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Pitch

Two-degrees-of-separation aims to encourage people to reduce their personal carbon emissions by creating reciprocal pacts between partners.


Description

Summary

The desire for fairness and equal treatment is a human characteristic that many cultures value.  But it is causing a hurdle in efforts to address climate change - at all levels.  People who might feel inclined to make changes to decrease their carbon emissions may be disinclined to do so when they consider their neighbours inaction.  Within a common atmospheric pool, if your mitigation efforts are wiped out by others’ excesses, why bother? This concern is one of the explicit reasons given for the failure of the international negotiations: why should the United States ratify a binding treaty when China will not be bound?

                                          

This project focuses on that fundamental problem and aims to break the deadlock. It has a bottom-up, citizens’ action focus on taking control and responsibility. It is time to accept that addressing climate change is a challenge for ordinary people: we are the solution and we can make the difference.

 

The two-degrees-of-separation project aims to encourage people to reduce their personal carbon emissions by creating reciprocal pacts between partners.  It aims to link people the world over, to enter pacts with each other, agreeing what they will do to tackle climate change. So, for example, my carbon partner lives on the other side of the world, in London. We have made agreements with each other that have ranged from the simple (stop driving to work one day a week) to the more sophisticated (divest any investments we have in fossil fuel companies) or campaign-based pact (write to our respective members of parliament). As partners, we monitor each others progress, and we hold each other to account.  We find this attractive because when your efforts are matched, your effort is amplified. To feel that you are directly connected to another person who is making the same effort in another part of the world is exciting and energising. We support each other, and as a result, we feel connected to a wider effort.

 

 


Category of the action

Changing public perceptions on climate change


What actions do you propose?

The germ of the idea is explained above, and at the initial stage, pacts can be agreed using existing social media. Publicity is required and this will be the role of the two-degrees-of-separation team. We will use our own approach as an illustration, blog about it, write articles, and persuade the myriad of climate campaigners (and others) to provide a link on their websites to this. But the project lends itself naturally to being built upon and improved incrementally.  For example: 

 

  • Our ideal would be for the existing social media site companies to buy into this idea and help with publicity, however a dedicated forum could host the two-degrees-of-separation pacts. This forum may include a counter showing the number of pacts that have been created.

 

  • Link to sites containing suggestions for concrete actions

 

  • Develop a simple points system (adapted from existing carbon calculators) that shows your efforts in visual graph form. This will be an important development to ensure that “results driven” people are attracted to the idea.

 

  • Develop a carbon partner-matching tool to introduce and link people around the world.  Partnerships need not be constrained to individuals.  For example, schools and other groups could partner up with each other.

 

These are only a few of the development suggestions that could be grafted, quite organically, onto the core idea.  The team will manage the project and raise funds to make these ideas reality.

 


Who will take these actions?

Ordinary people, from all around the world will take the substantive actions in their home nations. The pacts will be agreed online.


Where will these actions be taken?

See above.


How much will emissions be reduced or sequestered vs. business as usual levels?


What are other key benefits?

The title for the project - two-degrees-of-separation – is, of course, a play on the idea that we are all so closely connected, especially in the need to keep global temperatures below the critical climate change threshold of 2 degrees centigrade.   The connections side of the idea is important. It aims to link people from different places in the world; to create new friendships and allegiances; to facilitate an understanding of ideas, opportunities and the difficulties facing people in their efforts against climate change.

 

Further, the project may well result in a body of empirical evidence to aid researchers and policy development in a number of fields.  


What are the proposal’s costs?

None, at present. 

 

To incrementally develop the idea along the lines suggested above will require technical assistance and funding.  The team are exploring potential sources of both.


Time line

Immediate and ongoing.

 

Incremental development along the lines suggested above will depend upon and be inextricably linked to the take-up of the idea.


Related proposals

A number of present proposals on Climate Co Lab would prove complementary to the two-degrees-of-separation project (and “Unite and co-ordinate all climate change efforts” would appear to be a natural partner in particular).


References