Christmas books for UN Groupies

Dear Friends,

Its the time of year to be thinking of Christmas presents and I have some suggestions :-)



Intergovernmental negotiations can be very confusing and so I have tried contributed over the years  to a number  of books to help the next generation of 'bracketiers'.

Governance for Sustainable Development: Ideas for the Post 2015 Agenda


Governance for Sustainable Development: Ideas for the Post 2015 Agenda is edited by: Hoonmin Lim, Sara Luna and Oana Rebedea, David Banisar Felix Dodds and Quinn McKew. The governments of Mexico, Romania and the Republic of Korea, with the technical support of the Tellus Institute and the organization ARTICLE 19, reinvigorated the “Group of Friends of the Governance for Sustainable Development”, which was created in the preparation of the Rio+20 Conference, as a flexible and informal space to discuss issues related to good governance and foster cooperation between multiple actors in the context of the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Available here for your iPad $1 on amazon:
or free download here 

From Rio+20 to the New Development Agenda

This year working with Jorge Laguna Celis and Liz Thompson we have tried to tell the story of how Rio+20 happened and produce resources that would help anyone engaged in the SDG process or implementation of Rio+20.

From Rio+20 to the New Development Agenda (2014)  takes you from the dark days in the mid 2000s when sustainable development was dead at the intergovernmental level. It explores how with the leadership of Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala,  Indonesia, Mexico, Germany and Denmark sustainable development came back and now is the central thesis of the new development goals...sustainable development goals.

"This is the ultimate ‘insider’s guide’ to the Rio+20 process, taking the reader from the preliminary discussions back in 2007 all the way through the conference itself and into the future. In tabloid terminology, Felix Dodds, Jorge Laguna Celis and Liz Thompson give us ‘the thrills, the spills, the personalities and power-plays’ that shaped the summit and its diverse outcome. Whether you regard the outcome as primarily a missed opportunity due to its fundamental incompatibility with respect for planetary boundaries and its failure to match President Lula’s pre-conference vision of an event that would lead to ‘a new and more balanced distribution of wealth’ in the world, as I continue to do, or whether you share the authors’ optimism regarding the re-moulding of international institutions and the voluntary commitments secured in Rio, this book will give you a deeper and broader understanding of why Rio reached the outcomes it did. And as it makes clear, there is still much to play for, particularly in regard of the sustainable development goals, which could yet provide impetus for a global move towards the future we both want and need."
Richard Black, former BBC Environment Correspondent

The Plain Language Guide to Rio+20

Its sister publication is The Plain Language Guide to Rio+20: Preparing for the New Development Agenda. (2014)
The Plain Language Guide takes you through many of the areas that are likely to be the new sustainable development goals and gives you the resources that you need to engage in the most vital debate of the last twenty years. Every campaigner, UN official and government official should have a copy.

"After reading The Plain Language Guide to Rio+20: Preparing for the New Development Agenda, however, I can no longer say that the attributes of Agenda 21 and the evolution of policy guidance from within the UN system are too complex to grasp. This book is a great service to those within the systems and anyone that is adjacent to but not within the system itself. It is clear, concise and a great service to historians of sustainability and those who must operationalize an agenda to optimize conditions for human development through time."
Gary Lawrence Chief Sustainability Officer AECOM

Only One Earth

The first environment conference the UN organized was the Stockholm UN Conference on Human Environment in 1972 and the one which had the largest impact in setting new hard law agreements was the Rio 1992 Earth Summit. Both of these conferences Secretary General was Maurice Strong, perhaps the father of sustainable development. Maurice Strong, Michael Strauss and I put together - Only One Earth: The Long Rio via Rio to Sustainable Development. . (2012)



This book gives you the insider view of what has happened in the intergovernmental discussion on first environment and then sustainable development over the last 40 years. Its a must for anyone who is or plans to work on sustainable development issues. It goes over the highs and the lows  and gives a vision for the future.

"Only One Earth is ... undoubtedly the best volume ever to trace the history of sustainable development within the UN." –
Crosslands Bulletin

How to Lobby at Intergovernmental Meetings

Finally I wanted to plug another book i did with Michael Strauss over a Christmas in 2002 but which is still relevant and useful to anyone who wants to learn how to lobby at the UN. Its called 'How to Lobby at Intergovernmental meetings - Mine is a Cafe Latte'.  (2004)


"Encapsulates the essence of action for the aspirant multi-lateralist...A roadmap for social justice warriors!" -- Tony Simpson, Lawyer in International Human Rights and Environmental Law

Finally

If you are interested in the emerging Environmental Security we will find three books I have edited on that agenda.




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