This webinar will be the third in a series of webinars in celebration of the 15th anniversary of the Earth Charter. We will be joined by Ashok Khosla, Chair of the Board of Development Alternatives, Co-chair of the NGO Forum at the 1992 Earth Summit, former President of the World Conservation Union, and co-president of the Club of Rome.
At the end of September 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals will be agreed to by heads of state at the UN in New York. These goals will set the global development agenda for the next 15 years. It is remarkable and a great success that since the launch of the Earth Charter, Sustainable Development has gone from being an alternative movement to the dominant development paradigm on planet Earth. The Earth Charter has played its role in this ascendance, but it is certain that the strength of the SDGs will not be as strong as the Earth Charter standards for sustainable development.
This webinar will analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed SDGs from an Earth Charter perspective. Guest speakers with strong knowledge of the Earth Charter and the SDG process will offer their respective thoughts on the SDGs through the Earth Charter lens, provide criticism, show strengths, and make recommendations for improving the proposed SDGs. More specifically, the speakers will look at the SDGs through the third pillar of the Earth Charter on Social and Economic Justice. Poverty eradication is the first SDG, highlighting the predominance of social and economic thinking in the SDGs. The speakers will look through this lens of the Earth Charter at the strengths and weaknesses of the SDG platform.
Following the speakers’ interventions, there will be a question and answer, as well as a back and forth discussion between the participants.
The webinar will take place on September 22nd, 2015 at 14:00 UTC, 10AM New York time, 4PM in Paris, and 7:30PM in Delhi.
Join the webinar through the following link.
http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/3084464-social-and-economic-justice-the-earth-charter-and-the-sustainable-dev
If you want to participate, make sure your computer meets system requirements:
http://www.wiziq.com/info/technical-requirement.aspx
Guest Speaker: Dr. Ashok Khosla founded and was president of the thirty-year-old Development Alternatives Group and now chairs its Board. Headquartered in New Delhi, the DA Group was among the first civil society organizations set up to address the issues of sustainable development as a whole. It also pioneered the concept of social enterprise, creating business-like approaches for eradicating poverty and conserving the natural resource base.
Currently, Dr. Khosla was president of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), co-president of the Club of Rome, and co-chair of the Resource Panel, which has been set up by UNEP to investigate the status and trends of natural resource use in the global economy. He has served as Special Advisor to the Brundtland Commission (WCED), Co-chair of the ‘92 NGO Forum at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and has served on the Boards of several environment and conservation organizations, including Chair of the Centre for Our Common Future, the Club of Rome, and Energy Globe.