The 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

An international environmental governance consultation meeting will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 9 September 2010 co-hosted by the Global Environmental Governance Project, the Horn of Africa Regional Environment Centre/Network, and Forum for Environment. Over thirty participants are expected to attend the event, including members of the House of People’s Representatives, ministry officials, civil society organizations, academia, and the private sector.  Negusu Aklilu (pictured left) is Director of the Forum for Environment and one of thirteen Emerging Leaders selected to attend the Global Environmental Governance Forum in the summer of 2009.

Objectives of the event include: to expose participants to the debates on the current international environmental governance system and reform process, to address the effects of the international environmental governance system on developing countries like Ethiopia, and to offer ideas for the next governmental consultation meeting which will take place in November in Helsinki. News from the event will be posted on this website in September.

In order to foster regional civil society dialogue on the IEG reform process currently underway, the Global Environmental Governance Project will be co-sponsoring an event with the Institute of Environmental Public Policy at Peking University in Beijing. On 8 August 2010, an International Environmental Governance Forum 2010 will take place in Beijing to solicit input from and engage civil society on the questions discussed by ministers and high-level representatives in the Belgrade Process. Pingjian Yang, Director of the Institute  of Environmental Public Policy (pictured left) and Ting Xu, faculty at the School of International Relations, at the University of International Economics and Business (pictured right) will lead the event. Pingjian Yang and Ting Xu are two of thirteen Emerging Leaders selected by the Global Environmental Governance Project to attend the 2009 Glion Forum.

The agenda for the Beijing event includes a keynote address from Haibing Zhang, Professor at the School of International Studies at Peking University, several presentations, two panel discussions, and an hour for discussion. Some of the questions that will be posed to Chinese academics, government officials, NGO and business representatives at the Forum include: What is the most urgent thing UNEP needs to do? How can China contribute to international environmental governance? What can UNEP do for China.? For more information about the event, you can write to pku.iopp@gmail.com.

On 10 August 2010, the GEG Project is supporting  an all-day African Regional Consultative Workshop on Global Environmental Governance entitled “Addressing Gaps in the Current IEG System” to be held at the Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. Environmental Management for Livelihood Improvement will host  the event. Lead organizer and Deputy-Executive Director for Environmental Management for Livelihood Improvement, Robert Bakiika (pictured left) is also the African Regional Representative at the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum. On behalf of Africa’s civil society, Robert Bakiika submitted comments on UNEP Executive Director’s Background Paper “Options for Broader Reform of International Environmental Governance.”

The workshop aims to provide a multi-stakeholder platform to exchange information, knowledge and experience on how Africa can formulate effective action on policies, strategies, programs and practices in the ongoing IEG reform process. In addition, the workshop will seek to strengthen the Africa’s presence in the discussions on governance by raising awareness and building consensus. Particularly, the workshop will assess the implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) in Africa and solicit ideas for broader reform of the international system.

The Global Environmental Governance Project recently published a  special issue newsletter, focusing on the political process on reforming governance. The newsletter from the GEG Project is normally produced quarterly, but important recent events in global environmental governance motivate a special issue. The newsletter highlights the intergovernmental process for reform of International Environmental Governance (IEG), which will also feed in to the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD or Rio+2o). There are unique opportunities for civil society and academia in particular to get involved and contribute, for example through a Civil Society Advisory Group on IEG for which members can be nominated until 1 August. The newsletter includes an IEG Reform Timeline and short announcements from the GEG Project and its network. Read the full newsletter here.

Two civil society events on Global Environmental Governance are scheduled to take place in Nepal in August and September 2010. The  Global Environmental Governance Project (with support from the Norwegian government) is sponsoring the events hosted by the Department of Social Work at the Kadambari Memorial College, Purbanchal University Affiliate. Bala Raju Nikku (pictured left), lead event organizer, is Head of the Department of Social Work and one of thirteen Emerging Leaders selected by the GEG Project to attend the 2009 Glion Forum.

The first conference, a one day western regional consultation meeting on Global Environmental Governance will be held in August 2010. Participants will include  civil society representatives, academics, and development practitioners from western, mid, and far western Nepalese regions. The second, the National Consultation Meeting on Global Environmental Governance will be held on 9 September 2010 for an expected 200 academics, media, youth, civil society, and political representatives.

Participants will work in groups based on their interest in the discussion topics: climate change, forests, and water. Both meetings aim to provide input to the ministerial consultations on international environmental governance, encourage young people to become environmental leaders, gain better insights into the GEG system, raise intellectual curiosity on change in human societies, share insights from participation in the GEG Project Glion Forum, foster a national network of young environmental leaders in Nepal and connect with international networks.

At the conclusion of the meetings, the Department of Social Work at the Kadambari Memorial College plans to organize a GEG course to provide an opportunity for young people to learn about the environmental governance system.