Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

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...

I attended the UNEP FI’s 13th Global Roundtable which came at a crucial time for the international community, with the recent financial crisis and occupy washington tents outside. The conference offered a stark reminder that instability constantly looms over the horizon when issues of sustainability are overlooked in day-to-day financial operations. Held under the theme “The Tipping Point: Sustained stability in the next economy,” UNEP FI’s 13th Global Roundtable  looked at the  decades-long niche discussion over sustainability and discussed has it  finally become part of mainstream business and policy-making. The tipping point, in other words, has been crossed, and there is no turning back.   The 13th Global Roundtable conference brought in one place the men and women who have produced the most forward-looking thinking in the global finance and investment community. It was followed up by a workshop for governments whcih Stakeholder Forum hosted at the Bl...