UK government to face court in climate change challenge

In a week's time - 20th March - the UK government faces a court case which is part of a campaign to force it to increase its legally binding CO2 reduction target, as set out in the Climate Change Act 2008. The campaign group Plan B Earth has brought the case after a crowdfunding exercise (they could still do with a bit more dosh). The need to increase the CO2 reduction target arises not only from the growing evidence of global harming, but also from the Paris agreement. My old friend Aubrey Meyer of the Global Commons Institute will address campaigners outside the Royal Courts of Justice next week. He will say:

"For most of my 71 years, all I have ever been is a musician, playing the violin and composing music. Doing this was wonderful. But the origins of humans making music go back at least 40,000 years, so I guess that makes me a kinda new kid on the block.
From long ago, music has worked within a shared universal standard of playing ‘in tune’ & ‘in time’ which makes it possible to play & also to play together. Music groups, such as orchestras for example, do actually ‘work’ for this reason and to avert the worst of climate change, a basis such as this is needed.
The Contraction & Convergence (C&C) climate proposal developed from this. Starting in 1989, it was introduced to UN climate negotiations in 1996 (COP-2), largely agreed at COP-3 in 1997 and it became very, very widely known & supported thereafter as, "the intellectually & morally coherent C&C principle".

• The C&C Principle commutes the whole & its parts; this basis is needed to stop any further rise of global temperature due to rising atmospheric carbon concentration.
• Contraction is the total 'global-event' or ‘carbon-budget’ of future CO2 emissions, as they go down to zero to stabilize rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations.
• Convergence defines international shares of this budget, referencing the declining global per capita average of emissions that emerges under the contraction-event.

The C&C principle was advocated to the UK Government in 2000 by the UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. In 2008 the UK brought the Climate Act into law, using the C&C principle to define the UK share of the emissions reduction target. Citing this, the UK have consistently claimed their, "global climate leadership" since that time.
However, in 2015 the UN adopted the Paris Climate Agreement. Due to increased climate-urgency, stiffer limits for temperature control and carbon reductions were adopted. Though the UK is a signatory to the Paris Agreement, HMG refuses to revise the emissions reduction target it set itself in 2008, to bring itself into line with the Paris Agreement.
As a result, the UK is now openly awarding itself more than 3 times its share of the global carbon budget that remains. With this UK target unchanged, it is a provocation. 
Why should any other country accept the UK seizing more than three times its share of the much smaller global carbon budget that now remains for 1.5°C?

• We argue that for the UK Government's claim to 'global leadership on climate change to be credible, its carbon reduction target requires revision.
• Without this, HMG's refusal to revise its carbon reduction target completely contradicts the global C&C principle on which the UK Climate Act is based.
• What remains is inadequate, inequitable and misleading and is certainly no longer a credible example of the global climate leadership claimed by HMG.
  
  Moreover, it is a recipe for doing too little too late.

So, guided with great skill by Tim Crossland and his superb legal team, we are gathered here today petitioning the Court for a Judicial Review of the Government’s refusal.

• C&C assumes the global equality per capita of future emissions-rights to the global commons, subject to the overall limit that saves us.
• Just as 'Well Tempering' equalizes the 12 semi-tones within the ‘octave' or 'Hertz-doubling’ that actually makes music possible in the first place,
• C&C has been called the “Well Tempered Climate Accord”, as it emulates the “Well Tempered Clavichord” of J S Bach, sometimes known as the ‘God of music’.

This simple derivative of the ‘first law of physics’, shows that playing music in time, in tune, together but also in any key is collectively enabling. This is why 'well tempering' is now the basis of music-making globally. As a framework, the C&C principle jointly & severally commutes globally at whatever rates are collectively applied. 'Well tempering' its parts resolves the politics that still dissipate the globally effective response needed. Doing this gives a global climate agreement that is sane, safe & fair to innocent 3rd Parties.
In recognition of this principle and this petition, I will play the “Ave Maria” melody Gounod added to the 1st Prelude from the “Well Tempered Clavichord”, one of the simplest but most famous & beautiful pieces of music ever written. Bach wrote it in 1721 for his wife Anna Magdalena.
Before this meeting ends this morning, perhaps I'll add some music that reflects the sadness of the situation, praying that we will now act together quickly on climate change to stop it getting worse. Before the end of this day - the Spring Equinox, 20 03 2018 - we should have a decision from the Court."