Today sees the launch of the CONVERGE project in Budapest where the project team is meeting to formalise the start of this research. The projects full title: Rethinking globalisation in the light of Contraction and CONVERGEnce hints at the visionary research to be undertaken by this project.
Funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme (theme 6), this project links 9 organisations from European Union old and new, from the developing world and from neighboring Iceland. The University of Bristol, The Schumacher Society and the Schumacher Centre join CONVERGE from the UK. From Sweden comes the University of Lund and the Natural Step International, from Hungary GreenDependent and Szent Istvan University, from Tamil Nadu, India comes regional development agency SCAD and from Iceland, the University of Iceland.
Together these partners hope to explore "how, given the current situation, do we manage and allocate, today, the Earth’s resources for the survival of a projected global population of 9 to 10 billion people in 2050 - and for their offspring indefinitely?"
Awarded close to 1.4 million Euros for 4 years work, the project is the first EU funded research to extend the concept of contraction and convergence beyond emissions trading.
Building from the concept of 'contraction and convergence' that informed the Kyoto process, CONVERGE aims to re-think globalisation by developing our understanding of convergence beyond emissions-trading across wider social, economic and ecological dimensions of sustainability. CONVERGE will research, develop and test the processes of contraction, convergence and divergence in current forms of globalisation. The research will be based on systems science to integrate social, scientific and economic disciplines in order to create coherent solutions to complex problems.
Key to the success of this study is the interdisciplinary approach and working with stakeholders from civil society, government and business. CONVERGE seeks to explore convergent sustainability relationships across different scales from local, national, global-regional to global.
CONVERGE has a significant role to play in achieving the strategic objective of the EUs global partnership: "to promote sustainable development actively worldwide and ensure that the European Union's internal and external policies are consistent with global sustainable development and its international commitments."
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