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SD for real. EAUC Jonathon Porritt 1 st April 2009. Forum For The Future. A registered charity committed to accelerating the building of a sustainable way of life Solutions-oriented approach
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SD for real EAUC Jonathon Porritt 1st April 2009
Forum For The Future • A registered charity committed to accelerating the building of a sustainable way of life • Solutions-oriented approach • Over 180 different partners from national, regional and local government, higher education, and business • Green Futures magazine Mission: To accelerate the building of a sustainable way of life by taking a positive solutions-oriented approach
IPCC Consensus Staying below 2°C means stabilising at 450ppm CO2 which means c. 80% cut by 2050
Copenhagen Conference, March 2009 • Sea levels will rise twice as fast as official estimates predict. Possibly by as much as 1 metre by the end of the century • Rising temperatures could kill off 85% of the Amazon Rainforest • Modest warming could unleash a carbon “timebomb” from melting permafrost • A failure to cut emissions could render half of the world uninhabitable.
Copenhagen Conference,March 2009 “Do the politicians understand just how difficult it could be? Just how devastating 4,5,6 degrees centigrade would be? I think not yet. Looking back, the Stern Review underestimated the risks and underestimated the damage from inaction” (Nick Stern, 12/3/09)
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(Jonathon Porritt, Director of Friends of the Earth, Environment Now Magazine 1988)
Unitary Authorities District Councils Each one of us International diplomacy Local communities Regional drivers National policy Making the Connections Global systems
Raising the bar EU Targets • 20% reductions in CO2 by 2020 • 20% Renewables by 2020 Germany • 36 % reductions in CO2 by 2020 UK Climate Change Act • 26% cut by 2020; 80% by 2050 • Independent Committee; annual report to Parliament • Carbon Reduction Commitment
Climate Change Act • Energy Performance of Buildings Directive • Zero Carbon Homes (2016) • Code for Sustainable Buildings • Carbon Reduction Commitment Sticks and Carrots
Get a realistic price on a tonne of CO2 just as fast as possible
‘Realistic’ Prices • EU ETS €14 • DEFRA £27 • Treasury £70 • Stern > £100 • Hansen > $250
Climate change just one part of sustainable development
Sustainable Development as the CENTRAL ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE for everything we do • as a BIG IDEA • as an INTEGRATING FRAMEWORK • as a TOOL KIT
Good Practice all over the place • Universities that Count • (BiTC Corporate Responsibility & Environment Indices) • Universities in the Community • SD across the Curriculum • Mobilising for a different world • (“Transition Universities”) HE State of Play
The World Ahead • From abundance to scarcity • From growth to wellbeing • From cornucopianism to frugality • From high-carbon to near-zero carbon • From global to global/local