Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

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...

  A Series of Governance Papers by Stakeholder Forum, Focusing on the Sustainable Development Goals and the Triple Planetary Crisis Paper 9: Lessons Learned from the BRS Conventions Synergies Process, Which Could be Applied to the UNEP-Administered and Extended to Selected Other Biodiversity Conventions   By Craig Boljkovac [i] , Hugo-Maria Schally [ii] , and Felix Dodds [iii] This was first published in March 2026. The opinions set forth below are the author's own. Introduction The UN80 process is a major United Nations reform effort launched in 2025 to modernise the organisation for its 80th anniversary, focusing on making it more efficient, agile, and effective by streamlining structures, reducing bureaucracy, and better aligning programs with current global challenges like climate change, conflict, and technological shifts. UN80 has three key workstreams with Member States making final decisions on proposals. The three workstreams are: Improving In...