Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

Negotiating the Sustainable Development Goals . T he Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal set of seventeen goals and 169 targets, with accompanying indicators, which were agreed by UN member states to frame their policy agendas for the fifteen-year period from 2015 to 2030. Written by three authors who have been engaged in the development of the SDGs from the beginning, this book offers an insider view of the process and a unique entry into what will be seen as one of the most significant negotiations and global policy agendas of the twenty-first century.  The book reviews how the SDGs were developed, what happened in key meetings and how this transformational agenda, which took more than three years to negotiate, came together in September 2015. It dissects and analyzes the meetings, organizations and individuals that played key roles in their development. It provides fascinating insights into the subtleties and challenges of high-level nego...

The second Nexus Conference on Water-Energy-Food and Climate has finished and the Declaration should be finalized by next Wednesday and submitted to the Co-Chairs of the SDG OWG and the President of the UN General Assembly. Highlights of each day can be read at Campus blueprints web site. A great job done by Grace and the team from Campus Blueprint. Videos of the plenary sessions are now up on the Conference web site. Power points to go up very soon. The third Nexus Conference dates have been announced as 15,16,17th of March 2015 in Chapel Hill again at the excellent Friday Conference Center. What has been clear at the conference was a LOT has happened on the Nexus since the German Conference in 2011. This includes work on the ground, in companies, in intergovernmental bodies and in the academic and practitioners area. We will be build on thios for next years conference and we look forward to some announcements very soon on the follow up to the 2014 conference as well as prepa...

The last twenty plus years since the original Rio Earth Summit governments have tried to address interlinkage issue without a huge level of success. In the meantime we have an increase in food insecurity, water insecurity and energy provision. These have become increasingly linked as the pressures of population growth; urbanization and increased prosperity in the emerging economies have and are requiring more of each.   The 2008 economic crisis put into clear focus the link between energy and food as energy costs went up so did food costs. Any new set of goals must take a Nexus approach and ensure they reflect each other under the goals. We use 70% of water for agriculture any goal on water must reflect reducing this as a target and this needs to also be reflected in the agriculture goal as a target. The need for integrated thinking is critical. The work on planetary boundaries which acted as a backdrop to Rio+20 shows we now have some clear limits and so  achieving uni...

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...

The Nexus Conference 2014 (3-7 March) is  gaining  pace Liz Thompson former Barbados Energy and Environment Minister is a confirmed speaker with Adnan Amin  Director General of IRENA and expect additional announcements in the next week.  The agenda was announced a few weeks ago and will have 8 plenary sessions and Nexus dating :-) To help the Advisory Board and Secretariat have come up with some areas that we think would be interesting abstract areas - these are only suggestions but if you are doing work in these areas do submit by November 1st details on how are on the Conference web site. Abstract suggested areas These are suggested areas for possible abstracts. They do not represent what will be chosen but areas that we will be looking at next year in the future. The nexus approach requires systemic thinking and a quest for integrated solutions to guide our decision-making about resource use and development and move to a more sustainable planet...

I find myself in London on my way to Geneva for the launch of the Katerva Sustainability Awards and of course sitting in a café to get away from the London weather. Which by the way reminds me so well why I left London to escape the dark, dreary and rainy days. As I opened my morning’s emails I find two very important emails. The first is the publishing of the much-awaited Canadian Government’s Policy Horizon’s team MetaScan 2: Building Resilience in the Transition to a Digital Economy and a Networked Society Report. The second, also much awaited, is the result of the outcome from Rio+20, to negotiate the setting up of a UN High Level Political Forum, this is to replace the dysfunctional UN Commission on Sustainable Development, and as of yesterday has now been completed. Turning first to the MetaScan 2 Report. I am huge fan of the work of the Policy Horizon foresight team  within the Government of Canada. They have a mandate: “to help anticipate emerging pol...