Dear Aubrey, I support the GCI submission. Best wishes Robin Professor Robin Attfield Professor of Philosophy Cardiff University Extended and very strong C&C advocacy in Human Ecology Review Global Warming, Equity and Future Generations by Robin Attfield Cardiff University United Kingdom "Contraction & Convergence probably remains the best prospect for addressing the global problems of mitigation and adaptation, and at the same time a promising spring-board for achieving a global agreement on addressing the problems of poverty and under-development of the kind that is also urgently needed." Contraction and Convergence would not solve everything and would need to be supplemented but objections do not show that it is either ungrounded or not a large move in the right direction. There are, in any case, severe problems in basing international policies not on emissions quotas but (as has been suggested) instead on requiring developed nations and wealthy individuals to pay both for development, for mitigation and for adaptation for climate change. Here the risks of large-scale non-compliance (in what would have to be an intense and global program of action introduced with little prior notice) are so large that it would be hazardous to make the entire future of humanity depend on its success. The real objection to such proposals is that concern for the future of humanity and of other species requires a system answering to current capacities and capable of being extended indefinitely into the future, in other words sustainability; thus, the approach based on historical responsibilities cannot match these requirements. The system needed would have to be based on universal principles, including current prosperity and cannot be derived from the particularities of history. This reasoning strongly points to a system based on Contraction and Convergence, even though it would need to be supplemented by a massive system to combat poverty and underdevelopment. The latter, could well need to be introduced simultaneously in the cause of securing universal agreement about and compliance with the system of proportion ate emissions quotas. GLOBAL WARMING, EQUITY & FUTURE GENERATIONS ROBIN ATTFIELD

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