Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

(1929-2015) “When he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun.” ―  William Shakespeare A guardian article based on this can be found here. We  just heard of the passing of one of the greats of sustainable development our friend Maurice Strong . Maurice Strong – former entrepreneur, energy company CEO, NGO, Head of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA),the first Executive Director of UNEP, Secretary-General of the UN conferences at Stockholm (1972) and at Rio (1992), author, president of the council of the UN University for Peace, and professor at Peking University – who in some ways can be said to have s ingle-handedly invented the intergovernmental environmental and sustainable development governance process . He dies just before the Paris Climate Summit - climate change being one of his greatest su...

Santa Claus Takes on Climate Change will you join  him? Just as the Paris Climate Conference is about to start we are launching an I ndiegago campaign. The objective is to help the next generation understand climate change. We will create a free downloable comic as part of the Comics Uniting Nations initiative .  Comics Uniting Nations is a monumental partnership between a group of innovative nonprofits, working in close coordination with the United Nations Millennium Campaign and the United Nations Post-2015 Development Planning Team to make the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) accessible to the citizens of the world through comics. One of the SDGs is on climate change. This Indiegogo project is supporting the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in particular this comic is focused on Santa Claus taking on Climate Change. It is based on a story that was written for the BBC in 2009  The first Comics Uniting Nations Comic ‘Chakra the Inv...

By Mafruza Khan In a statement this past summer, Amtrak executive S tephen Gardner told New Jersey legislators that frequent train problems stranding commuters may "become the norm" because of the age and condition of the rail infrastructure. "When you have assets of this age, under this level of service and stress it’s not feasible really to imagine that you’re going to get perfect performance." Studies have consistently shown countries with high inequality tend to invest less in public goods, such as infrastructure, technology, and education, which contribute to long-term economic prosperity and growth and that high income and wealth inequality are strongly related to lower social mobility and social cohesion. Economist and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz argues,  “Full equality is not the goal. Some economic inequalities may be conducive to economic growth. Other inequalities may not be worth addressing because doing so infringes on cherished l...

What was very important about the nine chapters of Agenda 21 which established the Major Groups. These being  Women, Children and Youth, Farmers, Indigenous Peoples, NGOs, Trade Unions and Workers, Local Authorities, Science and Technology and Business and Industry is that they gave rights and responsibilities. These in 1992 represented the sections of society that woudl play a significant role in implementing Agenda 21.  In 1994 the Education community suggested they should be the 10th Major Group and developed an example of what their chapter might look like if governments wanted to add them as a Major Group.  I think the High Level Political Forum in collaboration with stakeholders  should establish equivalent chapters/text for what would be the relevant stakeholders for implementing the Sustainable Development Goals. Below I share with you what the Education Community developed in 1994 under the leadership of Trevor Harvey an...

The Role and Place of the High-Level Political Forum in Strengthening the Global Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development – An effort to analyse the challenges to the High Level Political Forum and offer a few options Guest blog by Jan Gustav Strandenaes The UNGA decision and resolution behind the HLPF On July 9, 2013, during the morning session of its 91 st  Plenary Meeting, the United Nations General Assembly, UNGA, in resolution 67/290 formally adopted by consensus the format and the organizational aspects of the high level political forum (HLPF). The resolution also recommended to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), to abolish the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), effective from the conclusion of its 20th and last session, to be held prior to the first meeting of the forum later that same year. With ten introductory and thirty operative paragraphs, the resolution on HLPF stakes out the direction of global sustainable development policies...

The Handbook of Water and Health is edited by my friend Jamie Bartram. It is a comprehensive handbook providing an authoritative source of information on global water and health. The book is suitable for interdisciplinary teaching for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students. It covers both developing and developed country concerns. It is organized into sections covering: hazards (including disease, chemicals and other contaminants); exposure; interventions; intervention implementation; distal influences; policies and their implementation; investigative tools; and historic cases. It offers 71 analytical and engaging chapters, each representing a session of teaching or graduate seminar. It is written by a team of expert authors from around the world, many of whom are actively teaching the subject, the book provides a thorough and balanced overview of current knowledge, issues and relevant debates, integrating information from the environmental, health and social sciences....

Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development “A revolution is coming — a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough — But a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability.” (Kennedy, 1966) Introduction Steering the course of global change to a just and sustainable future requires a concerted effort across all sectors. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were adopted by Heads of State on September 25, 2015 ­­– after 4 years of negotiations – offer a widely accepted compass to guide the actions of all players on the global stage. By providing a unifying force amidst enormous global diversity, the SDGs could provide the basis for potentially mounting a concerted movement for positive change. To achieve that outcome, the way in which major obstacles such as financing and accountability ...