Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

As we approach the Conference (March-8th) we are looking to walk the talk. The conference has now a green event certificate by the University of North Carolina Division of Finance and Administration. Details on what that means can be found at the UNC Web site. Nexus Agenda: Wednesday 5 th March 12:30pm REGISTRATION OPENS 1:00-5:30pm SIDE EVENTS 5:45-7:00pm PLENARY LEARNING FROM THE PAST, BUILDING A NEW FUTURE: NEXUS SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH CHAIR: Jamie Bartram , Director of The Water Institute at UNC PANELISTS Professor Joachim von Braun , Bonn, ZED Lidia Brito, Director of Science Policy and Capacity Building for Natural Sciences, UNESCO and Co-director of the Planet Under Pressure Conference and former Minister of Mozambique Johan Kuylenstierna , Executive Director, Stockholm Environment Institute Josh Tewksbury , Director, Luc Hoffmann Institute 7:00-8:00pm       OPENING RECEPTION From Bonn Nexus to Chapel Hill via Rio+2...

The Co-chairs of the UN Sustainable Development Goals Open Working Group have now produced their focus areas : Poverty eradication Food security and nutrition  Health and population dynamics Education Gender Equality and women’s empowerment Water and sanitation Energy Economic Growth Industrialization Infrastructure Employment and decent work for all Promoting Equality Sustainable Cities and Settlements Sustainable Consumption and Production Climate Marine Resources, oceans and seas Ecosystems and biodiversity Means of Implementation Peaceful and non-violent societies, capable institutions The Co-chairs paper with much more detail can be downloaded from the UN web site . How can you participate in sending your views in? Well if you are linked with any of the Major Groups Organizing Partners then they will be soliciting input asap - go to the contact page on the UN web site to find out who to contact. If you don't know what the Major Groups are then you...

Felix Dodds hopes that the upcoming Nexus conference in North Carolina will fill the Nexus approach with meaning. Photo: UN Photo When worlds collide: the food, energy and water nexus Feb 2014 21 by Jon Turney We will not solve the food security challenge unless we solve the water and energy challenges. This may be the puzzle to end all puzzles. But there’s a plan. “Everything is connected to everything else”. So went one of the “laws” of ecology framed by Barry Commoner in 1971. It’s an easy idea to sign up to, a hard one to actually work with. Academics have to specialise to get on. Policy-makers find it easier to focus on one problem at a time. Government departments and pressure groups have to define their jobs in ways that allow them to get things done. But the world just goes on being connected. Now, climate change threatens food security by jeopardizing water supplies, fracking for oil and gas competes for water, droughts lead to power station shutdo...

Reflects the Water-Energy Nexus in the post 2015 framework – options and considerations Presting as Co-Director of the Nexus Conference, Associate Fellow at UNC Global Research Institute and Associate Fellow at the Tellus Institute I would like to thank the President of the General Assembly for inviting me to share my thoughts today in this thematic debate. I had the pleasure of sitting on the Advisory Board for the German Nexus conference in 2011 and that leadership inspired Jamie Bartram former Chair of UN Water and myself to organize the 2014Nexus Conference on Water-Energy-Food and Climate on the 5-8th ofMarch in Chapel Hill I hope you will all come down and continue the discussion. We have a number of outputs one of which is a declaration dealing with the Nexus which you will find copies of at the side in its first draft. I will draw from that document and also the excellent Stockholm Environment Institute backgrounder for the 2011 conference . At that time we ...

One of the primary goals of the Nexus 2014: Water, Food, Climate and Energy Conference is to provide input to the UN Sustainable Development Goals process. To do so a group of experts has prepared this draft of the Nexus Declaration. We are seeking feedback on the Declaration and welcome comments. The draft will be online for ten days until the 28th of February for comments. To submit comments please email them to Nexusdeclaration@unc.edu Based on the feedback we receive, a new draft will be available for those attending the Nexus 2014 Conference. A final document incorporating the inputs from the conference will be produced and given to the Sustainable Development Goals Open Working Group. Ready the Declaration and input http://nexusconference.web.unc.edu/declaration/ Watch the UN thematic debate on water and energy - Nexus focus Wednesday 19th 10-1pm on http://webtv.un.org/meetings-events/

I was preparing for the Nexus Conference Water-Energy-Food-Climate  (5th to 8th March Chapel Hill NC) International Advisory Board and catching up on the days news stories.A number caught my eye that I wanted to share with you. Comcast Comcast is biding to own Time Warner Cable and would then have 3/4 of all cable tv.  This can not be good for press freedom and the regulator should stop the sale. According to the Washington Post: " The merged company would be a communications and media juggernaut with far greater influence than any of its peers. It would not only control the “last mile” connections that pump cable and Internet services into homes and businesses but also a huge swath of the content that travels through those pipes because  Comcast already owns  the entertainment empire of NBC Universal." The Justice Department should take a hard look at this and reject the merger to ensure press and internet freedom. NASA and Moon Mining  Acco...

On Friday the 7 th of February the eighth SDG OWG finished its deliberations on oceans and seas, forests, biodiversity, promoting equality, including social equity, gender equality and women’s empowerment, conflict prevention, post-conflict peacebuilding and the promotion of durable peace, rule of law and governance. It marks nearly a year of meetings covering topics that will be drawn into 10-12 new development goals over the next 18 months. The meetings have been a great example of the UN’s new willingness to welcome the contribution of stakeholders. There have been side events, workshops, conferences, teach-ins and lots and lots of coffee drinking as governments have listened to, debated with, and questioned experts and stakeholders about their views and their evidence. As we got closer to the eighth OWG, governments were looking more and more for concrete suggestion on goals, targets and indicators. Let’s just remind us of the difference between these three items as it ha...