Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

1. IT STARTED AS A POLITICAL PROJECT, aimed at eliminating European nationalistic tendencies and ensconcing a single common market. All the parties involved were aware, if not also complicit, that the 'numbers' were being cooked to support the political project. To build Eurozone membership in the 1990s and early Aughts, creative national accounting was used to meet financial thresholds for entry (e.g., 3% deficit/GDP threshold) . European statistical and financial institutions knew that the fiscal household in a number of countries was in poor condition, but chose to look the other way on Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy. Germany and France themselves violated the 3% threshold in years leading up to the 2007+ global financial crisis (GFC). These facts are overlooked amidst today's theatre of self-righteous northern European finger-wagging towards Greece. Meanwhile, the European financial institutions (and the IMF) have continued to cooked...

Financing for Development (FfD) Side Event Reform of Financial Systems to Incentivize Investment in Sustainable Development Wednesday, 15 July 2015, 13:15 - 14:45 Hotel Jupiter, Conference Hall Tito Street, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia An uncertain future leads to growing category of risks to global prosperity and the sustainability of economic development. These risks originate from unsustainable economic activities that are motivated by the assumption of unlimited natural resources. This paradigm, in turn, creates a flawed pricing system along with other externalities, including inaccurate costing of ecosystems services and growing social inequity. This event explores the opportunities and solutions available to reform our financial systems and capital markets in order to incentivize investments in sustainable development, promote greater transparency and accountability in fiscal decision-making and shift our socio-economic structures to a more sustainable foundation. We will discu...

This is from   Paul Mason Channel 4's  Economics Editor former BBC Newsnight Business  Correspondent.  Throughout the  crisis in Greece I have felt he has had the best understanding of the wider issues that are impacting on the crisis and what it might mean for Europe. If you have a chance watch the other video blogs. My worry is that this result will be bad for the European idea that I have myself supported throughout my life. It clearly has created a split in Europe with Spain, Italy and France leading the support for Greece receiving a deal that includes debt relief.  Paul Krugman,  said the creditors’ demands on Greece “went beyond harsh into pure vindictiveness, [leading to the] complete destruction of national sovereignty [with] no hope of  Very depressing is the first interview with Vanis Varoufakis since he had his five month battle to save Greece.  Will the Greek parliament vote in favour of the deal? I have to ...

U NLOCKING PUBLIC AND PRIVATE FINANCE FOR AFRICAN INFRASTRUCTURE Monday July 13, 2015: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Elilly Hotel, Room Mars, 10 AM The global community is engaged in a pivotal year for sustainable development. The July 2015 Addis Ababa Financing for Development Conference (FFD3) will set the financing architecture for the September 2015 adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as serve as a landmark for the December 2015 Paris UN Convention on Climate Change (COP21). To achieve sustainable development in Africa, closing the infrastructure gap must be a top priority. This includes access to cores infrastructure services, including safe water and sanitation, transport, connectivity, and modern energy services, including those covered by the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative in Africa. African infrastructure will require, at a minimum, approximately $100 billion in annual investments over the next decade. BACKGROUND Infrastr...

The Newish Declaration Well we have the text forthe final negotiations for the Post 2015 Declaration . Don’t those attending the Finance for Development (FfD) wish they had our facilitators? Well I much more like the preamble than last time! I am a sucker for People, Planet and Prosperity part as it was the slogan for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and adding Peace and Partnerships (also a WSSD priority) is pretty cool. On the targets the co-facilitators have taken a lead and put into the text the technical revisions that they had proposed in the zero draft. Hmmmmmm that is going to be interesting to see how that plays. The proposed change to the ocean target 14c is left still to be discussed. I am sure the changes in the targets will be a central part of the negotiations in the first week. I think the human rights and gender text seems better and it does look like the mention of CBDR in para 10 will cause the usual fights. I tried in a previous blog ...

The Habitat III Urban Dialogues have started! Click here to visit the site We invite you to participate in the Urban Dialogues towards The United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development ( Habitat III ) to be held in Quito, Ecuador, in October 2016. The Urban Dialogues will host a series of e-discussions over the course towards Habitat III with the aim to enable all voices to be heard and to bring new thinking in the elaboration of the New Urban Agenda . From the 6 to 31 July 2015, the thematic consultation will run on the following six areas: Social Cohesion & Equity Urban Frameworks Spatial Development Urban Economy Urban Ecology & Environment Urban Housing & Basic Services Join, and invite others to participate at www.habitat3.org/urbandialogues To stay connected Subscribe...