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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/oct/31/commonwealth-drives-strategies-to-put-climate-change-into-reverse
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| Commonwealth drives strategies to put climate change into reverse | Commonwealth drives strategies to put climate change into reverse |
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| Cities that mimic forests, bricks made from converted carbon dioxide and highways lined with wind turbines powered by traffic. These are ideas that, for now, still belong to a distant, brighter future – when the world’s focus can be turned from halting runaway climate change to actually reversing it. | Cities that mimic forests, bricks made from converted carbon dioxide and highways lined with wind turbines powered by traffic. These are ideas that, for now, still belong to a distant, brighter future – when the world’s focus can be turned from halting runaway climate change to actually reversing it. |
| Yet these were among the innovations showcased in a two-day Commonwealth brainstorming session in London, attended by leading climatologists. As the world enters an ominous new era of “climate change reality,” the organisation is now seeking to inject them into the policy debate days before a potentially pivotal COP 22 summit in Marrakech from 7-18 November. | |
| For an organisation that has sometimes appeared to be searching for a purpose, it may now be finding one – as a pioneer for the game-changing solutions some of its 52 members are desperately crying out for. | For an organisation that has sometimes appeared to be searching for a purpose, it may now be finding one – as a pioneer for the game-changing solutions some of its 52 members are desperately crying out for. |
| “This is exciting. It’s possible, and for once our children are going to be proud of us,” the Commonwealth secretary general, Patricia Scotland, told the gathering. | “This is exciting. It’s possible, and for once our children are going to be proud of us,” the Commonwealth secretary general, Patricia Scotland, told the gathering. |
| “Instead of saying we are a load of geriatric no-hopers who have ruined their world, we will be the pathfinders who can say we have repaired the building and we are really sorry for screwing up.” | “Instead of saying we are a load of geriatric no-hopers who have ruined their world, we will be the pathfinders who can say we have repaired the building and we are really sorry for screwing up.” |
| US biologist Janine Benyus said: “If we can put pilot projects down on the ground in Commonwealth countries it will be like piloting the sort of regenerative world we need to create, making use of different biospheres, countries with different profiles.” Benyus is credited with popularising the theory of “biomimicry” or how nature can provide the design inspiration for solving humanity’s problems. | US biologist Janine Benyus said: “If we can put pilot projects down on the ground in Commonwealth countries it will be like piloting the sort of regenerative world we need to create, making use of different biospheres, countries with different profiles.” Benyus is credited with popularising the theory of “biomimicry” or how nature can provide the design inspiration for solving humanity’s problems. |
| “The normal climate-change conversation has been about large utilities solving the problem,” she said. “What’s an individual to do? They are not going to put up a large solar power utility, for example. But they do have homes and farms which, in aggregate, can make a big difference as part of a framework, and that’s where an organisation like the Commonwealth can come in.” | “The normal climate-change conversation has been about large utilities solving the problem,” she said. “What’s an individual to do? They are not going to put up a large solar power utility, for example. But they do have homes and farms which, in aggregate, can make a big difference as part of a framework, and that’s where an organisation like the Commonwealth can come in.” |
| Ideas and emerging trends exciting Benyus include carbon-absorbing concrete, ways of making ecologically destroyed landscapes flourish again by getting carbon back into the soil and new agricultural practices that mimic the ecosystems of wild, untended land. | Ideas and emerging trends exciting Benyus include carbon-absorbing concrete, ways of making ecologically destroyed landscapes flourish again by getting carbon back into the soil and new agricultural practices that mimic the ecosystems of wild, untended land. |
| In separate huddles at the Commonwealth’s London headquarters, thinkers envisaged buildings designed like termite mounds with the means to ventilate themselves with cool air, and groups of wind turbines that gather momentum by being arranged in tight formations, like schools of fish. | In separate huddles at the Commonwealth’s London headquarters, thinkers envisaged buildings designed like termite mounds with the means to ventilate themselves with cool air, and groups of wind turbines that gather momentum by being arranged in tight formations, like schools of fish. |
| Aside from technology, other suggestions took shape around more specific policy options – such as intensive investment in education of girls, which is seen as vital in mitigating the effects of climate change. | Aside from technology, other suggestions took shape around more specific policy options – such as intensive investment in education of girls, which is seen as vital in mitigating the effects of climate change. |
| Katherine Wilkinson is a climate change scholar working with environmentalist and entrepreneur Paul Hawken on a compendium of strategies designed to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. She said: “Essentially what we see is that girls’ education has a direct line of impact [on] reproductive choices and rates of fertility. | Katherine Wilkinson is a climate change scholar working with environmentalist and entrepreneur Paul Hawken on a compendium of strategies designed to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. She said: “Essentially what we see is that girls’ education has a direct line of impact [on] reproductive choices and rates of fertility. |
| “So, while there are obvious benefits to educating girls, and the fact that [it helps] women and girls to survive the shock effects of climate change, such as natural disasters, it’s also important in that they are, for example, increasingly managing small-scale agricultural resources.” | “So, while there are obvious benefits to educating girls, and the fact that [it helps] women and girls to survive the shock effects of climate change, such as natural disasters, it’s also important in that they are, for example, increasingly managing small-scale agricultural resources.” |
| Through high commissioners or senior diplomats representing each Commonwealth country, the organisation is aiming to promote ideas for climate-change reversal with their governments at home. Member states will also convene next year for what the organisation describes as a “climate-change reversal lab”. | Through high commissioners or senior diplomats representing each Commonwealth country, the organisation is aiming to promote ideas for climate-change reversal with their governments at home. Member states will also convene next year for what the organisation describes as a “climate-change reversal lab”. |
| For some countries, the stakes are higher than others. As Lady Scotland told the workshop on Friday, some of the organisation’s island states in the Pacific and the Caribbean will be hit first and hardest. | For some countries, the stakes are higher than others. As Lady Scotland told the workshop on Friday, some of the organisation’s island states in the Pacific and the Caribbean will be hit first and hardest. |
| “I am offering myself as the advocate for climate regenerative change,” she told the workshop, calling on participants to come up with the solutions that could deliver a “quantum shift” in each of the Commonwealth’s member states when it came to climate change policy. | “I am offering myself as the advocate for climate regenerative change,” she told the workshop, calling on participants to come up with the solutions that could deliver a “quantum shift” in each of the Commonwealth’s member states when it came to climate change policy. |
| “So often in the past people have said, ‘But I can’t get to speak to the politicians. I can’t get to speak to the scientists. I can’t get to speak to the money.’ So, in the Commonwealth we have a platform.” | “So often in the past people have said, ‘But I can’t get to speak to the politicians. I can’t get to speak to the scientists. I can’t get to speak to the money.’ So, in the Commonwealth we have a platform.” |
| She hoped the meeting in June would create an individual roadmap for change for each of the 52 countries. | She hoped the meeting in June would create an individual roadmap for change for each of the 52 countries. |
| “We will start with some of the most vulnerable ones, the ones that will disappear, and we will see if we can’t drag the rest of the world with us,” she said. | “We will start with some of the most vulnerable ones, the ones that will disappear, and we will see if we can’t drag the rest of the world with us,” she said. |