Xmas Book Ideas

Dear Friends, 

Now is a great time to start thinking of ideas for Xmas presents for yourself, your partner, your children, your friends and your workmates. Over the past twenty years I have had the chance to write or edit a number of books. I have selected a few which I think are the best and would make great Xmas presents.

 Wishing you a wonderful Xmas,

 Felix Dodds

From Rio+20 to a New Development Agenda by Felix Dodds, Jorge Laguna Celis and Elizabeth Thompson due out Feb 1^st 2014

Twenty years after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, "The Earth Summit", the Rio+20 conference in 2012 brought life back to sustainable development by putting it at the center of a new global development partnership, one in which sustainable development is the basis for eradicating poverty, upholding human development and transforming economies.

Written by practitioners and participants involved in the multilateral process of negotiations, this book presents a unique insider analysis of not only what happened and why, but also where the outcomes might impact in the future, particularly in the UN development agenda beyond 2015.

 The book throws light on the changing nature of multilateralism and questions frequent assumptions on how policy is defined within the UN. It shows that Rio+20 was more than an international meeting; it represented a culminating point of decades of successes and failures and a watershed moment for seminal concepts, ideas and partnerships including the Green Economy, zero tolerance on land degradation, the introduction of Sustainable Development Goals, the creation of national measurements of consumption, production and well-being that are intended to go beyond GDP, the introduction of national green accounting and the commitment of billions of dollars for sustainable development partnerships, including Sustainable Energy for All. 

“This book is a decisive contribution to a better understanding of the Rio + 20 negotiations which in many ways were the genesis of the Post-2015 process. The negotiations were dauntingly complex given the range of issues covered, and this book is both timely and seminal as it will enable those who did not participate in the process, for the first time, to fully appreciate the scope of the negotiations. This will be a vital referent for the discussions under the Post-2015 process which need to be widely participatory. This book will contribute to facilitating informed and substantive participation by a wide range of stakeholders. “
Paula Caballero Gomez, Director, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Colombia

Only One Earth: The Long Road via Rio to Sustainable Development by Felix Dodds, Michael Strauss with Maurice Strong

Forty years after the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, the goal of sustainable development continues via the Rio+20 conference in 2012. This book enables a broad readership to understand what has been achieved in the past forty years and what hasn’t. It shows the continuing threat of our present way of living to the planet. It looks to the challenges that we face twenty years after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, "The Earth Summit," in Rio, particularly in the areas of economics and governance and the role of stakeholders. It puts forward a set of recommendations that the international community must address now and in the future. It reminds us of the planetary boundaries we must all live within and what needs to be addressed in the next twenty years for democracy, equity and fairness to survive. Finally it proposes through the survival agenda a bare minimum of what needs to be done, arguing for a series of absolute minimum policy changes we need to move forward.

"Only One Earth is ... undoubtedly the best volume ever to trace the history of sustainable development within the UN."
Crosslands Bulletin

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Insecurity: A Planet in Peril edited by Ahmed Djoghlaf and Felix Dodds

The book provides an authoritative and comprehensive assessment of the threats presented to human security and well-being by the loss of ecosystems and biodiversity recently confirmed as one of the critical 'planetary boundaries' that has already been exceeded. Contributors examine the current trends and state of biodiversity globally, the drivers of biodiversity loss including climate change and economic and population pressures, and the mechanisms and policies needed for conserving and restoring biodiversity in the future.

Strong emphasis is placed throughout on the fundamental importance of placing a realistic economic value on nature and the services that ecosystems provide if we are to manage our natural resources successfully; and also on the crucial role of international institutions and government policies achieving this goal. The high-profile meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan, underlined the scale and pace of the destruction of natural habitats and species imperil us all. This volume is an invaluable resource for conservationists, students and those in the private and public sectors concerned to redress the damage being done to the natural world.

"Many people around the world remain totally unaware that the Earth is losing its incredible array of plant and animal life at an unprecedented and alarming rate. The dangers to our global biodiversity and the impacts this will have on human society are clearly spelled out in this book which stresses that if we continue with business as usual, we will soon reach a tipping point, causing irreparable and irreversible damage to the major ecosystems that support life on our planet."
Edward Norton, United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity

Climate Change and Energy Insecurity: The Challenge for Peace, Security and Development edited by Felix Dodds, Andrew Higham and Richard Sherman

Climate change is now recognized as one of the greatest challenges facing the international community and when coupled with energy production and use - the most significant contributor to climate change - and the related security problems the double threat to international security and human development is of the highest order.

 This wide-ranging book brings together leading thinkers from academia, government and civil society to examine and address the global insecurity and development challenges arising from the twin thrust of climate change and the energy supply crunch.

Part one considers energy. It analyses the challenges of meeting future energy demands and the ongoing and future security-related conflicts over energy. Coverage includes security and development concerns related to the oil and gas, nuclear, bio-fuels and hydropower sectors, ensuring energy access for all and addressing sustainable consumption and production in both developed and rapidly industrializing countries such as India, China, Brazil and South Africa.

Part two analyses how climate change contributes to global insecurity and presents a consolidated overview of the potential threats and challenges it poses to international peace and development. Coverage includes future water scenarios including a focus on scarcity in the Middle East, food security, biodiversity loss, land degradation, the changing economics of climate change, adaptation and the special case of small island states.

The final part lays out the potential avenues and mechanisms available to the international community to address and avert climate and energy instability via the multilateral framework under the United Nations. It also addresses mechanisms for resource and knowledge transfer from industrialized to developing countries to ensure a low-carbon energy transition by focusing on the rapid deployment of clean energy technologies and ways to tackle income and employment insecurity created by the transition away from traditional energy sources.

This book offers the most comprehensive international assessment of the challenges and solutions for tackling the global insecurity arising from climate change and energy provision and use. It is essential reading for students, researchers and professionals across international relations, security, climate change and the energy sectors.

“We must treat climate as a security issue, the most important threat to global security we will ever face. Energy is at the heart of this transition. Climate security and energy security are two sides of the same coin: one cannot be achieved without the other. This book is an important contribution to exploring this vital part of the environmental security agenda.”
Maurice Strong, Secretary General of the Rio and Stockholm UN Conferences

Human and Environmental Security: An Agenda for Change edited by Felix Dodds and Tim Pippard

Security has tended to be seen as based on military force, yet this illusion is crumbling, literally and figuratively, before our eyes in the conflict zones of Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa. It is now clear that real human security, defined by the Commission on Human Security as 'protecting vital freedoms', can only be achieved if the full range of issues that underpin human security - including environmental integrity - are addressed. This ground-breaking book, authored by prominent international decision makers, tackles the global human security problem across the range of core issues including terrorism, nuclear proliferation, access to water, food security, loss of biodiversity and climate change.

The authors identify the causes of insecurity, articulate the linkages between the different elements of human security and outline an agenda for engaging stakeholders from across the globe in building the foundations of genuine and lasting human security for all nations and all people. This is powerful, necessary, solution-focused reading in these times of peril, global conflict, mass inequity and rampant environmental degradation.

“A highly significant and relevant publication! The authors describe in admirable clarity a daunting array of contemporary global challenges and offer realistic and achievable responses. Both the public and policy makers alike are left in no doubt as to the urgency of concerted international action to address threats that affect us all”
Javier Solana, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy.

How to Lobby at Intergovernmental meetings: Mine is a Café Latte by Felix Dodds with Michael Strauss

Based on over twenty years of experience in engaging with intergovernmental meetings and UN processes, Stakeholder Forum has gathered its experience, stories, advice and lessons learned into one publication. This book is an essential guide for all stakeholders who seek to influence intergovernmental meetings - including NGO's, companies, industry associations and professional groups, trade unions, government missions, UN and other intergovernmental staff.

Attending an intergovernmental meeting entails significant costs in terms of time and money, and it is critical that resources are spent effectively. Many organizations and individuals attend such meetings with an idea of the desired outcome, but with little understanding of how to best achieve that outcome. As a result, non-governmental actors often end up spending more time talking to each other than attempting to influence decision-makers.

This book provides a step-by-step guide on how to approach an intergovernmental meeting, how to establish relationships that will help you to achieve your objectives and how to keep a grip on what’s going on during the process. It is the essential first step to becoming an effective lobbyist.

“An invaluable tool for anyone wishing to understand and contribute effectively to the competition of good ideas that intergovernmental meetings should be”
Paul Hohnen, former Strategic Director, Greenpeace.

Follow Felix on:
Blog: http://earthsummit2012.blogspot.com/
Twitter: http://bit.ly/YaJaLE
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/17oUEC2
YouTube: http://bit.ly/14Us0sO

Join us at the Nexus Conference March 3-7^th 2014 – Water-Energy-Food-Climate Nexus
Website: http://nexusconference.web.unc.edu/