Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

Our event "Sustainable # Urban Development in the 21st Century" is live streamed at the http:// worldurbancampaign.org/sustainable-ur   …  This September, the international community celebrates the adoption of the global 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG11 to “Make Cities and Human Settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.” In parallel, the urban development community is stepping up the preparations for the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development Habitat III, where the New Urban Agenda will be adopted in October 2016.  In this pivotal moment of unprecedented opportunity for social justice, poverty eradication and sustainable development, we invite you to engage in a multi-stakeholder reflection on the key drivers and actions for a transformation that will empower, enable and operationalize our collective commitment to sustainable urban development in the 21s century. Ur...

So after so many years of careful building blocks put in since Brazil suggested that there should be a new Summit on Sustainable Development in 2012. Without the work done to re-establish sustainable development as the central development paradigm at Rio+20 then the Sustainable Development Goals would not have been infront of member states in 2015. As history is written the role of Rio+20 will take its rightful place as the catalyst for the SDGs. Initial opposition from the development agency and NGOs slowly they started to understand that there is no development without it being sustainable. This week has been an amazing opportunity not only to celebrate those 7 years of very hard work by people all over the world but also an opportunity to now pivot to what will be the focus on implementation. Former UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld said: “Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find hi...

As we are getting closer to the Heads of State session on the Sustainable Development Goals now embedded in the Transforming Our World: The 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda  hat do you need to know about the Sustainable Development Goals? 1. The SDGs were proposed by the Governments of Colombia and Guatemala at a meeting in Solo Indonesia in July 2011 - The Chairs Summary said: . "Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): There was a significant interest on the discussion on the Sustainable Development Goals. In the context of goals related, in particular, to the sustainable energy goals advanced by the SG’s Advisory Group, there was a feeling that negotiating specific goals would bog down the negotiations. However, there may be a good chance for an agreement in principle on the development of Sustainable Development Goals. " 2. The first time stakeholders put forward a suggested set of goals and targets was in September 2011 at the UN DPI Conference Sustainable Soci...

This can be read at the guardian web site or here on this blog below “Travelism thrives on peace and sustainability and is an essential contributor to it. Tourism which is such an important contributor to the economies of most countries provides them with a strong incentive to maintain internal security, protect the human rights of their people…..and provide them with expanding opportunities.” Maurice Strong Secretary General of the Stockholm (1972) and Rio (1992) UN Conferences Next week’s UN Heads of State Summit on Sustainable Development Goals is a key element of a coherent global strategy for a better future for humanity.  By the end of this year, we will have seen 3 such Summits starting with Development Finance in Addis in July and ending on Carbon Targets in Paris in December. Despite its massive societal significance, this is only a staging post in our post industrial development.   For more than half a century, and particularly since the 1...

World Resources Institute and the Governments of Colombia and Switzerland   cordially invite you to This high-level event will showcase experiences of countries that will be the first movers on internalizing the SDGs. It will highlight outstanding issues, commonalities and differences among member states’ experiences thus far, and spur reflection on the challenges and opportunities of SDG implementation for a variety of stakeholders. Sunday, 27 September 2015 • 9:00 - 11:00 a.m. • UN Conference Room 12  (You will need to register to attend) CONFIRMED  SPEAKERS:  H.E. Mr. Simón Gaviria, Minister for Planning, Colombia H.E. Mr. Régis Immongaul t, Minister of Economy, Gabon H.E. Ms. Isabella Lövin, Minister for International Development Cooperation, Sweden H.E. Mr. Manuel Sager , State Secretary and Director-General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Switzerland M s. Paula Caballero , Senior Director, Environment and Natural Resou...

Some of the world’s most respected leaders in sustainable development are confirmed to speak at the second Eye on Earth Summit , taking place from 6 to 8 October in Abu Dhabi. Held under the patronage of The President HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Summit will explore the critical need for better access to and sharing of environmental, social and economic data to support informed decision-making for sustainable development. “The events of 2015 make the work of Eye on Earth more important than ever as we come together – governments, the private sector, academia and civil society – to improve information availability and quality to safeguard the future of the planet and humanity. At Summit 2015 we hope to agree the roadmap that will get us there,” said HE Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, Secretary General Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi, a founding Eye on Earth Alliance Partner. The Eye on Earth Summit will open with a focus on policy maker demand for environmental-relat...

Dear Friends Civicus and Stakeholder Forum have produced a very useful diary of events that are happening  in New York  from the 22nd to the 28th of September. Well done Matt Reading Smith a fellow Arsenal fan. If you plan to be in New York then this is the diary to use http://www.sustainabledevelopment2015.org/index.php/about/203-uncategorised/1661-post-2015-summit-calendar its goign to be a long week so we will all......

Over the coming weeks i am going to use the blog to identify some events around the Summit in September that I think would be worth going to. This one is on the 28th and looks like a great NGO event. Dialogues for Justice, Public Interest, and the Common Good: From the Margins and the   Front-lines Proposed Program 10:00-12:00                 The Gaze from the Margins and the Frontlines  13:00-14:00h                   Discerning Power: from the ground to the summit  14:00-16:00h    Dialogues for Justice:  Breakout Groups a.      Austerity and privatization b.      Wage depression and job insecurity c.       Land, water and resource grabbing d.   ...