CONTRACTION AND CONVERGENCE SUMMARY / RATIONALE: • Long-term pathway for evolution of the climate regime, reflecting principle that national GHG emissions should converge at a common per capita level. • Involves two steps: (1) specification of a global emissions budget leading to an agreed long-term concentration level (“contraction”); (2) sharing of emission entitlements among countries so that per capita emissions converge by an agreed year (“convergence”). FORUM: UNFCCC • Negotiations principally between regions of the world, with further negotiations within regions. TIME FRAME: • Long-term. Countries would agree on a “safe” level of atmospheric GHG concentrations (no higher than 450 ppm CO2 equivalent) and a “full-term” (100-year) emissions budget consistent with that goal. MITIGATION COMMITMENTS • Types of Commitments • Targets: Each country would receive a share of the overall full-term emissions budget, in the form of tradable “entitlements” to emit. • Inter-regional, international and intra-national trading of entitlements would be encouraged. • Differentiation: Applies to all countries. • Allocation / Burden-Sharing Approach: The full-term emissions budget would be allocated among regions based on a negotiated rate of linear convergence to equal shares per capita globally by an agreed date, such as 2030 or 2040. •Further negotiations would be held within regions to determine national emission budgets. OTHER ELEMENTS •Rates of contraction and convergence to be periodically revised to reflect improved scientific and economic understanding. PROPOSED BY • Aubrey Meyer, Global Commons Institute SOURCE • Global Commons Institute. See C&C text in 13 Languages International Climate Beyond 2015 Bodansky Pew Centre http://www.gci.org.uk/Documents/2012_PEW.pdf
The ‘Contraction and Convergence’ (C&C) approach from the Global Commons Institute (GCI) in the UK (Meyer, 2004) puts forward the idea that both developed and developing countries should adopt a realistic attitude and, taking their respective per capita emissions as the standard, advance toward gradual convergence, finally realizing equal per capita emissions at a future date. China’s Climate Change Policies Edited by Wang Weiguang, Guoguang Zheng, Jiahua Pan
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