Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

   Photo by Tom Fuldner, 2022 The 2023 UNC Water and Health Conference: Science, Policy, and Practice is less than three months away. If you plan to attend the conference, you must register.  The 2023 Water & Health Conference will be held at The Friday Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, from October 23-27. Registration  Please use this portal to register for the in-person conference to participate in Chapel Hill: 2023 UNC Water & Health Conference Please use this portal to register for the virtual program to participate remotely: 2023 UNC Water & Health Conference Virtual (Remote) Program Accommodations The Water Institute has partnered with hotels in the Chapel Hill area in order to offer   discounted rooms for conference attendees. Discounted rooms will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis. If y...

Guest blog by Michael Stanley-Jones (2023). Sustainable Development in Practice: A Handbook for Integrating Environment, Climate and Poverty Reduction . United Nations Development Programme–United Nations Environment Programme Poverty-Environment Action: Nairobi Poverty-Environment Action for Sustainable Development Goals, a joint project of the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme, has since 2018 brought poverty, environment and climate objectives into the heart of government and private sector decision-making in eight least developed countries: Bangladesh, Lao Peoples‘ Democratic Republic, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, and Rwanda. It has contributed to further integrating poverty-environment, climate and gender objectives in three additional countries: Indonesia, South Africa and Tanzania—so as to strengthen the sustainable management of natural resources and to alleviate poverty. There are three stories from the ...

Next President of the UN General Assembly is Ambassador Dennis Francis of Trinidad and Tobago for the Seventy-Eighth Session, starting in September. This is his vision statement. I am proud, and at the same time humbled, to accept the nomination of the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago as its candidate for the position of President of the Seventy-eighth session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. It has also been my special privilege to have been favoured with the political endorsement of my regional Group, the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States, GRULAC, whose approbation I deeply value and will work assiduously to honour. I turn my attention now to earning the trust, confidence and support of the wider membership, to elect me as their President during the Seventy-eighth session of the General Assembly. In doing so, I commit to discharge the responsibilities of the Office of the President with vigor and dedication to that most cherished value, mu...

Press Release:   Bank of America announces the completion of the first ‘Debt-for-Nature’ transaction in Continental Africa and Africa’s first ever involving private creditors to refinance $500 million of Gabon’s sovereign debt The new funding will enable Gabon to contribute $125 million to support ocean conservation The transaction is Africa’s largest debt refinancing for ocean conservation to date and represents the highest amount of new debt raised for a project supported by The Nature Conservancy (“TNC”)     Bank of America announces the completion of the first ever debt-for-nature transaction in Continental Africa to refinance $500 million of sovereign debt of the Gabonese Republic (“Gabon”). The transaction will enable the country to contribute $125 million in new funding for ocean conservation, supporting their commitment to protect 30 percent of its lands, freshwater systems, and ocean by 2030. Ocean health is critical to the world economy and the global...

Philip arrives at the UN Food Systems Stocktake in Rome  Credit Compassion in World Farming Guest blog by  Philip Lymbery Global CEO of Compassion in World Farming   Rome, and the weather was sweltering. Southern Europe was breaking records for the hottest temperatures whilst Britain was showered with the wettest July. The elements were showing us that the world is changing. If we want a liveable future, then w hat we do needs to change too, not least around food . I was walking the flag-lined street leading to the UN headquarters were world leaders were gathering. It had been two years since more than a hundred governments signed up to transforming food systems to achieve the world’s sustainable development goals (SDGs). This latest event was billed as the ‘Stocktaking Moment’ to assess progress   and where to go next. It was a high-level event with about 2,000 participants in-person, from 161 countries, including 22 Heads of State and more than 100 Min...