Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

  White House release: The Historic Action Plan Elevates Water Security as Foreign Policy Priority More than two billion people today lack access to safely managed drinking water, and nearly half the world’s population lacks access to safely managed sanitation services. An accelerating climate crisis will increase pressure on water resources during this decade, and half the world’s population is expected to face severe water stress by 2030. Water insecurity threatens lives and livelihoods and can lead to popular unrest and population movements. These conditions can undermine states and governments—particularly those that are already experiencing weak state capacity or legitimacy. In response to this growing challenge, Vice President Harris is announcing the launch of the first-of-its-kind White House Action Plan on Global Water Security, which outlines an innovative approach to advancing water security at home and abroad. This plan identifies the direct links between water and U.S....

Building Integrated Approaches into the Sustainable Development Goals A Declaration from the Nexus 2014: Water, Food, Climate and Energy Conference in the name of the Co-directors held at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, March 5 th to 8 th 2014 Submitted to the UN Secretary-General, the President of the UN General Assembly and the Co-chairs of the Sustainable Development Goals Open Working Group on the 26th of March, 2014 Dear Friends and Colleagues, Some 300 delegates from 33 countries representing governments, intergovernmental organizations, academic institutions, companies, environmental and development organizations and other stakeholders met at an internationally supported [1] conference at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from March 5 th to 8 th 2014 to explore how addressing interlinkages and an intersectoral approach can enable stakeholders to further the post-2015 agenda and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals c...

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...

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...

The summer has been a great time to start filling out what the agenda for the Nexus 2014: Climate-Water-Food-Energy Conference (3-7th March in Chapel Hill North Carolina). We have our first confirmed speaker the Adnan Amin the Executive Director of the International Renewable Energy Authority (IRENA). For those who do not know Adnan he has made considerable contribution to sustainable development over a career that has seen him direct UNEPs New York operations, head the secretariat for the UN Secretary Generals’ High Level Panel on System Wide Coherence which was one of the most successful Panels of the last two years and head the secretariat for the UN Secretary Generals Chief Executive Board (UN Cabinet). “In an increasingly resource-constrained world, there is a compelling case for decision makers to consider the interconnections between water, energy, food and climate – the Nexus. The nexus perspective increases the understanding of these interdepende...