year of the Environment

2009 needs to be the year of the environment - the dawn of a Green era.

Please watch Rupert Read (propospective Green MEP for East of England) explaining why acting collectively as well as individually is essential if you want real change.


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OLG4eXHthao&fmt=18