Rethink required for climate change policy

Following last year's climate policy meeting in Copenhagen, a group of establishments were commissioned to chart a new way forward in tackling the issues raised


The result was the Hartwell Paper which argues that a "radical change of approach" is required to produce any real reductions in greenhouse gases.

Gwyn Prins, an author of the Hartwell Paper and professor at the London School of Economics & Political Science, commented on past failures: "We have to recognise that tied to those hyperbolic oxylateral negotiations with all the countries in the world simply will not work because the record of 20 years is that we have achieved absolutely nothing. We have made no material change in the world whatsoever." He added that a better way forward would be to "pursue objectives that people actually want and which are uplifting" instead of punishing damaging activities.

The Hartwell Paper comes as research from the University of New South Wales and Purdue University suggested that global warming could make much of the earth unfit for humans within in the next few centuries as temperatures may rise by as much as ten degrees Celsius.

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