Feasta climate group plans

[rdouthwaite]

I thought it might be helpful if I set out where I think things stand for the Feasta climate group at present. As most members will know, we've adopted a twin-track strategy. The original track involved devising an economic tool which could be used to reduce greenhouse emissions rapidly, both nationally and globally, in a way that was certain and fair. We consider that we've already done that by developing Cap and Share. We now have to get that tool into use.

The newer track involves devising an economic tool, or tools, which can be used to reduce the excess amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by about 10% (from the current 387ppmv to perhaps 350ppmv) quickly, before its full heating effect has developed. The only way we are aware of by which this carbon can be removed in the time available is to get it sequestered in plants and the soil. At the moment, we intend to adopt two approaches to developing appropriate sequestration systems. One entails devising a way to reward governments that increase the amount of carbon held in the biomass growing on uncultivated areas in their territories and penalising those which allow this type of carbon stock to be reduced. The other approach involves setting up a group to determine ways of farming in Ireland which could lead to an increase in the amount of carbon held in the soil. (We thought it best to be specific, but the results will obviously have some relevance in other countries as well.) Once the best methods have been established, the task will be to devise a combination of incentives, penalties and regulations which make carbon-sequestering farming so profitable that no-one would consider any other way.

Another major project is the establishment of the Global Climate Trust. We therefore have four tasks ahead of us –
1.launching Cap and Share,
2.finding ways of rewarding governments which increase their biomass carbon stock on uncultivated land and penalising those which reduce it.
3.identifying the best farming techniques to increase the carbon held in agricultural land and devising ways of making it advantageous to farmers to adopt them.
4.establishing the Global Climate Trust.


Let's look at the four areas in turn.

Task 1: Cap and Share

C&S is now leaving home and trying to make its way in the world. Its parents are obviously interested in its progress and will give it support and help (sometimes quite a lot of help) but, basically, it will succeed or fail according to the way other people react to it. It is setting out with two things: the AEA report into the feasibility of using it to control Irish emissions not covered by the ETS and our “A Fair Way” leaflet which sets out what C&S is and how it might work as the framework for a global climate treaty. Later in the year, we will also be able to support it by circulating a report on how it might work if it was introduced in a BRICSA (Brqazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) country.

Send-off
We need to give C&S a good send-off. This will involve

a) Making sure the AEA report becomes widely known and discussed, particularly in Britain.

b) Doing everything we can to get C&S adopted by the Irish government.

c) Getting the radical ideas in “A Fair Way” well known. People outside climate circles in areas such as oil peak and poverty relief overseas could be our best allies.

Everyone in the group can help with the send-off. If you would like copies of either publication to post out or give away, please let me know.

Continuing care
a) I don't see much of a role for the group in developing the C&S idea itself further. That's primarily for other people now. Where we do have a role is in thinking through the problems involved in implementing it and we are obviously going to want to help plan how this is done in Ireland. We should also explore the All-Island dimension.

b) We are going to have to keep track of the reaction to C&S and intervene when when we can do so usefully. When we spot suggestions for C&S which we think would improve it we should circulate them and decide whether they should be incorporated into the model.

c) It is likely that academic researchers will want to study C&S and we are going to need to liaise with them and provide a link between them.

d) We need a stand at the UNFCCC conference in Poznan this December. This means that Feasta has to be registered with the UNFCCC before the end of this month. That's in hand.

The BRICSA study
The first stage of this study has already started. Jeremy Wakeford of the University of Cape Town is looking at the likely effects of using C&S in South Africa. I suggest that once his report is ready, we publicise it on our website and via Climate-L and approach possible donors with it to seek further funding because we will not be able to use it as the template for similar studies in the other BRICSA countries without more cash.

Task 2: Maintaining stocks of carbon in forest and other biomass

It seems that remote sensing satellite techniques have been developed which make it possible to measure a country's stocks sufficiently accurately to know whether they are rising or falling. Perhaps the next step is to document these and to come up with a proposal which we'd circulate for comment.


Task 3: Increasing soil carbon in (Irish) agricultural land

The task is to identify and assess the available agricultural techniques and then to look at what it would take to make them into the methods which farmers preferred to use. The group would not just be examining the production of existing crops. We also have to look at potential biofuel systems and all the possible benefits of using biochar on tillage and pasture land.

We need to set up a new group to carry out this work. There was a very good response from the non-Feasta people who attended our soil carbon discussions in April when we asked “Do you want to be keep in touch with thinking along these lines?” and those who said yes would provide the nucleus of a group. However, I feel it needs someone from Feasta with an agricultural background to drive it along. We need to explore how this project would fit in with the Soils and Sinks policy research proposal we have just submitted to the Department of the Environment. .


Task 4: The GAT

A formal working group needs to be set up. Its first step would be to draft a trust deed and to write a proposal that would accompany it. A website, independent of Feasta, should also be set up. The proposal could be used to gather support and to recruit “Trust Champions” - people of influence who would promote the concept around the world. The GAT group should also be at Poznan.

There's so much going on that it's difficult for members of the group to keep up. If you would like to get more details about anything, please ring me on ++ 353 (0) 98 25313 And do let me know if there's any particular area in which you'd like to help.

Richard.

[Anandi Sharan Meili]

Dear Richard

I understand cap and share and am interested in working out the implications for India. My question is a basic one first however: why does it make sense to start this kind of national and regional approach, rather than going straight for a CoP Bank to organise cap and share? Is it a strategic decision or an in principle decision? Are you also going to be presenting the cap and share approach at Poznan as a suggestion for individual countries to implement? Or you going to go straight to the heart of the matter and present the global Cap and Trade scheme so that the CoP can set up a bank and itself implement cap and share? If the last, which I am very interested in, have you already got a paper for Poznan?

Warm regards,
Anandi

[rdouthwaite]

As Anandi wrote to me via this list, I'll answer her questions. But first, I should introduce her. She was a founder, with Aubrey Meyer, of the Global Commons Institute and a co-developer of Contraction and Convergence. She left London in the mid-1990s to return to Switzerland where she had grown up. She is now living in Bangalore. She works as a Clean Development Mechanism consultant on projects involving biogas, photovoltaic lighting, biomass gasification, and biomass stoves.

She asks why we are trying to get Cap and Share adopted nationally, in Ireland and Britain. The answer is that we think C&S will have a lot more credibility as a global framework when it is actually in use. However, at the UNFCCC conference at Poznan, we will be presenting it primarily as a global solution. We don't have a special paper for that meeting. I imagine that we'll distribute the booklet we produced in May - Cap and Share, a fair way to cut greenhouse emissions - plus a lot of special flyers.

Richard.

[rdouthwaite]

We need to begin making serious plans for attending the UNFCCC climate conference in Poznan, Poland which runs from December 1st to 12th. You can find details at http://unfccc.int/meetings/cop_14/items/4481.php.

The first thing to be settled is - who plans to go and for how long? If you are interested, please get in touch with me personally rather than through the list. Everyone who does so can then take part in making the arrangements.

There is no limit to the number of people that Feasta can send but funding from the Irish Environmental Network is likely to be limited to two people, so if more than two go (which would be good), we'll each have to bear some of the cost personally. Annie Sugrue suggests we should rent a flat, but we need to have an idea of numbers before doing that.

We also need to book at least one side event. The on-line registration process for these opens on 23 September and closes on 26 September. Mark Rutledge comments:

"I don't want to sound greedy but I noticed in Bali that there was a distinct change of guard between week 1 and week 2 with a completely different audience. Would it be worth repeating the side event - looking for 2 slots? Even as a delegate if I wanted to attend, I could be compromised with the COP proceeding and up to 7 different side events slated for the same time. "

Richard.