Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

Youth with UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the 2019 Climate Change Summit, Luis Alfonso de Alba  Maria Auma is from Uganda and runs BLI Global that focuses on fundraising into development projects. She is an active YOUNGO BLT member and IUCN CEC member. You can meet her at the upcoming SG summit with a salted caramel mocha in tow.  The High Level Political Forum known publicly as HLPF is one of those UN sessions that you have to attend to appreciate. With the hundreds of side events spewing out your ears, you cannot fail to find one way or other to have your days and evenings fully occupied. I suppose like every other event, it always pays to be prepared. So knowing beforehand (and here I mean, before you travel to NYC), which events and sessions will be most beneficial to you will help make your time at the UN more worthwhile, and avoid that sense of dissatisfaction with the way things are generally done. A friend once told me that the UN system is designed t...

A revolution is coming — a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough — But a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability.”  Robert Kennedy, 1966 Can be watched here. This book represents Felix Dodds 18th his collaborators for this one was Jan-Gustav Strandenaes, Carolina Duque Chopitea, Minu Hemmati, Susanne Salz, Bernd Lakemeier, Laura Schmitz, and Jana Borkenhagen. The book was launched on the 11th of July at the United Nations Bookshop in New York Felix Dodds a former Executive Director of the UK Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future (1992-2012)  said: “We are in difficult times when governments are no longer trusted and at the same time need to take difficult decisions on issues like addressing climate change, the massive wave of new technologies that are coming in the next ten years and t...

Sean Southey, Chair, IUCN Commission on Education and Communication   The High-Level Political Forum had a great event held by the International Coalition for Working Equids (ICWE)  at the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza on Tuesday 16th of July. There was a display of some of the work of the ICWE coalition, materials to take away and a chance to chat with the members of the coalition. It is comprised of leading working animal NGOs Brooke , The Donkey Sanctuary , SPANA , and World Horse Welfare The event highlighted issues such as there are An estimated 200 million working animals are essential to the livelihoods of some of the poorest communities worldwide. The traditional beasts of burden, their socioeconomic value and hardworking traits are often taken for granted, without realising the long-term benefits of ensuring better health and welfare for these animals. Ian Cawsey Chair of ICWE It promoted the role of working animals in issues such as S DG 8 - Decent work and ...

The Government of Malta, through the Ministry for Tourism, has just agreed with SUNx (Strong Universal Network) to take the lead in a global effort aimed at converting the threat of global climate change into an opportunity. The Global Centre for Climate Friendly Travel will launch a set of actions and opportunities to address this threat from the travel industry perspective. Minister for Tourism Konrad Mizzi said that, "there is growing international consensus for a strong shift from talk to action. This is amply evidenced by the political action of the EU in raising the stakes these past few weeks by announcing the allocation of 1 in every 4 euro of the next budget to climate resilience. This initiative will put Malta at the forefront of this change in creating more climate-friendly travel. We will become the home of SUNx – the Strong Universal Network – a global centre for Climate Friendly Travel following the targets of the Paris Agreement set in 2015." In collabor...

The Way Forward: Beyond Agenda 21 was first published in 1997 and was the second book I edited. This was in 1997 which marked the fifth anniversary of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development - the celebrated ‘Earth Summit’ in Rio de Janeiro which represented the high-water mark of intergovernmental action for sustainable development. It has been just republished as part of Routledge's Libary Editions - this is Volume 3 int he series. The volumes in this set, originally published between 1988 and 1997, draw together research by leading academics in the area of sustainability and provides a rigorous examination of related key issues. The volumes examine environmental policy and plans for a sustainable future. This set will be of particular interest to students of Environmental Studies. Whilst some were tempted to dismiss the Earth Summit as a gesture of concern by the participating governments, the list of resolutions  and conventions which arose from...

The UNGA on the 28th of June has agreed that there will be to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development at a half-day, a high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly during its seventy-third session, in the afternoon session of 16 July, to be held in the General Assembly Hall. The event will happen at the beginning of the High-level Segment of the High-Level Political Forum. The President of the General Assembly, in a timely manner, to draw up a list of other representatives of relevant non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, academic institutions and the private sector who may attend the high-level plenary meeting, taking into account the principles of transparency and of equitable geographical representation, and with due regard to the meaningful participation of women, and to submit the list to Member States for their consideration on a non-objection basis. The announcement reminded me of an art...