by Ann Thorpe | Jul 25, 2015 | News and Comment
Felix Dodd has blogged about this new book, Governance for Sustainable Development, that collects the best insights from three recent workshops held by the “Group of Friends of the Governance for Sustainable Development” that was created to help prepare the Rio + 20...
by Ann Thorpe | Jun 20, 2015 | News and Comment
The group 10:10 “is about doing practical stuff that helps solve climate change” and has a particular interest in community energy. In 2013 the group helped set up a renewable energy co-op in Balcombe, refocusing a “fracking village” around solar power. The Back...
by Ann Thorpe | Jun 12, 2015 | News and Comment
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...
by Ann Thorpe | May 25, 2015 | News and Comment
“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...
by Ann Thorpe | May 16, 2015
A right to know, a right to be heard, a right to access justice The Access Initiative and the World Resources Institute will launch the first ever Environmental Democracy Index (EDI) on May 20th at the National Press Club. Speakers Avi Garbow (Keynote...
by Ann Thorpe | May 16, 2015 | News and Comment
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...
by Andrea Westall | Apr 26, 2015
Climate Knowledge Brokers (CKB) Group is an emerging alliance of leading global, regional and national knowledge brokers specialising in climate and development information. They launched a Manifesto on September 17th 2015, to better acknowledge the critical role of...
by Ann Thorpe | Apr 21, 2015 | News and Comment
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...
by Ann Thorpe | Jan 6, 2015 | News and Comment
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...
by Andrea Westall | Dec 20, 2014
Carbon Conversations “offer a supportive group experience that helps people halve their personal carbon footprint through facilitated discussions.” The Surefoot Effect, a community interest company, manages the Carbon Conversations programme. It also delivers...
by Andrea Westall | Oct 20, 2014
The Citizens Panel on Edmonton’s Energy and Climate Challenges was organised by Alberta Climate Dialogue (ABCD) and the Centre for Public Involvement (CPI) and included 60 residents who met for 3 months using deliberative techniques to offer their advice and feedback...
by Andrea Westall | Oct 20, 2014
World Wide Views on Global Warming (WWWViews) aimed to involve the world’s citizens in global policy-making by bringing together 4000 citizens in 38 countries to deliberate for a day on the 2009 UN climate change negotiations. The ideas were pulled together into...
by Andrea Westall | Oct 20, 2014
The Aarhus Convention (UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters) has been ratified by 46 countries and the EU. It is rights-based, enabling current and future people to access...
by Andrea Westall | Aug 28, 2014
FDSD submitted a response on 1st September 2015 to the Environmental Audit Committee’s consultation on The Government’s Approach to Sustainable Development. The EAC’s consultation aims to stocktake the current UK Government approach to sustainable...
by Ann Thorpe | May 7, 2014
7 May 2015 Policy Dialogue: “Reconciling Democratic Governance and Sustainability: Trends and Remedies”, Oslo, May 2015; organized by Partnership for Change (PfC). This Policy Dialogue will be focused on Next Generation Democracy (NGD) track III (‘Resources and...
by Ann Thorpe | Apr 24, 2014
9th International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change 24th-30th April 2015, Nairobi, Kenya The conference theme for this year’s International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation (CBA9) is ‘Measuring and enhancing effective...
by Andrea Westall | Oct 21, 2012
Halina Ward argues that a core challenge is to balance national strategic priority-setting with local community engagement. Using the example of on-shore windfarms, she sets out the questions that need answering: what processes of deliberation?, how far can local...
by Andrea Westall | Jun 15, 2012
FDSD co-organised a workshop session in Rio de Janeiro as part of a two-day event Fair ideas: sharing solutions for a sustainable planet hosted by IIED and the Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC) The event was held at the (PUC) together with The...
by Andrea Westall | Jan 21, 2012
The Future of Democracy in the Face of Climate Change was a piece of research which ran from late 2009 to early 2012. It resulted in five reports which explore the question of: How might democracy and participatory decision-making have evolved to cope with the...
by Andrea Westall | Feb 21, 2008
Sara Parkin asks: Are political parties still relevant? She answers that they are: “at best, a diversion from the main business of democracy—to provide a system which enables us to do things together in a way that we are proud of and happy to be involved with”. Sara...
