Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

Felix Dodds and Chris Spence are my guests on Episode 174 of Inside Ideas with Marc Buckley. Felix Dodds has been a leading thinker in the area of global governance for thirty years. Now a Vice President Multilateral Affairs. Rob and Melani Walton Sustainable Solutions Service (RMWSSS) at Arizona State University and an Adjunct Professor at the University of North Carolina. Previously he was an advisor to the Ford Foundation and their grantees for the development of the Sustainable Development Goals. He was the co-founder of the Communitas Coalition for supporting SDG 11 on Sustainable Cities and Communities. From 1992-2012 he was Executive Director of Stakeholder Forum and during that time he chaired the first UN Conference to come out with a set of indicative SDGs in September 2011. He has edited or written 24 books on sustainable development. His most recent book with Chris Spence is Heroes of Environmental Diplomacy: Profiles in Courage. He also co-wrote Negotiating the SDGs which...

Press Release from IRENA -  Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates / Berlin, Germany, 28 March 2023  – The global energy transition is off-track, aggravated by the effects of global crises. Introduced by IRENA’s Director-General Francesco La Camera at the  Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue (BETD)  today, the  World Energy Transitions Outlook 2023 Preview  calls for a fundamental course correction in the energy transition.  A successful energy transition demands bold, transformative measures reflecting the urgency of the present situation. Investment and comprehensive policies across the globe and all sectors must grow renewables and instigate the structural changes required for the predominantly renewables-based energy transition.  The Preview shows that the scale and extent of change falls far short of the 1.5 ° C pathway. Progress has been made, notably in the power sector where renewables account for 40 percent of installed power generation globally,...

Background In September 2023, the world will gather at the  SDG Summit  in New York for the mid-point review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the implementation of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Summit is expected to adopt a political declaration that will provide a road map for putting the world back on track to achieve the SDGs by their 2030 deadline. The Summit will be informed by the  2023 Global Sustainable Development Report  prepared by an independent group of scientists. More information about the 2023 SDG Summit is available on the website at:  hlpf.un.org/sdg-summit . Political declaration process for the SDG Summit 2023 The Co-Facilitators of the political declaration for the SDG Summit, the Permanent Representatives of Ireland and Qatar, convened the second informal consultations on 16 March to hear Member States’ views on the  Co-facilitators elements paper , which had been released on  28 Feb...

INTERLAKEN, Switzerland, March 20, 2023 -- There are multiple, feasible and effective options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to human-caused climate change, and they are available now, said scientists in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released today (March 20th). “Mainstreaming effective and equitable climate action will not only reduce losses and damages for nature and people, it will also provide wider benefits,” said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee. “This Synthesis Report underscores the urgency of taking more ambitious action and shows that, if we act now, we can still secure a liveable sustainable future for all.” In 2018, IPCC highlighted the unprecedented scale of the challenge required to keep warming to 1.5°C. Five years later, that challenge has become even greater due to a continued increase in greenhouse gas emissions. The pace and scale of what has been done so far, and current plans, are insufficient to tackle climate change. More ...

Guest blog by Anna Marry, Senior Global External Affairs Advisor, Brooke Imagine a scene: It is early morning by the river under the African sun. Children are splashing around, women are washing clothes and filling yellow jerry cans with water. This water will be used in the village throughout the day for drinking, cooking, cleaning, and watering crops. But the village is an hour away – how will the women and children possibly manage to transport all these cans? You know the answer, you have seen it many times, but you have never noticed. Every day, in millions of villages such as this one, water is transported from the source to households with the help of the humble donkey. Working animals, in particular donkeys, are the invisible enablers of SDG 6 – clean water and sanitation. It is especially women and girls for whom donkeys are a true lifeline, as it is usually their job to provide water for the household. Having a donkey eases their work and enables them to transport more wat...

  2023 UNC Water and Health Conference: Science, Policy, and Practice Dear Felix,      We are writing to remind you that the portal to submit abstracts for the 2023 UNC Water and Health Conference is open! This year’s conference will be held in Chapel Hill, North Carolina from October 23 – 27th, 2023.   You can submit your abstract using the portal below:  Abstract Submission Portal To help you with your abstract submission, the   Water Institute is holding two virtual Abstract Workshops . The workshops will be hosted by experts in the field who will discuss what to include in your abstract, writing tips, and typical formatting. The workshops will be held through a live Zoom session   on March 28th at 9 am EDT and April 12th at 9am EDT . Please register and submit questions in advance through  this form  to make sure we answer your questions and send you the Zoom link to attend the sessions.   Best Regards,  The Water...

Press Release from  Council approves conclusions bolstering climate and energy diplomacy in a critical decade - Consilium (europa.eu) EU climate and energy diplomacy is a core component of EU’s foreign  policy and  stressing the EU determination to engage and work with partners worldwide to implement the Paris Agreement, limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels, support the most vulnerable countries in adapting to climate change effects, and increase collective climate finance. The conclusions also reaffirm the engagement of EU’s external energy policy to support, intensify and accelerate the ongoing  global energy transition  as a crucial element towards achieving climate neutrality so that it is inclusive, just and ensures energy security and universal access to safe, sustainable and affordable energy. The triple planetary crisis of  climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution , and  Russia’s illegal, unpr...

Guest blog by Susanne Salz (she/her) Head of project, Platform for Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships for Implementing the 2030 Agenda -giz  Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH In a world that can be characterized as brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible (BANI for short), it is becoming increasingly more important to cooperate effectively with diverse stakeholders to reach shared goals and create the future we want. You may have heard of the concept VUCA, stating that the world we live in is v olatile, u ncertain, c omplex and a mbiguous. Recently, I read an article which states that the “concept of VUCA is clear, evocative, and increasingly obsolete.” The author, Jamais Cascio, puts forward a new framework with an intentional parallel to VUCA: BANI . He convincingly argues that the system and situations we are now facing can be characterized as brittle, anxious (or anxiety-creating), nonlinear, and incomprehensible . I won’t repeat what ...