Kategorie: Allgemein

The proof of the haggis: Making sense of the Glasgow climate change conference

Photo: Clyde Arc Bridge in Glasgow, The UK hosted the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow on 31 October – 13 November 2021 Photo by Craig McKay on Unsplash

The Scottish national dish of haggis warrants the attribute of an acquired taste. The notion of a sheep’s stomach primarily filled with offal of the same ruminant sounds repulsive to many while connoisseurs praise its savoury flavour. Either way, delivering a haggis makes for an inscrutable mess. Much the same can be said of the outcome of “COP26”, the 26th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which convened in the Scottish city of Glasgow under the presidency of the United Kingdom. It also was the first such meeting after the COVID-19 imposed hiatus of 2020 – eagerly awaited to get global climate governance back on track and to boost the implementation of the Paris Agreement of 2015.

Pandemic – Crystallising the need and challenges for policy advice

Photo: Stetoscope and Notebook

Bild by StockSnap / Pixabay

With a global pandemic like COVID-19, there is an obvious need for policy makers to get experts‘ input to take decisions. The slogan used during the Brexit campaign that „people are tired of experts“ never sounded hollower than currently.

A pandemic is a very clear case for evidence as a basis for political decisions. Obviously, virologists are needed to address these questions and communicate what they know. This is a time with very vivid illustrations for the need for and the workings of evidence-informed policy making: We need evidence and experiences, from multiple perspectives and we need to put things into local contexts; and we certainly operate based on our value-systems.

Multilateral cooperation in times of populism: Lessons from the Paris climate negotiations

Photo: Bridge of stacked stones as a symbol for international cooperation and multilateralism ©shutterstock_180430298

In times of a global rise of right-wing populism, multilateral cooperation is under attack and with that international agreements. Against this backdrop, it might be fruitful to have a closer look at the success factors behind multilateral cooperation and assess whether they could also work vis-à-vis populist governments, especially with regard to the Paris climate negotiations.

“Total Official Support for Sustainable Development” (TOSSD): It is time to get South-South cooperation providers on board

Münzenstapel mit Erde und Sprösslingen

©Shutterstock_1454695946

In September, the UN General Assembly’s High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development met to discuss how to fund the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – four years after the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was set. The world community already acknowledged the role of non-traditional funding, namely South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation in Busan in 2011. With the new ambitious 2030 Agenda, funding became ever more crucial. The UN estimates that the funding gap for achieving the SDGs amounts to 2.5 trillion USD every year. The 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda therefore called not only for increasing Official Development Assistance (ODA) but also for mobilizing other public and private resources that go beyond ODA. To build a picture of the total funds channeled for development assistance, in 2014, the OECD started developing a new international measurement framework to cover a more comprehensive range of development finance, the “Total Official Support for Sustainable Development” (TOSSD) measure. TOSSD is due to be finalized next year. Now is the time to make sure that TOSSD can fulfil its potential to provide a more complete picture of development finance from all contributors not only from the Global North but also from the Global South.…

What momentum has the G7 given to sustainable development?

The G7 is a strange exercise: while this club of “historic” powers created in 1975 represents around 45% of global GDP, it is no longer representative of current international power relations, with the main “emerging” countries (China, India and Brazil) being absent. The French Presidency has nevertheless succeeded in keeping the international community’s attention on…