Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

T his podcast, created by Felix Dodds and Chris Spence, the editors of the book  Heroes of Environmental Diplomacy: Profiles in Courage,  focuses on the contributions of key people involved in international negotiations.   In the realm of environmental diplomacy, few figures have been as influential as Maurice Strong , a Canadian businessman and diplomat. In this episode, we delve into Strong's remarkable journey from his humble beginnings in rural Canada to becoming a key architect of the international environmental movement. We explore his significant contributions to landmark events such as the 1972 Stockholm Conference on Human Environment and the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, where he helped shape Agenda 21. Additionally, we highlight his role in establishing the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and his advocacy for inclusive stakeholder engagement in environmental policymaking. Join us as we celebrate Strong's legacy as a champion for sustainable ...

It is a fine day ---- We have today submitted the manuscript to  Routledge- Earthscan for the new book From Rio+20 to a New Development Agenda: Building a Bridge to a Sustainable Future By Felix Dodds, Jorge Laguna-Celis and Elizabeth Thompson http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/books/details/9780415716543/ It is a sister book to 'Only One Earth (by Felix Dodds, Michael Strauss with Maurice Strong) and picks up the story from the end of that book and takes the reader through the preparations, negotiations and the possibly road to success for 2015 in the development of new development goals. Publishing end of the year. Contents are: Part I: The Re-birth of Sustainable Development [a]President Lula da Silva’s & Brazil’s Case for Rio+20 [a]The impacts of the 2008 economic and financial crisis [b]Breaking the silos between development and sustainable development [b]The emergence of the Group of Twenty (G20) [b]The 2008 Doha Review Conference on Financing for Developme...

As the outcome from Rio+20 continues to have impact long after the delegates have left Rio Central. Two weeks ago we saw the agreement on the setting up of the High Level Political Forum operating under the same rules as the old CSD for stakeholder engagement. The ongoing work of the Sustainable Development Goals Open Working Group and now announced the membership for the I ntergovernmental Committee of Experts in Sustainable Development Financing . The latest is the follow through on “85(k) strengthen the science-policy interface through review of documentation bringing together dispersed information and assessments, including in the form of a global sustainable development report, building on existing assessments; The Division for Sustainable Development within the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs are in the process of producing the first Global Sustainable Development Report. They have also opened it for input: “ Social and natural scientists , here is you...

Glenn Beck does not understand Agenda 21 or sustainable development By Felix Dodds (One of the authors with Michael Strauss and Maurice Strong of the recent book ‘Only OneEarth – The Long Road via Rio to Sustainable Development’   This blog was inspired by a review by Executive Editor William D’Alessandro of Victor House News Co. of the book Only One Earth that I co-authored along with Glenn Beck’s book Agenda 21   Glenn Beck’s book Agenda 21 is of course taking the name of the great negotiated agreement of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. The original Agenda 21 was hoped to be a blueprint for the 21 st century moving towards a more sustainable future.   It is a very sad indictment of the politicians of the last twenty years that more of it was not enacted upon.   That brings me to Glenn Beck’s Agenda 21, which it turns out actually isn’t written by him but by a registered nurse, Harriet Parke. The book is a very depressing science fiction book claiming...

Today I saw that my friend Stanley Johnson has a new book out 'UNEP - The First 40 years' to coincide with the first meeting of UNEP as a universal membership organization in Gigiri just outside Nairobi. Stanley is an Ambassador for the Convention on Migratory Species and I have at least two other books of his on my shelf. I have to say my favorite is 'Stanley I Presume?' a wonderful tour de force of his life from travelling from London to Afghanistan on a motor bike to his time in the European Union as an MEP and as a civil servant, and association with the Rockefeller Commission on Population, but I digress. In all the meetings around Rio+20 last year there perhaps wasn't enough time to look at UNEP at 40 and see what it had achieved. This book goes someway to giving a wider audience the chance to read and appreciate what it has achieved and what challenges it faced and is still facing in trying to be the environmental consensus for the world. This...