Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

It is always challenging looking back on a year and forward to the next. I guess the highlights of 2019 were after three years of work the UN General Assembly passed the resolution on Promoting Investments for Sustainable Development . Passed on November 27 th 2019 by the UNGA. The original idea for such a resolution was a result of work started under the Danish Presidency of the UNGA of Mogens Lykketoft. He commissioned a report the Chain of Sustainable Finance:   Accelerating Private Investments for the SDGs, including Climate Action from that report there was an ongoing discussion in member states and stakeholders including the private sector led by AVIVA. In 2018 Nigeria championed the idea and the resolution passed under the Nigerian Presidency of the UNGA of Tijjani Muhammad-Bande. For me the sad part of it was I was out of the country in the UK when it happened. At the start of the year, it was a pleasure to serve on the UN Global Compact Internal Review T...

Addressing Resilience through the Nexus of Water-Food-Energy; Cities as SDG Laboratories was organized by the Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future and the International Science Council  and the UNC Water Institute. The power point that supports this can be found here.   The Rural-Urban Nexus:   Cities are to be seen not in isolation, but intrinsically connected with broader ecosystem as part of a metabolism of flows and interconnected social and ecological processes. A substantial proportion of the water, energy and food that supports urban living is supplied from rural areas outside the cities. The largely one-way flow of these resources together with the pollution and waste generated in urban spaces have a determining effect on patterns of rural development and the integrity of the ecosystems services. The Nexus approach has already shown itself to have a crucial part to play in ensuring that the supply of water, energy and food services to ci...

This is THE event for stakeholders to attend if they are engaged in the 2015 process on the Sustainable Development Goals or the climate change process. Following the release of the reports of the Open Working Group and the Experts Committee on SD Financing this summer, we invite you to prepare for the 65th Annual UN DPI/NGO Conference on "2015 and Beyond: Our Action Agenda" taking place at UN HQ (NY), 27-29 August 2014 . The Conference will provide an opportunity for civil society, international networks and activists to develop an “Action Agenda” to mobilize messaging, advocacy strategies, partnerships and accountability frameworks in the lead up to the start of the intergovernmental negotiations at the beginning of the 69th session of the General Assembly for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda, due to culminate at a Summit in September 2015. The Conference will also be an important milestone ahead of the Secretary-General’s September 2014 Climate Summit...

Dear Friends,  Now is a great time to start thinking of ideas for Xmas presents for yourself, your partner, your children, your friends and your workmates. Over the past twenty years I have had the chance to write or edit a number of books. I have selected a few which I think are the best and would make great Xmas presents.  Wishing you a wonderful Xmas,  Felix Dodds From Rio+20 to a New Development Agenda by Felix Dodds, Jorge Laguna Celis and Elizabeth Thompson due out Feb 1 st 2014 Twenty years after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, "The Earth Summit", the Rio+20 conference in 2012 brought life back to sustainable development by putting it at the center of a new global development partnership, one in which sustainable development is the basis for eradicating poverty, upholding human development and transforming economies. Written by practitioners and participants involved in the multilateral process of negotiations, this...

Rapporteur:  Dr Kadir Topbaş, Mayor of Istanbul, President of UCLG and member of the High Level Panel for Post 2015 agenda. Thank you Mr./Madam Chair. ExcellencIes, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to address this session on behalf of the Local Authorities Major Group as Mayor of Istanbul and President of UCLG, reporting on our Special Event on sustainable cities in collaboration with DESA and Local authorities Major groups. The new development agenda is one and universal affecting all continents and countries. In all cases well managed urbanization with a territorial approach and bridging the rural urban divide will be key. We would like to recall the Rio outcome document reaffirming the role of all levels of government and legislative bodies in promoting sustainable development and the specific progress made at the local and subnational levels. We would further like to stress the paramount role played by the sub...