Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),a universal assembly created by the United Nations (out of Rio+20), which every two years gathers ministers of all nations to take action and agree on wise policy that can ensure a healthy environment for our generation and those to come. This was Achim Steiner's last UNEA. The new Executive Director of UNEP is  Erik Solheim present Chair of OECD DAC.  He is a Norwegian politician for the Socialist Left Party (SV). He was appointed Minister of International Development in 2005 and also Minister of the Environment in 2007, and sat in both offices until 2012. Solheim was leader of the Socialist Youth from 1977 to 1981, party secretary from 1981 to 1985, and member of the Parliament of Norway from 1989 to 2001. He was party leader from 1987 to 1997. The new Executive Director will have an immediate challenge of offering his strategy for where the organization should go. Much o...

Reviewing the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development “Early Movers” Can Help Maintain Momentum republished from here.    A long version of the paper can be found here.  Marianne Beisheim At the Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015 the heads of state and government of all the UN member states adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Several countries, including Germany, committed to move rapidly on implementation. During the UN High-level Political Forum (HLPF) in July 2016, twenty two countries volunteered to conduct national reviews of their implementation. Moreover, UN member states plan to adopt a resolution on the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda before that meeting. What initiatives would be most helpful for maintaining the momentum and making ambitious progress on implementing and reviewing the Agenda? According to its title and preamble, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development seeks to bring about no...

Given the extraordinary range of new obligations and opportunities encompassed in the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the emerging UNEA, why would the world’s largest environmental NGO suddenly choose to down-size its international capacity? taken from Some Blogsite “We shan't save all we should like to, but we shall save a great deal more    than if we had never tried.”    – Sir Peter Scott, co-founder and first Chair, of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)   By Felix Dodds and Michael Strauss  Little noticed among the many more prominent – and frequently tragic – international news events since the start of the year, the world’s largest international environmental NGO decided to drastically re-make the structure of its international secretariat. In early April, the World Wide Fund for Nature (still iconoclastically known as the World Wildlife Fund in the United States) announced it would implement a consul...

The 4th Global Conference (16-19 May 2016) in Copenhagen Denmark will focus on how best to implement the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. It will have a particular emphasis on maternal, sexual and reproductive health and rights. Conference web site is  here.  As a leading, global advocate for girls’ and women’s health, rights, and wellbeing, Women Deliver brings together diverse voices and interests to drive progress in maternal, sexual, and reproductive health and rights. We build capacity, share solutions, and forge partnerships, together creating coalitions, communication, and action that spark political commitment and investment in girls and women. Our work includes: Engaging  new allies  in the movement Building the  next generation  of advocates Developing  advocacy tools  and resources Convening  global and regional conferences It has an amazing line up of speakers including: Gro Harlem Brundtland, Helen Clarke,...

Yuvan A. Beejadhur f ocuses on the ocean economy in the Environment and Agriculture Global Practice. Prior to moving to DC, he worked as a Counsellor at the World Bank’s office to the UN. This blog originally was posted on the world bank group site here.   you can follow him on twitter too here .  The ocean is a powerful resource and the next economic frontier. WWF estimates that the ocean economy is the 7th largest economy, valued at US$ 24 trillion. With more than 6 million women directly employed in the fishery sector, and global job numbers set to grow to 43 million by 2030, the oceans are roaring. Yet, its natural capital has been systematically undervalued and overdrawn.  According to the Bank’s forthcoming Sunken Billions Revisited report, an estimated US$ 83 billion were foregone in 2012 because global fisheries were not managed at an optimum level. Similar sums could be recovered annually if meaningful reforms are adopted, and overfishing is ...

The zero draft is now out on the follow up to the 2030 Agenda at the global level. This is after consultations on the elements paper held by the two co-facilitators  Ambassador of Belize, Ms. Lois M. Young, and the Ambassador of Denmark, Mr. Ib Petersen. Key outcomes and want it means  The resolution seeks to ensure an integrated approach and for each four year cycle will: "reflect the integrated, indivisible, interlinked nature of the sustainable development goals and three dimensions of sustainable development, including cross-cutting issues as well as new and emerging issues, and will serve as the lens through which to review all 17 goals" It also suggests that a set of goals will be discussed at each session representing the three dimensions of sustainable development and that an indepth review on progress review of progress of all goals over the course of a four year cycle, with the goals 17 discussed annually. The review of goal 17 each year is very important...

The Time Has Come - Sustainable Development Private Finance to Support the 2030 Agenda By Steve Waygood and Stephanie Maier, AVIVA Investors and Felix Dodds , Associate Fellow at the Tellus Institute. Published by New World Frontiers and available here.  Business and finance in particular, has a critical role in ensuring that the Goals are met. The SDGs have great aspirations for the roughly $150 billion worth of official development assistance (ODA). However, there is insufficient focus on encouraging investors to redeploy the $300 trillion of capital in the global markets in a way that will help achieve these Goals. Investors can be a catalyst for the innovation in sustainable technologies and entrepreneurialism required to meet the growing demand for goods and services from an ever—growing global population. Webinar on Financing Sustainability: The Investment Case for the 2030 Agenda and COP21 When : Thursday 19 May 2016, 4:00PM – 5:30PM (BST) Where: Online Event ...

The second announcement that was pending is who would head the UNFCCC? The answer it seems is that of Former Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa She will take up the role  as the new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will now need approval by the 11 member U.N. bureau of the UNFCCC. This was reported today by Alister Doyle of Reuters.  She was favorite once Erik Solheim was proposed by the Secretary General for Executive Director of UNEP.  She will replace Christiana Figueres, a Costa Rican who took over the UNFCCC after the disastrous Copenhagen Climate Summit and steered countries to the agreement in December last year in Paris. Espinosa is at present the Mexican Ambassador to Germany and has played an important and very well respected role in the climate negotiations.   The present Paris Agreement still needs delivering and more commitmen...

Erik Solheim according to Norwegian newspapers is to be announced today as the new Executive Director of UNEP. And later today Monday the 2nd of May ABC News confirm too. He faced stiff competition for the number one job on the environment in the UN system. In the 6 Executive Directors of UNEP it will mean that developed countries will have had 5 of them with two Canadians (Strong and Dowdeswell) and Germany (Toepfer and Steiner). The only Executive Director to come from a developing country was  Dr. Mostafa Kamal Tolba who died recently. Erik brings considerable experience to the position having held been from 2007 to 2012  the combined portfolio of Norway’s Minister of the Environment and International Development; he also served as Minister of International Development from 2005 to 2007. During his time as minister Norwegian aid reached 1%, the highest in the world. Since January 2013 he has been the Chair of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC). ...