The document proposes establishing an independent global organization called "the Trust" to regulate and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by capping fossil fuel production worldwide. The Trust would issue permits for fossil fuel extraction and reduce the number of permits each year based on climate science. Governments would enforce restrictions on production within their territories based on permits from the Trust. Revenue from auctioning the permits would be distributed equally to all people worldwide to compensate for using the atmosphere as a carbon dump and help reduce poverty and inequality. Public and legal pressure could ensure governments and fossil fuel companies comply with the Trust's emissions cap.

1. According to climate scientists the world is currently headed for catastrophic
climate change (4-6°C warming).
Current arrangements cannot be relied on to avoid this outcome - COP21 in Paris
is unlikely to deliver the urgent reductions in the global total of CO2 emissions
required to stabilise the climate.
There is no global regulator for keeping the vast majority of the World’s
remaining fossil fuels in the ground
This system needs to ensure that those responsible for greenhouse emissions
shoulder that responsibility, and that the vulnerable are protected”.
We need a new system to do this.
Controlling the global total of fossil fuel-related emissions is simple in theory:
regulate the emissions by regulating fossil fuel production (an "upstream cap");
use a permit scheme to do this. The scheme needs to be:
run by an independent global-level organisation ("the Trust") charged
with acting on the advice of the climate science community and in the
best interests of humanity;
enforced by nation state governments restricting the production of
fossil fuels within their territories to that covered by permits issued by
the Trust;
the number of licences issued by the Trust would be reduced each year
based on climate science;
the licences would be issued by the Trust by way of auction; the net
proceeds of the auction would be distributed to people everywhere in
equal shares as compensation for the use of the atmosphere as a dump
for emissions.
Governments are very unlikely to form the Trust so non-governmental actors
will have to do this. The establishment of the Red Cross in the latter way shows
that this is possible.
The Trust will be subject to the jurisdiction of Courts of Law.
The share of emissions revenues could be channeled by individuals and
communities into renewable energy projects, healthcare and education, and
would help to diminish global poverty and inequality. Thus, action on climate
could have widespread positive repercussions and this would considerably
strengthen its political position.
Public pressure and court orders can ensure that both governments and fossil
fuel corporations comply with and implement the Trust's global permit scheme.
For more information see www.capglobalcarbon.org
CapGlobalCarbon
Climate Safety and Justice
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2. CapGlobalCarbon
ClimateSafetyandJustice
“[The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change has] lost track of the wider issue, which
is why the divestment campaign is extremely
important. The upcoming UN Climate Change
Conference in Paris needs to introduce a legal
cap on fossil fuel extraction to really challenge
vested interests” – Sir John Houghton
“Right now, the poorest and most vulnerable
communities are paying for loss and damage
with their lives, their homes, their ability to grow
food, while big coal, oil and gas make huge
profits from selling the products responsible for
causing climate change”– Julie-Anne Richards