Common aspirations

A scheme for reducing greenhouse gases was put forward by Mayer Hillman under the name of contract and converge. The basic idea was that an international body of respected scientists would decide on what would be a sustainable per capita carbon budget. They'd then plot a path from the current level of emissions to the ultimately sustainable level and each year the total allowable emissions would be reduced. If a country exceeded its allowed amount it would be obliged to purchase surplus emissions from somewhere that hadn't. Over the years the overall carbon emissions would contract but the per capita emissions from individual countries would converge.

Now, whilst climate change may be the most pressing global environmental issue, the wider problem, to put it simply, is that we're consuming too much. At least those of us in the developed world are. For everyone to live like a typical citizen of the UK we'd need a planet at least three times larger than the only one we've got.

Meanwhile, the dissatisfaction industries are doing their best to make us feel unfulfilled with what we've got even though, were it more reasonably distributed, the developed world has already got more than enough.

It simply isn't realistic for the whole world to aspire to the consumption levels of the rich and famous. But when those of us in the developed world start talking about restraining our consumption it can feel very much as though we are consigning the rest of the world to eternal poverty. "You've all got cars and shiny things why can't we have them too?"

Even though the global cake is clearly finite the classic capitalist solution is to keep trying to make it grow. But this can't happen in a world of finite resources and the likely outcome is that a small number of people get richer at the expense of everyone else. So, to bring our consumption patterns back into line with what the planet can sustainably provide, some people can get more but only if someone else get less.

Now, if a person's sense of well being is inextricably linked to how much they consume, how much stuff they've got, then we're in real trouble. But it turns out that this isn't the case. Once basic needs, such as decent housing, food and personal relationships have been sorted out then further increases in income don't actually make people happier. Indeed, some evidence suggest that once you've got past a fairly modest income all that happens is that you start to envy those that have even more. Bankers could be genuinely upset that they only got a £2m bonus when someone else got £4m. Inequality adversely affects the lives of the rich as well as the poor.

So, we need to look at what things actually contribute to leading a fulfilling life and begin to make these the key elements of our political and social aspirations. For example, the American car based model of urban development is clearly well past its sell by date. Allegedly when Gandhi was shown a rather fine Humber motor car he couldn't help but reply "But what if everyone had one?" So, our model for development here might be that of some of the more enlightened European cities where people can walk or cycle to work, school or the shops and longer journeys can be made by high quality interurban public transport.

In the developed world, environmentalism is often portrayed as wanting to take us back to a pre-industrial past, but there's nothing hair shirted about wanting decent energy efficient housing, clean water, nutritious food, well maintained public spaces, ready access to the natural environment, universal access to high quality health and education....

In dealing with climate change, the necessary degree of agreement among nations has so far been lacking, but there is nothing to stop us, as citizens, working out for ourselves what really matters and deciding on a common target. One that is equitable, recognises that we live with finite resources and doesn't set one part of the world against a another.

For one slice of cake to shrink while another grows we need to develop common aspirations.