Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

  PRESS RELEASE   91% of New Renewable Projects Now Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels Alternatives   New IRENA report confirms cost-competitiveness of renewables; warns of mounting grid integration and financing challenges notably in emerging and capital-constrained markets     Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 22 July 2025  - Renewables maintain their cost leadership in global power markets, IRENA’s new report on Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2024 confirms.  Th...

This is the fourth  podcast is from the book Negotiating the Sustainable Development Goals: A transformational agenda for an insecure world By Felix Dodds , Ambassador David Donoghu e and Jimena Leiva Roesch " Over the course of five episodes, we examine the political negotiations and institutional shifts that led to the creation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this episode, we unpack the significant outcomes of 2015, from the finalisation of the SDGs to their adoption by world leaders. What compromises were made? What breakthroughs were achieved? And what made this moment genuinely transformational? The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal set of 17 goals and 169 targets, with accompanying indicators, that were agreed upon by UN member states to frame their policy agendas for the 15-year period from 2015 to 2030. Written by three authors who have been engaged in the development of the SDGs from the beginning, this book offers an insider view of th...

Summary of the report:  Sustainability at a Crossroads was jointly developed and fielded by GlobeScan, ERM, and Volans. This survey of 844 sustainability experts across 72 countries reveals a pivotal inflection point in the evolution of the global sustainability agenda. While the field has matured and expanded over decades, a striking consensus has emerged: the current approach is no longer fit for purpose. Download the full report here. View the webinar here More than nine in ten experts agree that a shift is needed with over half calling for a radical overhaul. But rather than viewing this as a crisis, this moment should be embraced as a glass-half-full opportunity. It marks a necessary course correction - one that opens the door to bold, future-fit strategies capable of meeting the challenges of our time. Key report insights include: Stalled progress and rising backlash:  Experts express frustration with the slow pace of change and note the growth of organized resistance to...

IISD/ENB - Kiara Worth You can watch the book launch on the UN Publications Facebook page here.  Felix Dodds - comments at the book launch. (copies still available at the UN Bookshop) I have had the pleasure of working with member states, UN staff and stakeholders on many of the critical issues that have challenged us since the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. Over the years, I have accumulated a set of knowledge on how to advance policy both in positive times and in difficult times, such as the ones we live in now. “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Winston Churchill’s famous maxim feels very relevant today, when multilateralism and many environmental causes seem to be in retreat. We now face a triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Yet, the existing international environmental agreements and science bodies are not addressing these interconnected crises as effectively as they could. Can we turn the current situation into an opportunity for p...

Originally published on Inter Press Service here SAN FRANCISCO, California / APEX, North Carolina, US, Jul 14 2025 (IPS)  - “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Winston Churchill’s famous maxim feels very relevant today, when multilateralism and many environmental causes seem to be in retreat. We now face a triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Yet, the existing international environmental agreements and science bodies are not addressing these interconnected crises as effectively as they could. Can we turn the current situation into an opportunity for positive change and progress? Despite the rise in geopolitical fragmentation-or perhaps because of it—many countries appear to be as invested as ever in international cooperation and diplomacy as a means to achieve progress. To take a recent example, last month, negotiators at a meeting in Uruguay agreed to establish a scientific panel on chemicals, waste, and pollution. Not all bad ne...

This is a personal reflection by Jamie Drummond on the last 20 years, with a special reference to challenges and opportunities in the UK creative campaigning context, as we contemplate how to build support for a modern-day Marshall Plan for People, Planet – and Hope. Share your views here – jamie@sharingstrategies.org . Twenty years ago, 250,000 people marched on the streets of Edinburgh demanding we Make Poverty History as billions watched the Live 8 concerts. For months before, millions had been mobilised, wearing white bands, writing to policymakers, raising their voices. All this built pressure on politicians around the world, especially the then Group of 8 nations leaders, to respond to our demands – like “drop the debt”, “double aid”, and “make trade fair”.   As President Trump’s cuts, backed in milder form by PM Starmer, threaten to kill 14 million people (according to this study in The Lancet ), as many deaths as a world war...