Posted By John Elkington
on 28 December, 2009
A reflection by Niall Ferguson in today’s Financial Times on the historical significance of the past decade struck me as particularly apt and insightful. He explores the reasons behind the astonishing – and accelerating – shift to the east in the world’s economic (and, ultimately, political) centre of gravity. In the process, he asks what it was that gave the West its “ascendancy”, through the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the ensuing race around the world, as far as the Antipodes?
His answer is that the West benefited from six “killer apps”. These were: “the capitalist enterprise, the scientific …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 22 December, 2009
I’m back in London after a week in Copenhagen at various climate events. Almost everything climate-related that happened in and around Copenhagen over the past two weeks offers rich pickings for reflection on the changing relationship between democracy and climate change.
As we start work on our project here at the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development on ‘the future of democracy in the face of climate change‘, we’ll be reflecting on the big question: what next?
We’ll be looking, not just at the critically important coming twelve months, but beyond, to 2050 and 2100.
So in this …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 18 December, 2009
In a new paper published on this website, sustainability campaigner Charles Secrett sets out a possible pathway for achieving revolutionary change towards democracy, environmental justice and sustainable development.
As Charles explains: “Currently, we have no visionary text explaining the intersect between (those heavy but crucial concepts) democracy, environmental justice and sustainable development. The task now upon us, as chaos increasingly bites the world over, is to find a development path that can sustain and improve life, without chasing the chimera of perfect answers to all problems.
With no convenient scripture to hand, is there another way to bring about …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 15 December, 2009
Week two of the COP15 climate summit. The outcome remains uncertain. We now post a piece by FDSD Vice-Chair Ian Christie which cautiously welcomes the debate over ‘climategate’.
Meanwhile so-called ‘climate sceptics’ continue to publicise what they suggest amounts to muzzling of their legitimate questions inside the COP15 meeting space, and just one week has passed since Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Vice-Chair Jean-Pascale van Ypersele complained that “[w]e are spending a lot of useless time discussing this rather than spending time preparing information for the negotiators”.
Climategate, Ian argues, teaches us that
1) climate science is not a ‘done …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 4 December, 2009
FDSD has been awarded a ‘Future of Humanity’ grant by US-based Foundation for the Future for a research project on ‘the future of democracy in the face of climate change’.
Future of Humanity grants are awarded following an annual competition for proposals from scholars undertaking research at a macro level that is directly related to better understanding the factors affecting the long-term future of humanity.
The 12-month FDSD project will develop scenarios around the question: “how might democracy and participatory decision-making have evolved to cope with the challenges of climate change by the years 2050 and 2100?”…
Posted By Halina Ward
on 2 December, 2009
[Cross-posted from www.thesamosa.co.uk]
This is a post about terrorism, sustainable development, and the power of diaspora. And it’s a post that asks whether we might find ourselves in a different place now had Osama Bin Laden been poor.
There was a moment, back in September 2001 (but only the days that followed the 11th of the month), when people active in the environment and development movements thought we might, just possibly, be about to have our day.
The common ground for proponents of ‘sustainable development’, which links environment to development concerns, is that as nations and societies we …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 6 November, 2009
The UN Democracy Fund has asked us to post information about a forthcoming funding round for civil society-led work on projects that can advance and support democracy.
We’re happy to do so, in the hope that NGOs based in middle and low income countries will have project ideas that can make advances in getting democracy working for sustainable development.
——————————-
The United Nations Democracy Fund invites civil society organizations to apply for funding
The United Nations Democracy Fund invites civil society organizations to apply for funding for projects to advance and support democracy. Project proposals may be submitted on-line between …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 3 November, 2009
I went to an excellent Sustainable Development Commission/Earthscan panel discussion yesterday afternoon for the launch of Professor Tim Jackson’s new book, “Prosperity without Growth”. Other panelists were Professor Lord Tony Giddens, Jo Swinson MP and Ed Crooks.
The discussion was based on Professor Jackson’s central argument that building a new economic model fit for a low carbon world is ‘the most urgent task of our times’.
There was some discussion at the event about the extent to which getting to this economy ’fit for purpose’ depends on the state of our democracy.
In his book, Professor Jackson argues that “…
Posted By Halina Ward
on 28 October, 2009
When in 2008 the government of Madagascar agreed a deal with Korean Daewoo Logistics for the company to access 1.3million hectares of agricultural land to grow maize and palm oil for export, protests, political crisis and ultimately the fall of the government and the cancellation of the deal followed. Madagascar’s citizens were not consulted.
In this guest post, IIED’s Lorenzo Cotula suggests that the ’land grab’ phenomenon is a key issue of democracy and sustainable development.
——————————————
Over the past year, large-scale land acquisitions for agrifood and biofuel investments in Africa, Asia and Latin America have made headlines …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 9 October, 2009
It’s not very likely that business as usual within the democratic process will deliver sustainable development. So there are great hopes pinned on the English and Welsh Sustainable Communities Act 2007, which entered into force in October 2007.
The Sustainable Communities Act began life as a Private Members Bill which received cross-party support.
The Act is designed to promote the sustainability of local communities. The basic idea is that local authorities who have opted into the Act make proposals which they consider could contribute to promoting the sustainability of local communities. The radical part is that proposals may include …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 7 October, 2009
I came across two interesting new UN documents whilst in New York earlier this week. Both are dated September 11th 2009; 9/11.
The first is a Guidance Note of the Secretary General on the United Nations Approach to Democracy. This has emerged out of consultations within the Inter-Agency Working Group on Democracy of the Executive Committee on Peace and Security, and sets out ‘the United Nations framework for democracy’.
The second document is an ‘advanced unedited copy’ Report of the Secretary General on climate change and its possible security implications. The summary of the latter identifies ‘democratic governance’ as …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 6 October, 2009
Conversations in the US this week have prompted me to reflect on the potential for the idea of the ‘consumer-citizen’ to drive democratic innovation for sustainable development.
The Consumer Citizenship Network describes a ‘consumer citizen’ as “an individual who makes choices based on ethical, social, economic and ecological considerations. The consumer citizen actively contributes to the maintenance of just and sustainable development by caring and acting responsibly on family, national and global levels”.
Alternatively, in a 2006 paper, Martin Powell, Shane Doheny and Ian Greene describe another approach in which the citizen is understood as a consumer of public …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 15 September, 2009
FOUNDATION FOR DEMOCRACY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
PRESS RELEASE
Climate Policy could threaten democratic freedoms, warns NGO
EMBARGOED TO 00:01 GMT, 15th September 2009
In an open letter to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon published on their new website today, the second International Day of Democracy, UK-based non-governmental organisation the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development (FDSD) warn that unless governments step up immediate efforts to tackle climate change, the result could be significant incursions into future democratic freedoms.
As the UN and supporting organisations around the world celebrate democracy today, they know that there are some formidable environmental and natural …
Posted By John Elkington
on 11 September, 2009
The Environment Foundation – now the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development – originated in the world of insurance, as perhaps the City of London’s first major environmental initiative. The core funding came from a levy on environmental impairment insurance policies, a market which proved to be highly problematic, particularly after the introduction of the ‘Superfund’ legislation in the USA. It’s an extraordinary fact that some 20% of the losses that almost brought the Lloyds insurance market to its knees related to such policies – and to the losses incurred in underwriting risks linked to such issues as asbestosis, contaminated …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 10 September, 2009
One common question in our work is ‘what sorts of changes could help to get democracy working for sustainable development? Give me some examples’.
One answer is to point to existing examples of innovations designed to help parliaments to integrate long-term thinking into their decisions.
There are three examples and one idea that I want to highlight here.
In Israel, the Knesset passed legislation to enable the creation of a Commission for Future Generations, a non-political entity which operated from 2001 until 2006.
The Commission’s functions lay in four areas: providing opinions on bills, secondary legislation and regulation of …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 5 September, 2009
We want to open our Blog to invited guest bloggers, and we’re pleased to post below a first contribution from Alejandro Litovsky, who heads the Pathways to Scale programme with our friends at Volans.
You can also find Alejandro’s post on the Volans website, here.
————————————–
‘Radical’ is not the word that is most often used to describe the European Commission’s President, Jose Manuel Barroso. Over the last two years, his efforts to align European countries behind ambitious climate targets have run into the inevitable stalemate and compromise.
But as Barroso unveils his new ‘manifesto’, intended to …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 30 August, 2009
Climate change presents the biggest challenge to democracy of any in the burgeoning list of environmental and social pressures. And there is already a body of evidence that climate change is shaping democracy. Climate Camp offers some examples.
Earlier this year, I went to a Climate Camp meeting in London. In the wake of the London G20 protests, I was interested to learn more about Climate Camp, but also casting about for inspiration for work on “direct action, democracy and sustainable development”. Please comment if you have ideas on that.
I asked one of the climate campers what we could …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 24 August, 2009
Democracy within countries doesn’t only come from electorates and citizens at national or local level. Sometimes in our globalised world the course of democratisation can be directed from the outside, by international agencies, foreign governments, or bilateral or multilateral development cooperation agencies. Whether this is inherently a good or a bad thing depends in large part on context and on distribution of power and influence.
One need only think of the process of democratisation by means of the war in Iraq, and the ongoing role of occupying forces in supporting the democratically elected government, to trigger reflection on the rights …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 23 August, 2009
In the US, opposition to the Climate Bill has shown just how hard it can be to get popular support for much-needed measures to put economies on track to head off the worst effects of climate change.
The US model of democracy within which President Obama must work is itself partly to blame. As a recent op-ed from the UK Observer Newspaper suggests:
“The structure of the US Senate makes the passage of complex legislation difficult… One hundred senators have the power to halt legislation…
…Last week in Houston, 3,500 people, many of them energy industry workers, attended an anti-climate …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 7 August, 2009
Democracy finds it difficult to deliver robust and clear choices about whether to pursue ‘net’ sustainable development at local or at national level. The UK government’s promotion of ‘eco-towns’ is a case in point.
Opposition to eco-towns is far more significant in sustainable development policy terms than simple nimbyism (‘not in my back yard’ thinking on the part of local people). It reflects different views on how to operationalise sustainable development – and who should have responsibility for what.
My recent visit to one community included in the shortlisted eco-town proposal near St Austell, Cornwall, illustrates this.
The idea of …
