Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

January 2021 7th-15th  IUCN World Conservation Congress  Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Cote D'Azur, France 16th-18th Sustainable Energy for All Forum, Kigali Rwanda February 2021 22th-26th United Nations Environment Assembly, Nairobi March 2021 22-27th 9th World Water Forum, Senegal April 25-20 UNCTAD 15 Bridgetown, Barbados May 2021 3rd  Partnership Forum, New York 4th-5th Multi-stakeholder forum on science, technology and innovation for the Sustainable             Development Goals, New York   6th-7th Development Cooperation Forum , New York 17th-30th Convention on Biological Diversity, Kunming   31st-6th UNFCCC First sessional period (prepcom) , Bonn July 2021 1st UN Food Summit (date TBC) 5th-9th International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5) , Bonn   6th- 12th High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development , convened under the auspices of the Council, New York 13th-16th The high-level seg...

Guest blog by  Solidaridad : Solidaridad is an international network organization with partners all over the world. There is one agenda and one strategy: together we learn and progress, together we achieve results and together we decide on future steps. After decades of relying on voluntary sustainability initiatives, supply chains are still troubled by deforestation, unsustainable practices, and poor livelihoods for farmers and workers. Solidaridad now says it is time to get serious about mandatory rules. A new paper published by Solidaridad aims to fuel the debate on introducing regulation at EU level that would require intergovernmental partnerships, measures to support farmers in the Global South, and mandatory due diligence from businesses. These would not replace voluntary initiatives, but would instead complement them with a compulsory approach. Head of Policy Influencing at Solidaridad Europe, Boukje Theeuwes, says: “We must move beyond the voluntary approach and look ...

Guest blog Written by Chantal Line Carpentier, UNCTAD, and Katrin Kuhlmann, Georgetown Law School first published here. Trade-restrictive measures imposed  by G20 governments  have reached historically  high levels , a trend that has only increased with the pandemic. Worldwide, supply chains are also constricting, and some countries are promoting reshoring of production due to both technological change and more inward-looking trade and economic policies. As experts and world leaders assess the intricate supply chain vulnerabilities of our essential goods following COVID-19-related trade restrictions, opportunities arise to realign the structure and substance of trade rules to respond to rising inequalities, climate change and frustrations with trade’s role in development.  That is ironically the call made by the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to achieve its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as  recently reiterated  at the World Tr...

Scholars call for better tax cooperation, improved digital access, and sustainable natural resource management as starting points. As world leaders in government, business and civil society grapple to contend with the urgency of the global COVID-19 pandemic, leading experts and thinkers are offering fresh new ideas that can prevent new pandemics while achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a new volume of policy briefs issued by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) today. The collection of seven expert-written essays from members of the United Nations High-level Advisory Board on Economic and Social Affairs (HLAB) offers new guidance for rebuilding societies in a fairer, more inclusive way. The volume,  “Recover Better: Economic and Social Challenges and Opportunities,”  provides outside-the-box thinking and new solutions to some of this era’s most pressing tests. The authors advance ideas on issues that include improving international tax ...

With the High-Level Political Forum over let look at some of the statistics for the first virtual HLPF. The HLPF was a 9-day virtual meeting from July 7th to July 16th.  There were about 150 speakers (keynote speakers, moderators, resource persons, lead discussants and respondents in the official programme) in the thematic sessions. Participants including 1 Prime Minister, 1 Deputy Prime Minister ( Attorney-General) , 31 Ministers/Vice Ministers/Ministerial-level officials from all regions + 47 Prime Ministers and ministers from VNR countries. also participating were the UN Secretary-General, and Deputy Secretary-General; the President of the UN General Assembly, the Under-Secretary-General of DESA, Heads of Inter-Governmental Organisations and UN system, special envoys, leading experts, and representatives of Major Groups and Other Stakeholders During the HLP  47 countries presented their Voluntary National Reports. There were    240 official side events an...

Opportunities for the Future We Want: Global Launch of the Future Possibilities Report Virtual Event Date & Time 20 July 2020; 9am to 10.15am (EST) Location Webex1 and UN WebTV Global Launch of the Future Possibilities Report Join here  http://webtv.un.org/ Objective While the end of the crisis caused by the COVID19 pandemic is not yet in sight, there is growing focus on the ways and means to build back better, by resetting the way we produce, consume, socialize and interact. The inaugural “2020 Future Possibilities Report” provides some of the first guidelines and benchmarks on how governments can prepare for such rapid change and will contribute to the important debate around the shape and form of the future economy. This special event, organized by the United Arab Emirates and the “UN75: 2020 and Beyond initiative,” provides an opportunity to share national approaches to future preparedness, as well as a consideration of transformational trends – from connectivity to self-im...

The United Nations High-level Advisory Board on Economic and Social Affairs Recover Better: Economic and Social Challenges and Opportunities Online dialogue: launch of the compilation of the High-level Advisory Board for Economic and Social Development 22 July 2020 – 9:00-10:20 a.m. EDT Held via WebEx and online at www.webtv.un.org    The COVID-19 pandemic and humanity’s responses to it, is inspiring new thinking and critical insights about the future of humanity. Even prior to the pandemic, progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – the blueprint for a sustainable future –was mixed. The human tragedy of the pandemic, with close to half a million deaths worldwide so far, present new and additional challenges. Mandated restrictions on human activities have helped to prevent even greater loss of lives, but have also resulted in lost livelihoods and incomes, forced absence from classrooms, foregone vaccinations against other infectious diseases, stresses on menta...

Future of the HLPF: Lessons from the proposal for a Sustainable Development Council for the UN General Assembly from Rio+20 for the future of the High Level Political Foru m BY  STAKEHOLDER FORUM   · PUBLISHED  13TH JULY 2020  · UPDATED  14TH JULY 2020 On 13 July 2020, a  ‘Pop Up Side Event’ webinar  during the 2020 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, developed and delivered by Stakeholder Forum, revisited the ideas that were suggested by the Member States and stakeholders in the preparation for Rio+20 concerning the issue of what body should be created to replace the Commission on Sustainable Development. In particular, the webinar looked at the proposal for a Council on Sustainable Development within the UN General Assembly.  Are there any ideas that might help Member States in their present review of the work of ECOSOC and the UNGA second committee? The HLPF has just completed in 2019 its first four-year review, and 2020 is t...

Gland, Switzerland, 13 July 2020 (IUCN) – The International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN, has announced the appointment of Dr Bruno Oberle as Director General, starting today. He succeeds Inger Andersen who served as Director General from 2015 to 2019 and is now Executive Director at the United Nations Environment Programme. Dr Grethel Aguilar, Director of the Regional Office for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, has been serving as Acting Director General since June 2019. “It is a great pleasure to welcome Bruno to IUCN,” said IUCN President Zhang Xinsheng. “He brings an impressive breadth of experience spanning over 40 years at a time when redefining our relationship with nature is more urgent than ever. Bruno has the high-level profile and track-record needed to lead IUCN into the post-2020 period. We are extremely grateful to Grethel Aguilar for an outstanding job leading the Secretariat during what proved to be a very challenging interim period.” Dr Bruno Oberle...

Madras Café Unlocked! Madras Café Unlocked, a summer of all-digital, online content in support of Action Village India and partners. Madras Café Unlocked launches its five ‘stages’: the  Madras Café Family ,  Madras Boombox ,  Food for Thought ,  Partnerships & Solidarity  and  Jai Jagat Exhibition  on the 24 th , 25 th  & 26 th  of July (Friday to Sunday) – whats on each stage poster can  be seen here . Events will continue through August and September and will complete with ‘The Meal’ on 26th September in support of JaiJagat 2020. Help spread the word  – Madras Café Unlocked is asking for your help to share details of the events online – event poster can be  seen here . You can follow us on  Facebook ,  Instagram , and  Twitter , share information on your own social media and use the hashtag #madrascafeunlocked Please donate,  showing your solidarity with Action Village India’s partners’ work on ri...

by Joyce Msuya, Deputy Executive Director, UNEP As I address you today, the challenges ahead of us seems to be daunting. COVID-19 has brought unimaginable suffering around the world. For the first time since 1998, global poverty is set to rise. Meanwhile, climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution remain the underlying threats facing humanity. The Aichi Biodiversity Targets will not be met. The 2020 objectives of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management will not be met. And COVID-19 has come just as we embark on a make- or-break Decade of Action for the Sustainable Development Goals. In other words, humankind’s destruction of the natural world has not stopped.  The IPBES Global Assessment tells us that an estimated 1 million species are facing extinction and are disappearing at a rate hundreds of times higher than the natural rate. This is due mostly to land use change and direct exploitation. We have already altered nearly two-thirds of the face of the ea...