Sharing for Survival: Restoring the Climate, the Commons and Society

Table of Contents:
A Preface - Brian Davey Dealing with a 'wicked problem' in a time of uncertainty - a diversity of responses to climate mitigation - united by a concern for effectiveness and equity. Chpt 1 What can be done if mainstream politics loses interest in climate change - Brian Davey Reviews strategies for climate change mitigation given the disinterest and even hostility in the political mainstream. Puts forward a strategy for civil society and community organisations in a future of economic chaos to connect to the struggle for equity. Chpt 2 The Climate and the Commons - Justin Kenrick This chapter explores strategies for restoring the commons as a viable alternative to the socio-economic system which is driving climate change, deepening inequality and disintegrating society and ecology. Chpt 3 Cap and Share in Pictures - Laurence Matthews Uses diagrams to explain the nuts and bolts of Cap and Share - a policy designed to control carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels which has equity at it heart - and how poorer people would benefit Chpt 4 Policy Packages - Nick Bardsley Any element of a coherent package for addressing climate change could be counterproductive on its own. This chapter explores some of the main issues that need to be addressed in tandem with capping fossil fuel. Chpt 5 Operating effectively at the world level - John Jopling There are a number of systemic reasons why current global governance is dysfunctional. The solution is for global citizens to build a new kind of system that is just, equitable and effective. Chpt 6 Cap and share in India - James Bruges (with Anandi Sharan) How funds from Cap and Share could provide permanent benefit to the largely rural population of India. Chpt 7 Cap and Share: managing the share on a global level - Caroline Whyte Explores whether it would be possible or wise to distribute the share in cap and share to every single adult in the world and whether this would really benefit the poor. Chpt 8 Reasons for optimism - Richard Douthwaite (with David Knight) Suggests changes to the energy market to better address the linked crises of climate change, the 'credit crunch', and global fossil fuel supply / demand imbalance through the establishment of a Global Climate Trust.

About the Author :
Brian Davey trained as an economist but, aside for a brief spell working in East Germany showing how to do community development work, has spent most of his life working in the community and voluntary sector in Nottingham - particularly in the health promotion, mental health and environmental fields. He helped develop Ecoworks, a community garden and environmental project for people with mental health problems. He is a member of the Feasta Energy and Climate Working Group and the Co-ordinator of Cap and Share UK. His lifelong interest is why and how people and systems break down.

Review :
"This is a great book. It is packed not with cockeyed optimism, but with reasoned hope and proposals for action. It confronts head-on the unpalatable truth that nation-states are incapable of forging a top-down global climate solution, and describes bottom-up strategies we can pursue nonetheless. At its core is the belief that citizens must and can protect the commons, those gifts of nature and society that belong to all of us." - Peter Barnes, author of Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons "This book analyses climate policy uniquely taking into account social justice and equity. The book is essential reading for all interested in effective action against climate change." - Frank Barnaby, former director of the Stockholm Institute for Peace Research and professor of Peace Studies at the University of Delft "This book recognises that action on climate change cannot come from governments unless it is first driven by the people. This requires wide-ranging social transformation, and its calls for land reform as one driver for such community empowerment are especially refreshing." - Alastair McIntosh, author of Hell and High Water: Climate Change, Hope and the Human Condition. "This book develops the idea of 'cap and share' in which a limited number of permits to use fossil fuels are sold and the revenue shared among the population, either of one country, or the whole world. A key piece in the jigsaw is already in place -- we already know how to distribute such funds [...] nothing new need be invented." - Joseph Hanlon, co-author of Just Give Money to the Poor: the Development Revolution from the Global South