Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

W elcome to  Heroes of Environmental Diplomacy: Profiles in Courage , a podcast ($25 on Amazon) dedicated to  exploring the inspiring stories of individuals who have shaped the global environmental movement.  Drawing from the book  Heroes of Environmental Diplomacy: Profiles in Courage,  edited by Felix Dodds and Chris Spence, each episode highlights the remarkable contributions of leaders who have fought for sustainable development, protected vital ecosystems, and navigated complex political landscapes. This  podcast  i s produced by  Sustainable Society Cafe. What does it take to turn a hole in the ozone layer into one of the most successful agreements in history?  In the 1980s, with Earth's ozone layer at risk, one leader emerged at the forefront of environmental diplomacy: Dr Mostafa Tolba, head of the United Nations Environment Programme. This episode dives into Dr Tolba’s relentless campaign to protect the ozone layer from harmful chem...

  Heroes of Environmental Diplomacy: Profiles in Courage edited by F elix Dodds and Chris Spence is now available on Routledge, Amazon and most onsite bookshops. If you pre-order on Routledge site and use the code FLE22  at checkout you will get an extra 20% off the book. Present retail price is around $27 . "Environmental Heroes in Diplomacy tells an important story.  The individuals chronicled here took on daunting challenges in negotiating global agreements on some of the biggest issues of our times. Through courage and determination, they managed to forge positive action. These stories and their collective message reaffirm one of my core beliefs - multilateral diplomacy, when carried out with vision and persistence, actually works. The efforts and achievements highlighted in these chapters are a clear illustration of three crucial action points for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. First, every human being, especially our leaders, must be unr...

Photo by IISD/ENB Kiara Worth. This has been a great session on the last 50 years, and I particularly found Achim’s insight something we should all reflect on. My brief comments will focus on three things. First, I would like to pay tribute to Maurice Strong not only as has been said the first director of UNEP but so much of what we do builds on his vision. Without his personal push in 1992 for the Rio Earth Summit there would not be the nine chapters of agenda 21 that gave rights AND responsibilities for the stakeholders we have engaged at UNEA Second, I would like to mention the enormous work of Mostafa Tolba Executive Director for nearly 20 years and whose commitment to building up UNEPs science base and starting to facilitate much of what we now see as the Multilateral Environmental Agreements landscape. Particularly his work around Montreal Protocol. But also, the work on climate change.   It was first mentioned in the Stockholm Conference outcome. Under Mostafa’...

Another sad day for the world of environment and sustainable development with the passing of Dr. Mostafa Kamal Tolba. In 1972, he led Egypt’s delegation to the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment which gave rise to UNEP. Initially he was appointed as Maurice Strong’s Deputy Director and took over from him in 1975 serving as UNEP Executive Director until 1992. He worked tirelessly to promote the environment in the 17 years as Executive Director and built UNEP into a global voice for the environment. The idea of a global commission on environment and development was first promoted by Canada in 1982 at the ten-year anniversary of Stockholm. This would become the World Commission on Environment and Development which subsequently birthed the Rio Earth Summit. His work will probably be best remembered around the development of the Framework convention on Ozone Depleting Chemicals in 1985 and its subsequent Montreal Protocol reducing CFCs in the world in a very short time...