Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

Dr. John Alan Haines, a pioneering figure in international environmental protection, chemical safety and poisoning prevention, died on 7 July 2026 at a retirement home in Challex, France. He had recently turned 88. Over a career spanning more than five decades, John contributed to the development of international policies and practical systems addressing air pollution, industrial environmental management, chemical safety, toxic exposures and poison control. Yet the importance of his work cannot adequately be measured through the senior positions he held, the international meetings he attended or the many technical publications he produced. His greatest achievement was his ability to turn scientific knowledge and international cooperation into practical institutions that protected people and saved lives. John was born in Coventry, United Kingdom, on 25 June 1938. He studied at Imperial College, University of London, before undertaking doctoral research at Churchill College, Universi...

This side event at the UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), like several others over the next two weeks, is aimed at building momentum towards the 2027 Heads of State meeting on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It is a pleasure to put together this event with WWF International Last year, under a UNEP/EC grant, Stakeholder Forum prepared eight primers on eight different Sustainable Development Goals in preparation for the seventh UN Environmental Assembly. The eight include four that are being reviewed at the 2026 HLPF:  SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation,  SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy,  SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities, and  SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals. The additional SDGs addressed in the primer are SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG 13: Climate Action, SDG 14: Life Below Water, and SDG 15: Life on Land. There are few people who were around when Rio+20 and the Open Working Group on the SDGs (2013-2014) took ...

Between now and 2028, we have the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (including the SDGs) Heads of State Summit next year.  We know that we are far behind in implementing the SDGs and the climate and biodiversity agreements.   This will be a vital time to accelerate SDG implementation up to 2030. We also have the outcomes of UN80 reform, particularly work package 27 on the environment.   I want to focus on UN80 and the environment, otherwise known as work package 27   I have been involved with colleagues in this for the past year.   UN80 and the environment reopened the possibility of advancing UNEP ED Klaus Toepfer’s push to cluster MEAs into three areas: chemicals and waste, biodiversity, and climate change.   Achim Steiner, the next UNEP ED, succeeded in the three chemical and waste conventions: Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm (BRS).  Under his successor Eric Solheim, the process did not continue   A team of former member...

I am at the 39th UN Academic Council Conference in Lisbon. I was asked to be on the enclosed panel. See my comments below. A1. Panel/Roundtable 15. Continuity and Contestation: The G20 at a Crossroads and its Implications for the UN System. Washington's G20 turn, with its focus on deregulation and domestic objectives, comes after four successive presidencies focused on commitments to the formal multilateral system . How do we assess the outcomes of those four presidencies, and what is the place of the G20 in the multilateral system now?   The notion of an inclusive , rules-based international order is under increasing strain, in an era of “contested global governance ” that may pit growing economic nationalism against more traditional approaches to global cooperation . What are the opportunities for the present and future G20 presidencies to bridge this gap for the benefit of all countries and their citizens ? Against...

  Delegates gather for the opening plenary of the June UN Climate Meetings in Bonn. Credit: Kiara Worth / IISD/ENB EX, North Carolina / SAN FRANCISCO, California, Jun 30 2026 (IPS) - With progress stalled on many issues, this year’s June talks in Bonn—which are supposed to smooth the way towards COP 31 in Antalya at year’s end—were widely judged a failure. What happened? And what does it mean for Antalya? (first published with InterPress Service here) “Deliberately delaying us.” “Spreading misinformation.” “Denying the science.” “Lacking integrity.” “Blocking progress.” “Costing countless lives.” These were just some of the charges delegates leveled at each other during the UN Climate Meetings held in Bonn this June. As delegates took up multiple issues in small “contact groups” and “informal consultations”, negotiations quickly became tetchy and irritable before descending into levels of rancor and even rudeness rarely seen before. And it was not just one issue where tempers fray...