Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

UN beyond 80: An opportunity to position multilevel collaboration and urbanization to save multilateralism and sustainability Guest  blog by Yunus Arikan   originally published here. The United Nations marked its 80th anniversary in 2025. Over time, numerous UN Secretaries-General have sought reforms of the UN system, but were unable to achieve more than incremental progress due to limited buy-in from Member States.  This year is different. The question is no longer whether the system needs reform, but whether it can deliver significant enough reform in time. With just four years until the review of the 2030 Agenda, the negotiations on what comes next will shape not only the future of sustainability, but also the credibility of the multilateral system itself. In a world shaped by overlapping crises – armed conflict, climate, biodiversity, inequality, and technological disruption – the gap between global commitments and real-world delivery is becoming almost impossible to ...

Guest blog: Yunus Arikan :  Director of Global Advocacy ● ICLEI World Secretariat UK COP26 COVID-19 Updates: As of 1 September, a new update is available on the UK COP26 Presidency webpage -  Delegates - UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) at the SEC – Glasgow 2021 (ukcop26.org)  The text for the first time hints that COP26 Blue Zone will be designed for a capacity of 10,000 delegations at any given time, which is almost half of COP25. UNFCCC info for COP26 Participants: is available at  Information for COP 26 participants (A-Z) | UNFCCC  These will apply for those who have COP26 Blue Zone badges. At the section on health, it is noted that Parties will be represented by 1+1 delegations at the Plenary Sessions, without any information on observer engagement or other measures on other meetings at the Blue Zone. But this measure can be interpreted to be consistent with the UK COP26 Presidency plans to have Blue Zone to host only 10,000 delegations at any given...

Glasgow Climate COP Update by  Yunus Arikan  Director of Global Advocacy ● ICLEI World Secretariat As of 1 July 2021 , neither the UNFCCC Secretariat nor UK COP26 Presidency have announced any official documents, neither on COP26 Logistics (including capacity and layout of the COP26 Blue Zone), nor on the specific modalities for the engagement of Observers including LGMA Constituency at COP26 in-person and virtual events. UNFCCC announced that UNFCCC managed exhibits in the Blue Zone will be virtual , but UNFCCC managed side events a re announced as in-person (subject to further COP26 Updates), and applications are closed by 2 July 2021 . (“UNFCCC managed” indicates that physical and virtual platforms will be provided for free by the UNFCCC Secretariat and eligible applications will be selected by the UNFCCC Secretariat.) Meanwhile, applications of interested Parties and UNFCCC Accredited Observer organizations for the COP26 Blue Zone Office Delegation and Pavilion Spaces to...

Guest Blog by Yunus Arikan ICLEI, LGMA Focal Point (local government) As of 5 June 2021 13:00 CEST, there is no publicly available links for the presentation or recording, but updates may be available here.  1-       No information on capacity of Blue Zone, with breakdown for Parties and observers, layout and costs of pavilion and office spaces are available – these are expected to be made available in the coming weeks. 2- Special COP26 Visas are available only for Blue Zone delegations and visa applications have to be submitted to the UK embassies starting from beginning of August 2021 - no information is available to facilitate visa applications for Green Zone events  3-       Current UK COVID-19 measures asks for a minimum 2 weeks of quarantine upon arrival for most international participants (be it a Party delegate or observer) – this means visa applications have to be adjusted accordingly as well. 4-   ...

Guest blog by Yunus Arikan: ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability  The United Nations is celebrating its 75 th  anniversary in 2020, under the shadows of a once-in-a-century pandemic, serious challenges to multilateralism, and life-threatening climate and biodiversity emergencies. Due to the global pandemic, these celebrations will be taking place online, but the virtual forum by no means reduces the significance of processes and decisions that will take place in 2020. ICLEI – representing our network of over 1,750 local governments – contributed to the  response of the Global Task Force of Local and Regional Governments to the UN75 , with its commitment to  accelerate localization of the Decade for Sustainability Action . In order to ensure sustainability of the world in 2045 – the 100 th  year of the United Nations – ICLEI is calling for an inclusive new generation of multilateralism that addresses COVID-19 pandemic, responds to climate emergency and adop...

UN Environment’s Principles for Sustainable Insurance Initiative and ICELI produce “Insurance Industry Development Goals for Cities” spanning risk management, insurance and investment The Insurance Industry Development Goals for Cities are: ·      Goal 1:     Build climate and disaster-resilient communities and economies ·      Goal 2:     Promote healthy lifestyles and prevent pollution ·      Goal 3:     Develop solutions for unserved people and enterprises ·      Goal 4:     Protect natural and cultural heritage sites ·      Goal 5:     Promote sustainable energy and resource efficiency ·      Goal 6:     Leverage data, risk analytics and technology ·      Goal 7:    ...