Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

Steve Sawyer 1956-2019 Guest Obituary by  Brian Fitzgerald with additions at the end from Felix Dodds Steve Sawyer wanted to write his own obituary, and he would have done a better job of it, but time got away from him. I say he would have done a better job at it because he did a better job than most of us at just about everything he put his hand to. After hours, when he wasn’t a driving force in the global struggle to address the climate emergency, or taking a fledgling organisation called Greenpeace out of its tumultuous adolescence into powerhouse adulthood, he was an outstanding blues guitarist, an enviably precise writer, a proud parent of magically gifted children, a sailor, a science fiction fan, and a connoisseur of wry irony. In his parting instructions, he pointed his wife of more than 30 years, Kelly Rigg, to Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech as a model for his obituary. It’s a short speech in which Lou says almost nothing about the bad break that will shortly take his...

A  historic climate lawsuit started in Oslo on Tuesday the 14th of November and has got worldwide attention. Greenpeace along with Nature and Youth are suing Norway for issuing licences to explore oil in the Arctic and asking the court to invalidate 10 licenses granted by the government to 13 companies that opened up a new section of the Arctic to oil exploration.  The vulnerable areas of the Arctic, like the Barents Sea, are home to both complex ecosystems and challenging climatic conditions. Greenpeace and Nature and Youth argue that new licences for oil exploration b reaches the country's constitution and undermines Norway's commitment to the Paris Agreement.  Article 112 in Norway's constitution  has been named the ‘Environmental Paragraph’, as it seeks to protect current and future citizens’ right to a healthy and clean environment and sound resource management. It reads:  ‘Every person has the right to an environment that is conduciv...

Paul Gilding has spent 35 years trying to change the world, doing everything he can think off. He’s served in the Australian military, chased nuclear armed aircraft carriers in small inflatable boats, plugged up industrial waste discharge pipes, been global CEO of Greenpeace, taught at Cambridge University, owned and run two ground-breaking sustainability focused companies and been a close confidant and advisor to the CEOs of some the world’s largest companies. More articles are available at his website here.  We’re all focused on the drama and entertainment of Trump’s takeover of the world’s centre of military, security and economic power. For some it’s exciting and entertaining, for others terrifying and apocalyptic. I too have been glued to the news – at various times having each of those responses! But now I’ve come back to earth, recognising it all for what it is. Important, but a sideshow to a much bigger and more important game. And on reflection, I’m  glad  ...

I have just returned from the 4 th General Assembly of the International Renewable Energies Agency (IRENA) based in Abu Dhabi. It is the youngest intergovernmental body with now 124 countries as full members and 43 states in accession. At this Assembly China joined IRENA and attended with a large delegation. China brings substantive weight to IRENA due to being the largest producer of solar energy, the largest installed wind power capacity in the world, they also have something like 20% ethanol in the total automotive fuel consumption not to mention that hydropower also is providing over 210 GW. China is also the largest producer of CO2 now more than the next two countries combined (USA and India). It is hoping to reduce its production from 70% to closer to 30-50% by 2015. This will require even more investment in renewables and therefore being a strong member of IRENA they hope will help in identifying the best ideas around in the area of renewables. IRENA had a good...

June 5th is World Environment Day . In an article by Juan Somavia and Achim Steiner Heads of the ILO and UNEP respectively on the BBC web site explores the role of the G8, Rio+20 and the role of the green economy. Greenpeace have brought out a challenge for Rio+20 as have Christian Aid and Stakeholder Forum on Monday the 6th. We are one year from Rio+20 and my prediction is that Rio will result in: On Green Economy: 1. A set of principles for the Green Economy; 2. A set of Sustainable Development Goals with particular focus on sustainable development goals under the green sectors - Potentially 5-9 green economy sectors will be addressed. This would include energy, agriculture, urbanization, water, biodiversity. These could then be fed into the MDG Summit in 2015. On Governance 1. In International Environmental Governance: a. WEO: Probably not a WEO – maybe a process of clustering towards a point where governments feel comfortable with a WEO – this could be a ...