Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

 Important Conference Reminders We would like to share some reminders regarding the 2025 UNC Water and Health Conference: The Abstract portal  for the 2025 UNC Water and Health Conference will be closing soon. The deadline for submission of research abstracts is May 2, 2025 at 11:59 PM EST . Please register and join a special webinar to support you in preparing a strong abstract submission for the Conference.  Register here  for the webinar scheduled for April 21, 2025 at 10:00 AM EST. The Side Event portal  will be closing on June 2, 2025 at 11:59 PM EST .  Please submit your Side Event proposal on time. For more information about the conference and our submission process, visit the  2025 UNC Water and Health Conference   website. Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us at water...

With the multilateral system fracturing more by the day, is it time to declare the Sustainable Development Goals dead? Prof. Felix Dodds and Chris Spence examine the patient for signs of life. Is it only a decade since the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on climate change were agreed? The two deals were inked to a groundswell of hope. The world had come together and reached consensus on how to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges. A collaborative spirit was in the air. Fast forward ten years and it feels like a century has passed and we’ve fallen over the abyss into an alternate reality. When he was elected for a second term, President Donald Trump promised extraordinary, history-making change. Whether you support his world view or not, no one can deny he has been true to his word. The previous multilateral consensus is shattered. With tit-for-tat tariff escalation, cuts in overseas aid, a rise in regionalism and the return of transactional...

Guest  article UBS Philanthropy Insights full report is downloadable  here . Originally published here. An enormous amount of wealth is set to be transferred to the Next Generation ov er the coming decades. Wealthy Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation will be handing the torch to the Next Gen – which includes Gen X, Millennials and, eventually, Gen Z.  The level of anticipated wealth transfer to these younger generations is considerable. The 2024 Cerulli US HNW & UHNW Markets Report estimates that USD 124trn is expected to be transferred across generations over the next 25 years, with USD 105trn flowing to heirs and USD 18trn going to philanthropy. Given this reallocation, the opinions and preferences of these Next Gens will increasingly influence the approach of HNWs and UHNWs to giving. We have spoken with our clients about the preferences and habits of Next Gen individuals and family members across numerous meetings and advisory sessions and during UBS. Collecti...

 T he following s even podcast episodes   are adapted from the book  "Only One Earth" by Felix Dodds, Maurice Strong (the father of sustainable development), and Michael Strauss .   The podcasts will cover the development of first environment and then sustainable development internationally from the 1960s to the Rio+20 Summit in 2012. Episode 2: From Stockholm to Rio: The Emergence of Global Environmental Governance. This episode explores the twenty-year journey from the 1972 Stockholm Conference to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, uncovering how a groundbreaking vision for the environment evolved into concrete institutions and global action. We delve into the creation of UNEP, the role of key figures like Maurice Strong, the rise of sustainable development, and the multilateral agreements that reshaped international environmental policy. Featuring insights from "Only One Earth" by Felix Dodds, Maurice Strong , and Michael Strauss, we explore the legacy of act...

The Governments of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Federative Republic of Brazil co-hosted the 16th Petersberg Climate Dialogue (PCD) 2025 in Berlin on 25-26 March. Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany Annalena Baerbock and COP30 President-Designate André Corrêa do Lago brought together ministers and high-level representatives from 38 countries, to discuss the shared way forward in these challenging times. Paris Agreement as uniting compass towards a sustainable and prosperous future : in a strong demonstration of togetherness, all Ministers stood united in their commitment to accelerating the implementation of the Paris Agreement in the real economy in order to deliver on the collective resolve to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C while societies build resilience and adapt to the impacts of climate change. Ministers recognised the need not only for preserving multilateralism, but also for strengthening it...