Fostering the Governance Dialogue

An interview with GEG Project Director Maria Ivanova on Engaging Civil Society in Global Environmental Governance was recently published on The New Security Beat, a blog maintained by the staff of the Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) at the Woodrow Wilson Center. A momentum has started to build behind the idea of global environmental governance, much thanks to the involvement of various civil society groups and the dialogue between environmental policy makers and academia. Civil society have demanded a more substantial role in the design and execution of environmental policy, and there are signs that environmental leaders at the international level are listening. Read the full interview with Maria Ivanova on the future prospects for GEG, Rio+20 and how the environment-development dicothomy can be reframed through bold leadership and a mobilized civil society.

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) is preparing for its annual conference, which in 2010 will be on the theme Campus Initiatives to Catalyze a Just and Sustainable World. The conference will take place on 10 October in the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, USA and will be the largest campus sustainability conference in North America. Registration is open until 24 September or until passes are sold out. AASHE’s mission is to empower higher education to lead the sustainability transformation. The conference will stimulate thousands of conversations on the topic with great networking opportunities for all attendees.

If you are interested in the UNEP political process for reform of International Environmental Governance (IEG), you are welcome to nominate yourself or someone else to be part of the Civil Society Advisory Group on IEG. UNEP will accept nominations until 15 August 2010. To apply, read the Terms of Reference: TORmgIEG, then fill in your Nominee Motivation Form and submit the form and a CV to civil.society@unep.org. Please copy info@environmentalgovernance.org. The call for applications with instructions can be read here, and you can learn more about the political process on reforming governance in the special edition newsletter from the GEG Project here.

A new panel on global sustainability has been formed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The panel has the task to think big and come up with a blueprint for a more livable, prosperous and sustainable future for all, by finding ways to address intertwined challenges such as climate change and poverty eradication. The panel will come up with practical solutions for how to enhance resilience and make economic development environmentally friendly, including addressing necessary institutional and financial arrangements in global governance.

The panel, co-chaired by two presidents, Tarja Halonen of Finland and Jacob Zuma of South Africa, has 21 members in total with governments, the private sector, and civil society represented, including many high-profile participants such as former and current heads of state and ministers from both developed and developing countries. The full list of names and more information about the panel can be found in an article from the UN News Centre.

A final report by the panel is scheduled for delivery in the end of 2011, which means the findings will come in time to feed in to the UNFCCC COP17 in South Africa and the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD or Rio+20) in Rio de Janeiro.

Do you know of an innovative and groundbreaking grassroots project with socio-environmental impacts in emerging or developing countries, which fits in under the theme ‘Forests for People, Forests for Green Growth’? Then you have the opportunity to submit a nomiation for the 2011 UNEP Sasakawa Prize.

For more than 20 years, outstanding individuals and organizations have been recognized and awarded the UNEP Sasakawa Prize for significant contributions to environmental protection and sustainable development.

The theme of the prize this time has been chosen in support of 2011 as the International Year of the Forests. The winner will receive a $200,000 cash prize in an Awards Ceremony and Reception to be held in conjunction with the UNEP Governing Council in February 2011.

UNEP is accepting nominations until 30 September 2010. For more information, please visit www.unep.org/sasakawa