Governance the Key to SDG Success

Governance the Key to SDG Success

The UN: success of Sustainable Development goals depends very much on process. Image: number10gov/flickr, CC BY-NC James Patterson, Florian Koch, and Kathryn Bowen have written an article examining key governance issues underpinning the success of the UN’s...
Sustainable Development Goal 16: Governance

Sustainable Development Goal 16: Governance

You’re probably familiar with the United Nation’s (UN)Millenium Development Goals (MDG), adopted in 2000, for improving well being for the world’s poorest. They carried the tagline, “we can end poverty.” It’s estimated that roughly 40% of the eight goals, listed at...
Citizen Science

Citizen Science

One avenue toward democratizing sustainable development is to engage more people in the science of sustainability. An example is The Open Air Laboratories (OPAL) network, led by Imperial College London. OPAL engages people through science-based activities that can be...
Democracy and a Better Planning System

Democracy and a Better Planning System

“There remains a democratic deficit within planning.” -Five Radical Ideas for a Better Planning System A group at University College London’s Bartlett School of Planning, led by Professor Yvonne Rydin, has proposed five radical ideas for better planning, with two...
First ever Environmental Democracy Index

First ever Environmental Democracy Index

The Access Initiative and the World Resources Institute are launching the first ever Environmental Democracy Index (EDI) on May 20th. EDI is the first index to measure how well countries’ national laws protect environmental democracy rights, namely, the right of the...
The State of Europe’s Environment

The State of Europe’s Environment

In March the European Environment Agency  published its State and Outlook Environment Report (SOER) 2015 (available here). The report highlights innovations in governance needed for long term sustainability. In addition, a section of the SOER website highlights global...
Our foreign pollution from imported goods

Our foreign pollution from imported goods

How should we account for the fact that a great deal of environmental damage associated with one’s own country actually occurs overseas? For example, Chinese manufacturers making our shoes, electronics and bicycles emit a lot of carbon on our behalf. Are...
New online tools

New online tools

Recently Techpresident has covered a couple of new online tools that might be applicable to people working in democracy and sustainable development. The first tool is The People’s Lobby, which is a process for structuring citizen participation to make it more...
A Carbon Tax on Me

A Carbon Tax on Me

No taxation without representation, right? So one way of guaranteeing a carbon tax is to impose one on yourself. That’s just what David Lawrence did and he tells the story over on The Energy Collective in his article “a Carbon tax on me: one person’s story of a...
Board Member News: Graham Smith

Board Member News: Graham Smith

FDSD Board Member, Graham Smith, spoke at several events recently. In Paris he contributed to the UNDESA/UNESCO Expert Group Meeting ‘Formal/Informal Institutions for Citizen Engagement for implementing the Post 2015 Development Agenda’ from 20-21 October 2014. He...