New publication
8 April 2012

Co-chair's summary from seminar on Scaling up Biodiversity Financing

The Co-chairs' summary from the dialogue seminar "Scaling up Biodiversity Financing" is now ready and available for download and further distribution. The report summarizes the presentations as well as group and plenary discussions.

The aim of the seminar was to provide opportunity for understanding both convergences and divergences on the controversial issues around biodiversity financing, and in particular, the role of "innovative" market mechanisms.

The Co-chair's summary shows a surprising degree of convergence in perspectives on the importance of fiscal reform and public finance mechanisms, and a recognition of the limited scope and risks with an overoptimistic reliance on new "markets". The "Co-chairs' Summary" of the meeting will serve as an "INF" document to the formal CBD negotiations both at the Working Group on the Review of Implementation (WGRI-4) meeting in Montreal in May 2012, and at COP 11 in Hyderabad, October 2012.

Niclas Hällström of What Next Forum collaborated with Swedbio throughout the process, and helped out with the report.

Recent seminar

Scaling up biodiversity finance

6-9 March, 2012, Quito, Ecuador

A dialogue seminar on "Scaling up Biodiversity Finance" was organized by The Resilience and Development programme at Stockholm Resilience Centre (Swedbio), 6-9 March, with the Secretariat for the Convention on Biological Diversity and five countries (Ecuador, India, Japan, Norway and Sweden) as formal conveners.

What Next Forum contributed in a contracted support function to help out with the planning, seminar methodology, programme development, technical assistance (website design and maintenance and documentation), and drafting/editing of the seminar report.

Around 80 representatives of governments, including key CBD negotiators, researchers, indigenous peoples representatives, civil society organizations and social movements, and UN representatives participated in the four-day long meeting.

Check out the seminar website with a compilation of 30 powerpoint presentations and lots of reading material. The website has the ambition to function as a growing resource/literature hub for biodiversity financing material.

Click here for photos from the seminar.

Click here for a slideshow from the seminar.

Recent seminar

Globally Funded Feed-in Tariffs at COP17

28 Nov - 9 Dec 2011, Duban, South Africa

Niclas Hällström participated at the COP17 negotiations in Durban representing both the What Next Forum, as well as working on behalf of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC). One of the main purposes was to highlight and stimulate discussions around the idea of Globally Funded Feed-in Tariffs.

On 4 December, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation organized, together with the International Network for Sustainable Energy (INFORSE) and Helio International, the side event "Renewable Energy Policies: Climate resilience, Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction". Niclas Hällström, What Next Forum, presented on behalf of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.

Link to side event presentation as pdf to the left.

In Durban, a new Friends of the Earth publication, "Reclaiming Power: An energy model for People and Planet" was launched and discussed at various workshops and meetings around COP17. The publication presents a framework which departs from the need to tackle energy access in an equitable and participatory manner, and presents how a model of globally funded feed-in tariffs with institutions and governance structures to ensure local ownership and bottom-up approaches could look like. The publication was co-authored by What Next Forum.

Recent event

Photos and analysis from COP17 inDurban

28 Nov - 9 Dec 2011, Duban, South Africa

Check out lots of photos and slideshows from both the negotiations and the demonstrations at the What Next Forum Photo pages.

Collection of analysis and commentaries on what really happened in Durban at the Climatewatch pages:

New publication

Rio+20 Challenge paper: Energy resources and services – Achieving universal access to energy and a low carbon, high well-being economy

By Viki Johnson and Niclas Hällström

This Rio +20 Challenge paper was written jointly by Victoria Johnson, New Economics Foundation and Niclas Hällström, What Next Forum as input to the Rio +20 process. The paper is one in a number of Challenge papers published by the Global Transition 2012 initiative – a joint collaboration between the New Economics Foundation, Stakeholder Forum and New Economics Institute.

The paper discusses a number of challenges to energy and development, and presents the idea of globally funded feed-in tariffs as a significant part of a solution.

Download the Challenge paper in pdf-format.
Link to overview with all the Challenge papers.

Past roundtable seminar

What Next? Geo-engineering, nanotechnology, synthetic biology: The case for international technology assessment at Rio +20

Pat Mooney
14 Oct 2011, 9.30-12.00, Stallet, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm

This roundtable discussion with Pat Mooney was organized jointly by the What Next Forum and The Resilience and Development Programme (SwedBio) at Stockholm Resilience Centre.

All together 19 persons, with backgrounds in civil society, the Swedish Ministry for Environment, the Swedish EPA, the research community and sustainable development consultancy participated in a rich discussion, initiated and inspired by an overview by Mooney.

The discussions provided a strong case for establishing an international mechanism for technology assessment, something Sweden could take a lead in promoting as an outcome of the Rio +20 summit in June 2012.

Download the Invitation to the seminar as pdf
Download "Why Technology Assessment" (3 pages) as pdf

Check out ETC Group publications on geopiracy, nanotechnology
and synthetic biology!

Introduction and welcome Pat's initial presentation and comments by Anders Wijkman Q and A and discussion

Past open lecture

What Next? The World in 2035: Erosion, Technological Transformation and Corporate Concentration - or Alternatives?

Pat Mooney
12 Oct 2011, 15.00-17.00, Bertil Hammer lecture hall, Blåsenhus, von Kraemers Allé 1, Uppsala

The What Next Forum and Centre for Environment and Development Studies (Cemus) jointly organized an open lecture with Pat Mooney, one of the most prophetic analysts of future trends, as well as one of the most effective scholar-activists and shapers of global policy.

In the lecture, Pat shared a 30-year perspective on the future – both worrisome business-as-usual scenarios and more hopeful alternative trajectories.

Invitation in pdf-format.
Pat's presentation + Q&A

New seminar report

The crisis of Antibiotic Resistance: Collaboration for innovation

Report from full-day seminar tackling the growing crisis of antibiotic resistance, and specifically the lack of innovation of new antibiotics, held in Brussels by the international network Action on Antibiotic Resistance (ReAct) on 23 May 2011. The seminar explicitly served the current EU Commission policy making process in this area.

Niclas Hällström, What Next Forum, helped prepare the multi-stakeholder process, moderated the seminar and drafted and edited the report.

The seminar focused attention on the significant scientific bottlenecks and concluded that new, open collaborative forms of innovation are crucial.

Link to the ReAct website with more information about the seminar. Download a pdf-version of the report.

Past seminar

China's Action on Climate Change and Possibilities for EU-China Collaboration

Dale Jiajun Wen
6 Sept 2011, 13.30-15.30, Fjällgatan 23B, Stockholm

What is China doing to tackle climate change?
What has the massive blaming of China since the Copenhagen summit meant?
What are reasonable demands on China? What does China need to do to to move towards a sustainable society?
What are opportunities for improved cooperation between EU and China to reach breakthroughs in the international climate negotiations?

These and other critical issues were presented and discussed at an afternoon seminar with Dr Dale Jiajun Wen on Tuesday 6 September.

Former MEP Anders Wijkman kicked off the discussion session where the new Green Party spokesperson Åsa Romson, former UN Head of Legal Affairs Hans Corell and Karl Hallding, SEI China Expert among others took part in the roundtable discussion.

Dale Wen's powerpoint presentation

Invitation in pdf-format

Letters from Chinese scholar-activists to the Chinese and US governments.

Past seminars

Gender and sustainable livelihoods

29 Aug-1 Sept 2011, Bolsena, Italy

A three-day retreat/seminar with authors of a book project on gender and sustainable livelihoods coordinated by Wendy Harcourt, editor of the journal Development (and newly appointed professor of Social Policy at the Institute of Social Scince, Hague) and Josie Stremmelaar, Hivos. The meeting was held at the incredible scholar-activist-art collective Convento S. Maria del Giglio in Bolsena, Italy – a stunningly beautiful, old monastery overlooking a crater lake.

Niclas Hällström, What Next Forum participated as discussant to comment and reflect on the book chapters, linking this work to the What Next Feminist Political Ecology process that was initiated by Wendy Harcourt and the What Next project some years ago.

Look out for the new book which will be published by Palgrave, just in time for the Rio +20 summit in June next year!

Past seminar

The crisis of Antibiotic Resistance: Collaboration for innovation

23 May 2011, Brussels

A full-day seminar tackling the growing crisis of antibiotic resistance, and specifically the lack of innovation of new antibiotics, was held in Brussels by the international network Action on Antibiotic Resistance (ReAct) on 23 May 2011. The seminar explicitly served the current EU policy making process in this area.

Niclas Hällström, What Next Forum, helped prepare the multi-stakeholder process and moderated the seminar.

The seminar focused attention on the significant scientific bottlenecks and concluded that new, open collaborative forms of innovation are crucial.

Link to the ReAct website with more information about the seminar.

Click on the image above for a What Next mindmap outlining the key issues discussed at the seminar.

Past seminar

Global feed-in tariffs for climate and development

Tariq Banuri, Sunita Narain
16 May 2011, Stockholm

An afternoon seminar exploring the idea to explicitly and simultaneously tackle, through a global system of feed-in tariffs for renewable energy, the need for drastic reductions of greenhouse gas emissions as well as the need for billions of poor people to gain access to more affordable energy.

At the seminar Tariq Banuri, Director of the Division for Sustainable Development, UN and Sunita Narain, Director, Centre for Science and Environment, India presented the idea and shared relevant experiences from the ground.

Around 20 people participated in the roundtable discussion, including Ambassador Staffan Tillander, then Head of the Swedish Climate Delegation. In order for this promising scheme to take off, a few countries such as Sweden should take the lead and set up a pilot project.

Invitation/background

Relevant material

Programme

Presentation by Niclas Hällström,
What Next Forum

Presentation by Tariq Banuri, UN-DESA

Past seminar

The Great Denial

Johan Rockström and Anders Wijkman
2 May 2011, Uppsala

Event co-organised with the Center for Enviornment and Development (Cemus) at Uppsala University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)

Lecture by Anders Wijkman and Johan Rockström. Anders Wijkman, adviser at the Tällberg foundation and Stockholm Environmental Institute and Johan Rockström, Professor and Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre and Stockholm Environmental Institute, presented their recent book "Den store förnekelsen" ("The Great Denial").

General discussions initiated by reflections by Kerstin Sahlin, Deputy VIce Chancellor of Uppsala University and Professor of Business Administration and Marie Kvarnström, Swedish Biodiversity Centre (CBM) at SLU.

Moderation by Niclas Hällström, What Next Forum.

You Tube excerpt from the lecture here.