The  issue, “The Future We Want,” features an interview with Gus O’Donnell, an economist and former British Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service. It also offers a compilation of articles by world renowned experts including Van Jones, Bill McKibben, Frankie Moore Lappe, David Orr , Peter Senge, Hunter Lovins, Jigmi Y. Thinley, Royal Government of Bhutan the Prime Minister of Bhutan and Gus Speth. Their contributions describe solutions for reaching a more sustainable and desirable future.

Speth participated in the GEG Project’s Glion Forum and moderated the reunion of all five successive Executive Directors.

Individual and institutional subscriptions to Solutions are available here.

A new study report published in the journal ‘PLoS One’ on May 15, 2012 authored by Uttam Babu Shrestha, Shiva Gautam and Kamaljit Bawa reveals that the average annual mean temperature during the 25 year period (1982-2006) has increased by 1.5°C with an average increase of 0.06°C yr^-1. This is about three times greater than the global average of temperature increase in the same time period. Similarly, the average annual precipitation during the same period has increased by 163mm or 6.52mmyr^-1 in the Himalayas.

Uttam Babu Shrestha, the principal author of the paper and a graduate student at University of Massachusett Boston said “Our study reaffirmed that Himalayas region is indeed experiencing rapid climate and associated changes in the various ecoregions.” He further added that “local people have been noticing changes in the growing patterns of plants and our study confirms such changes.” According to the study, the average start of the growing season seems to have advanced by 4.7 days in the Himalayas in the 25-year period from 1982 to 2006.

“Much of the recent discussion about climate change in the Himalayas has been dominated by the extent of glacial melting. However, changes in two most critical parameters of climate, temperature and precipitation have not been yet fully analyzed.” Said Kamaljit S. Bawa, Distinguished Professor, University of Massachusetts Boston, and President of ATREE. “Our study fulfills a critical knowledge gap”, he further added.

Local people of the Himalayas are witnessing the climate change, which has been impacting their agriculture and lives. “This study provides scientific evidences of such changes”, Mr. Shrestha claimed. The information provided by the study is at landscape level and coarse-grained. The study further calls for fine scale study and ground based validation of results.

For full article: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0036741

Date of Release: May 15, 2012

Place of Release: Boston, USA, and Bangalore, India

For further information contact:

Uttam Babu Shrestha [+977-9851012336]

Kamal Bawa [ Kamal.bawa@umb.edu; +1 617 489 3481]

Featured Photo: Searching Livelihood in the High Mountains: Yarsagumba Harvesters in Dolpa, Nepal by Uttam Shrestha. See article about the award winning photo in the Center for Governance and Sustainability quarterly newsletter.

Elders+Youngers is a public forum and welcomes outside participation. The first online discussion debated the topic of People, profit and the environment – can we balance them all? The discussion centered on the issue of the global economy prioritizing profit over the basic needs of the people and the environment. The latest economic bust was used as a springboard for brainstorming the following issues: how profit could become compatible with sustainability, the major points of contention between sustainability and profitability, and how to foster cooperation across different sectors. The motivation behind the discussions is to bring together diverse perspectives on the global community’s major problems. Each conversation will cover a different topic and will continue over the course of eight weeks leading up to Rio+20 in June, where the Elders and the Youngers will continue their conversations in person.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Gro Brundtland, Fernando H Cardos, and Mary Robinson are members of the Elders who will engage the young activists and the rest of the online community in conversations about sustainability in the modern world. Sara Svensson, an Alumni of the GEG Project, along with three other young activists, Esther, Marvin, and Pedro, will represent the Youngers in the discussion.

The Elders continue to advocate for sustainable global actions. The eight week long discussion will inform their calls to action at Rio+20, main highlights of which are Sustainable Development Goals and an Ombudsman for Future Generations.

Introduction - Robert Falkner and Bernice Lee

Emerging powers, North–South relations and global climate politics

- Andrew Hurrell and Sandeep Sengupta

International political economy and the environment: back to the basics?

- Jennifer Clapp and Eric Helleiner

Global environmentalism and the greening of international society

- Robert Falkner

Institutional diffusion in international environmental affairs

- Alexander Ovodenko and Robert O Keohane

Engaging the public and the private in global sustainability governance

- Kenneth W Abbott

Institutional design and UNEP reform: historical insights on form, function and financing

- Maria Ivanova

Complex global governance and domestic policies: four pathways of influence

- Steven Bernstein and Benjamin Cashore

The changing fortunes of differential treatment in the evolution of international environmental law

- Lavanya Rajamani

Bernice Lee spoke at the Center for Governance and Sustainability Event, Trajectories to Sustainability: Balancing People Planet and Prosperity, in November 2011.

Robert Falkner, Ken Abbott and Bernice Lee participated in the GEG Project’s Workshop on International Environmental Governance: Grounding Policy Reform in Rigorous Analysis in June 2011 (Bern, Switzerland).

Maria Ivanova is Director of the Global Environmental Governance Project and Co-Director of the Center for Governance ans Sustainability at UMass Boston.

Ministers reinforced the relevance of the green economy in the context of poverty eradication as a fundamental component of sustainable development. They also called for coordinated efforts to ensure environmental sustainability and to reduce poverty while protecting the environment and the resources upon which some economies highly depend. This is the ambitious approach that the EU and its Member States plan to bring to the negotiations next June.

The European Commissioner for the Environment, Janez Potočnik from Slovenia, recognized the role of the European Commission in developing a clear and strong negotiation position for the upcoming conference. In his remarks, he called for the green economy to offer new and renovated opportunities for all countries around the world in all stages of development. He proposed a new focus in what he called the five “pillars of life”: water, sustainable energy; oceans; land and ecosystems; and resource efficiency and waste in particular, in order to take measures that truly respond to the pressures of environmental problems and resource constraints.

The Ministers agreed on a roadmap that links the concept of an inclusive green economy to the emerging discussions about the Sustainable Development Goals SDGs and to support the transition towards the green economy in a way that progresses hand-in-hand with sustainable development.

For more information click here

Negusu is currently working as a Climate Change Advisor for DFID-Ethiopia, where he moved after serving as Director of Forum for Environment (FfE), a local NGO, for almost eight years.  He has worked as an environmental campaigner for the last 15 years and has played a leading role in advocating for environmental rights in Ethiopia.

Negusu was selected as one of the 13 emerging leaders at the 2009  Global Environmental Governance Forum in Glion, Switzerland.

Visit the U.S. Embassy Addis Ababa to see the full highlight.