ABSTRACT
The policy response to most environmental crises has come after the event, whether to extinctions, cholera outbreaks, great stinks, smog, oil spills, heatwaves or tsunamis. IPCC's first report served as the evidence base for the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, together with a supplementary update report published in 1992 specifically for the summit. Contraction and convergence is a model developed by the Global Commons Institute for a globally equitable means of reducing carbon emissions that meets the requirements of the UNFCCC. The model was first introduced into the UN climate change negotiations in 1995 by the Indian government and has subsequently been endorsed by many governments, bodies and organisations, including the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Climate change and energy policies are closely linked, and the 2003 Energy White Paper, 'Our energy future creating a low-carbon economy', included several provisions directly relating to carbon.
