David Cameron started a two day visit to India stating “I believe Britain should be India's partner of choice in the years ahead.” His address in Bangalore listed three global challenges that we must tackle together: the economy, security and climate change. For India, climate change will trigger mass migration, unpredictable weather, monsoons not arriving when they should and water shortages. All of this will disrupt development and exacerbate poverty.

The Converging World participated in a panel discussion chaired by the UK Minister for climate change and energy, Greg Barker. The panel was hosted by Tata BP Solar India Ltd at their new plant in Bangalore, and explored the opportunities for collaboration between the two countries to enable innovation around renewable energy. In a speech later, Greg Barker said that this government is in a hurry to tackle climate change.

Wendy Stephenson, CEO of The Converging World, was invited to participate due to TCW’s experience and innovative approach in India. They invest in wind energy and use some of the revenue from the sale of electricity to build sustainable communities both in India and the UK. In India they are supporting the development of village-scale renewable energy, as well as skills and knowledge transfer to create jobs in the rural economy, and are studying how they can help villages adapt to the impacts of climate change.

David Cameron said today that we need to ‘pioneer community activism’, and TCW is demonstrating this both in the UK and India by empowering communities with the skills, knowledge and tools to help themselves.

In India the situation is worse. Their current supply is 150 GW and they are short by about 15% causing power cuts. By 2020 they will need a further 158 GW equivalent to 111 nuclear power stations.

Most of India's coal comes from Australia and Indonesia and they are now decreasing their exports because of the need to secure supplies for their own needs. These predictions came out in a recent presentation by the World Institute of Energy, who advise the Indian Government on energy policy and regulation.

Many of the communities in India that we work with are already marginalised, some do not have access to electricity and the prospect ahead is that it will become even less accessible as prices rise and supply significantly drops below demand.

One of our key objectives this year is to plan for the development of village scale renewable energy in these marginalised communities. Helping to provide the villagers with locally sourced, renewable energy will help protect against the future energy gap, from becoming even more marginalised.

Here in the UK we are also working with communities, supporting them to develop their own sustainable energy plans. This will help them reduce their energy consumption and get more renewable energy generation, helping to reduce the effects of the energy gap.

The workshop is being followed up by drafting and environmental action plan setting targets for improvement.

TCW will continue to mentor SCAD staff as they work toward implementing ISO14001 - an internationally recognised standard for implementing an environmental management system.

Since the Copenhagen summit in December 2009 climate change and international aid have dropped down the agenda with many countries struggling to balance the books during a global recession.

Amongst other things, the G8 restated their commitment to cutting carbon emissions by 50% globally by 2050, hopefully avoiding a temperature rise more than 2°C. They also restated their commitment to building low carbon societies. On the development front, funding was announced for projects aiming to improve maternal health during pregnancy and childbirth and to reduce child mortality.

There is still much more work to be done.

The Converging World is a partner of tcktcktck - a campaign for climate justice.

A Hung Parliament is the English way of describing a coalition government; a practice that is perfectly normal in most developed and fledgling democracies the world over. With the innate confrontational style of politics the notions of compromise and more centralist policy adoption seem alien and to be wary of.

The idea that we now have a slightly diluted Conservative government must not draw attention away from the fact that right wing agendas are now top of the list once again. These traditionally focus on less public spending, lower taxes, less regulation and an innate reliance on the market and the individual.

Now has never been a more important time for strong environmental policies. As David Norman (WWF) said, “…global greenhouse gasses must peak during this Parliament…to prevent serious, irreversible consequences. All parties say they are committed; now what we need is action.” The Coalition policies are tempting but how much weight do they carry?

Despite the Lib Dem’s excellent pre-election promises (40% reduction in CO₂ by 2020 and Nuclear-free, Renewable led power generation) it looks like the Conservative’s policies lead the agenda. The market will decide the nuclear and wind-farm debate and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS; a technology still in the theoretical stages) allows the construction of new coal fired stations.

UK houses (responsible for 40% of our annual CO₂ emissions) are to be specifically targeted. The impetus for refurbishment will be on the home owner, with healthy financial incentives for all improvements from micro generation to double glazing. In a time of recession this does seem to be too little too late.

No mention has been made for foreign aid and new Carbon Reduction plans will have to be on British soil. This will not provide the much needed aid for the creation of Carbon Free economies in the ever growing “developing world”. With the order of the day being spending cuts, this essential (and some argue morally required) investment looks less likely of seeing fruition.

Peak Oil has similarly been completely ignored yet again, though a committee is to look into the infrastructure required for the national use of electric cars. High speed rail links are likewise to be investigated. The much trumpeted cessation of planning at Heathrow and other major airlines is nothing more than the continuation of the previous parliament. There will be a new tax on every flight, though the airline’s emissions are still not to be included in our national quotas. Green-washing has never been so blatant.

Though this might be a call of doom and gloom, but there is a shining light at the end of the tunnel. Every vote in Parliament is more important now than ever before. Individual MPs could now wield enormous power. Environmental action groups have the most important years of their lives ahead of them. It really is a time of change, but it is unlikely to be initiated by Central Government. Referenda could be used to decide difficult policies. Individuals and the groups they are involved in could hold the future directly in their hands.

By Gus B. Hoyt

Power 2010

Buy green and you could win! We’re celebrating the first birthday of The Converging World joining forces with ibuyeco, the eco car and home insurance provider. Ibuyeco has already donated over £95,000 to The Converging World, and with your help we can increase these donations. To mark the first birthday, ibuyeco will be giving one lucky winner a host of green goodies and gadgets when they take out home or car insurance before 31st July.

If you’re looking for car or home insurance, make sure that you click through to the ibuyeco website. As well as being able to choose one of three eco charities to receive a donation, you’ll automatically be entered into the competition when you buy your insurance.

It’s a fabulous prize that will help you to monitor and reduce your energy and water usage throughout your home. There’s also an eco-friendly bar-b-que kit included, as we’re hoping for a hot, hot summer!

The prize fund includes:

• A ‘Current Cost Energy Monitor’
• A USB data cable
• An Efergy Shower Timer
• A temperature control eco kettle
• An eco-button to power down your computer
• A wind up torch
• A Solio solar charger
• A radiator booster
• An eco friendly bar-b-que kit!

Make sure that you get a quote from ibuyeco next time you need car or home insurance.

Visit the ibuyeco website

Since joining forces with insurance experts ibuyeco last year we've been amazed at the amount they have donated. The donations, which are linked to the number of car and home insurance policies sold, now total over £80,000 – and we're hoping for more great things over the rest of the year!

Wendy Stephenson at The Converging World said "We want to thank ibuyeco and anyone reading who has taken out a car or home insurance policy with them and chosen The Converging World to receive their donation."

"The £80,000 donated by ibuyeco means that we have been able to carry on our vital work. ibuyeco's continued support will help more wind turbines to be built, generating more renewable energy and providing more funding for vital health, education and environmental projects around the world."

Lucy Bailey, head of ibuyeco said "We are really pleased that we have been able to support The Converging World in such an amazing way, with their unique approach to tackling climate change and supporting the move towards a just and sustainable world. The donations have ultimately enabled work on some amazing projects such as providing school places for children who would otherwise be forced to work, cataract operations, treatment for leprosy and other nutritional education for some of the poorest; kitchen gardens, women’s self help groups and support for subsistence farmers to improve their production through better water management and organic, sustainable farming practices. ibuyeco is proud to be associated with the charity and ibuyeco is committed to doing what it can in helping the environment. The level of donations show that our customers are committed to protecting our planet too."

For every car insurance policy sold, ibuyeco makes a £5 donation to an eco-charity and for home insurance they donate £5 for a combined buildings and contents insurance policy, or £2.50 for either a buildings only or contents only policy. The donation is made by ibuyeco, not by the customer.

There is no limit on how much money ibuyeco will donate, so if you haven't already you can get a quote from them next time your car or home insurance is due, and choose The Converging World to receive your donation if you take out insurance through them!

There are other benefits too – independent research shows that you could save up to £207* on your car insurance with ibuyeco.

*Based on independent Consumer Intelligence research during March 2010 which showed that 10% of consumers could achieve this saving with ibuyeco.

On 2nd June, we will be demonstrating how you can develop a sustainable energy plan for your community. Come along, find out what and how you can help to change the future of your neighbourhood.

Via a series of workshops and surgeries, we want to help your community write a sustainable energy plan, begin to reduce your area's energy consumption and explore community owned renewable energy options.

There will be a short informal talk by Wendy Stephenson and The Converging World co-founder John Pontin followed by informal chats with our community mentors. Wine and nibbles will be provided.

email: mattwood@theconvergingworld.org
tel: 0117 927 7089
address: The Converging World, 3rd Floor, Bush House, Prince Street, Bristol BS1 4QD

So perhaps not surprisingly, TCW and Social Change and Development (SCAD), TCW’s partner in India, have developed the idea for sending groups of school children to spend time with each other’s communities.

This has been followed by the related concept that sending a group of children from several Bristol schools, rather than just one, would encourage convergence between the schools as well as with their Indian hosts.

We have now settled on the three Merchant Venturers’ schools - (CCS), Colston's Girls School (CGS) and the Merchants Academy (MA), and the project planning has started, led by Tuki Rounds, Head of Religious Studies at CCS, supported by senior staff from CGS and MA.

We do not underestimate the difficulties and complexity of this venture – selection, preparation, funding, visas and health requirements, as well as briefing and assimilation, all within the three school cluster. But given a fair wind and goodwill all round, we hope that a group of around 25 children and 3 teachers will spend two weeks in Tamil Nadu, and perhaps in neighbouring Kerala too, in the second half of 2011.

It promises to be a life-changing experience for all the participants, as it was for me when I had the good fortune to spend time with SCAD in December 2009. Wish us luck!

Karen Morgan OBE DL

Chairman of Trustees, TCW

Deputy Chairman, Colston's School Member, Society of Merchant Venturers

TCW's team of mentors and experts is working hard to prepare guidance and workshop materials to help communities write sustainable energy plans for their areas.

These are action plans for reducing energy consumption in the area, keeping money in the local economy and saving carbon emissions. The process will also bring communities together based around shared goals.

In early May we will be inviting representatives from local communities to Bush House for the first in a series of workshops focused on assessing the local energy consumption, setting targets to reduce demand and looking into potential renewable energy projects.

To find out more please contact timbarker@theconvergingworld.org.

The awards are held each year to recognise the best in world-wide tourism as voted by the Guardian and Observer readers. The 2009 awards were held in Thailand and to acknowledge the carbon emissions associated with the event a donation was made to TCW.

TCW will use this donation, as with all donations, to invest in renewable energy technologies that create long-term funding streams for sustainable development projects and the alleviation of poverty. The TCW model not only helps reduce global CO₂ emissions but it also helps tackle the wider associated issues of convergence and equality.

Support like this is crucial for TCW to be able to continue its vital work and we are delighted to have been chosen as partners for these awards. TCW will also be partners for the 2010 Travel Awards which will be held in the UK.

For full details on the 2009 awards and to read about all of the winners, including favourite UK city, favourite long-haul country, best travel agent and an ethical travel award visit the guardian website

The lack of a meaningful agreement means that emissions will continue to increase and according to one source, if current proposals were fully implemented, the average global temperature would overshoot the 2°C goal and increase by approximately 3.9°C (7.0°F) by 2100 (ClimateInteractive.org).

 As a partner to the TcKTcKTcK campaign (www.tcktcktck.org) and the GO (www.globalobservatory.net), TCW was invited to participate in some of the side events at Copenhagen. I was moved especially by the stories from people in countries where climate change is already affecting their lives. And as one woman put it, ‘even though all this money has been committed to help countries adapt, it will take years to trickle down, and I must go home next week and deal with it now, every day.’

Even as I write this I am impatient to move on from Copenhagen and the problems. It is important to understand the very serious implications of climate change and we do need intelligent strategies for responding to its threats but what we really need is action, more of it and much more quickly.

At our climate 350 day on October 24th in support of the international 350 campaign we promoted the need to act, whatever the result from Copenhagen. And so this year we will be accelerating our activities both in the UK and in India. In the UK we will be working on a number of projects to help reduce our carbon emissions here and to raise awareness of the need to work with developing countries. In India we will be working with our partner NGO SCAD (www.scad.org.in) to continue to roll out the much needed community support programme across more villages. In addition we will support SCAD to include climate change adaptation and mitigation through the deployment of small scale renewable energy schemes. We will be spending more time with SCAD this year, training their staff and students, capacity building, exploring and raising awareness of what can be done in the villages to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Our CEO, Wendy reported that ‘although I have known about the work that our partner NGO, SCAD does, it isn’t until you visit the villages and people that SCAD work with, that you can fully appreciate the depth and breadth of support that is needed and provided’.

For example, many of the schools only exist because they have been established and are supported by SCAD. Some of the schools are very basic, without electricity and there is an ongoing programme to give them access to clean drinking water. With Richard from Marks and Spencer we visited one such school. It was made all the more poignant because if it wasn’t for SCAD these children would not be in school but working in the saltpans. Many of their parents were in bonded labour, forced to take their children to work with them in the saltpans to pay for the increasing debt they owed. Working in the saltpans is a very harsh environment and children as young as 9 and 10 were dying. SCAD helped set up a micro-finance scheme so that saltpan workers could eventually be released from this and a school for the children soon followed. This whole community approach is what makes SCAD so successful; identifying the cause of why the children were not in school and addressing this has meant that the school SCAD built was more likely to be attended. What a joy it was to see these children excitedly telling us about their school work and a real pleasure to meet the teachers who are devoted to helping all children get access to education.

This is just one of the many examples of the difference SCAD is making in rural Tamil Nadu, India. Because your donations are invested in the wind turbines to create long term consistent revenue streams for SCAD, they have been able to start rolling the programme across more villages and it includes so much more like treating cataracts and animals for Indian farmers.

We were able to present SCAD with another £30,000 in November from the sales of electricity to the Indian National Grid. Because of the TCW partnership SCAD want to roll out the programme to another 500 villages, doubling their current reach.

‘Going forward we hope to support SCAD in helping its community to respond to the impacts of climate change. Sea level rises are already affecting the soils, salinating them and rendering them close to useless for producing food. The weather patterns are less predictable also affecting food crops. These impacts could undo all the good work that has been done so far unless we take account of these factors. We recently visited the Deputy British High Commissioner in Chennai who is interested in our work with SCAD on climate change adaptation and mitigation. Over the coming months we will be working with SCAD to scope this and explore the integration of adaption into their whole community programmes. We hope to bring you more on this in our next newsletter.

Convergence is about creating equal access to the earth's resources and for this to happen, developed nations like the UK will need to contract and reduce the amount we consume. Using less resources doesn't mean compromising on our quality of life and can in fact bring about many benefits.

The sustainable energy plans aim to reduce CO₂ at home while simultaneously addressing fuel poverty and building local resilience. 

The COP15 Bristol workshops confirmed the need to support UK communities in both energy efficiency and implementation of renewable energy projects. Our CEO, Wendy Stephenson has brought a proven initiative to TCW which she previously pioneered in West Somerset.

To find out more and to sign your community up for support please send an email to timbarker@theconvergingworld.org

Representatives from TCW recently attended a conference of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) in Prague.

British Airways have kindly supported TCW by way of a donation in recognition of the carbon footprint of this event. The travel sector contributes significantly to world CO₂ emissions and through donations to TCW, emissions can be reduced  and create consistent long term funding so that we can reduce again and again.

Wendy Stephenson, CEO of TCW gave a well-received presentation to 450 delegates about the work of The Converging World, generating much interest and a number of enquiries.

The aim is to create a place where people could meet, share resources, learn and take action.

This wonderful space has been transformed over the last few months to create an inspiring working environment with a mix of open plan and discrete office space. In addition there is a fabulous conference room with a raised stage and large screen which can comfortably seat up to 150 people, comfy sofas for smaller intimate meetings and sporting amazing views of the Harbourside.

The aim of the 3rd floor is to create a 'hub' for generating action and ideas around sustainability and community. It is a physical space where people meet, share resources, attend workshops, network and rent office and meeting room space.

There are regular, workshops, talks and networking events taking place and some are open to the public. Or you can become a member of the Hub and get access to a whole lot more.

Please visit bristol.the-hub.net/public/events.html for more information