Ahmed Djoghlaf Executive Secretary  of the Convention on Biological Diversity and Felix Dodds meeting in Montreal to
discuss cooperation on the Year of Biodiversity.

"Even among species not threatened with extinction, the past 20–40 years have seen substantial declines in
population or range size in most groups monitored. The overall result is that approximately 60% of examined
ecosystem services have been degraded worldwide in the last 50 years. If biodiversity loss continues unabated,
it has been projected that by 2050 an additional 1.3 billion hectares of land – an area about 1.5 times
the size of the United States – will lose its entire original biodiversity levels." Ahmed Djoghlaf

Richard Sherman and Felix Dodds at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. Perhaps it shows how we felt the meeting was going!!! One of the best analysis of the meeting was produced by Richard Black the BBC Environment Correspondent in his article: "Why did Copenhagen fail to deliver a climate deal?". During the Copnehagen Conference Stakeholder Forum published daily Outreach a stakeholder newsletter. Felix Dodds produced the daily Food for Thought article on the back page.  All of these cn be found on this web site in the articles and speeches section. The main work of Stakeholder Forum at the Climate meeting was its work on water and climate as part of the secretariat for the Global Public Policy Network on Water Management Stakeholder Forum lobbied throughout the last year for water to be relflecetd in the climate adaptation text.

Felix Dodds and Michael Strauss with Father Christmas had the BBC Green Room Christmas article this year well worth a read.

On the 4th of December Stakeholder Forum launched at the BT Centre in London the new book Climate Change and Energy Insecurity edited by Felix Dodds, Andrew Higham and Richard Sherman with contributions from Minsiters, UN Heads of Agenceis and Programmes and stakeholders.  Maurice Strong the UN Secretary General of the Rio and Stockholm Conferences said of the book:

"We must treat climate as a security issues, the most important threat to global security we will ever face. Energy is at the heart of this transition. Climate security and energy security are two sides of the same coin: one cannot be achieved without the other.This book is an important contibution to exploring this vital part of the environmental security agenda."

(Derek Osborn, Felix Dodds and Prof Michael Dorsey)

December also saw the UN General Assembly agree to a new Earth Summit to be held in 2012 in Brazil. The issues to be covered will be:

the green economy,
sustainable development governance,
emerging issues and a
review of present commitments.

At last the new book is out Climate Change and Energy Insecurity -- edited by Andrew Higham, Richard Sherman and Felix Dodds with the Foreword by UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner: chapters by Lord Stern, Linda Adams, Nnimmo Bassey, Ambassador Stuart, Beck, Craig Bennett, Barbara J. Bramble, Gidon, Bromberg, European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas, Director General UN Foor and Agriculture Organisation, Jacques Diouf, Executive Secretary of the Convention for Biological Diversity Ahmed Djoghlaf, Felix Dodds, Michael K. Dorsey, former Executive Director of UNEP Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Ladeene Freimuth, former German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, Winston Gereluk, Devyani Gupta, Andrew Higham, Steve Howard, Nader al Khateeb, Melinda Kimble, Johan Kuylenstierna, Jürgen Maier, Munqeth Mehyar, Michael Moore, Derek Osborn, Lucien Royer, South African Tourism Minister and former Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, Richard Sherman, Andrew Simms, Chris Spence, Nicholas Stern (Lord Stern of Brentford, Kt, FBA), Dave Trouba

Maurice Strong the Secretary General of the Rio and Stockholm Earth Summits said of the book;

“'We must treat climate as a security issue, the most important threat to global security we will ever face. Energy is at the heart of this transition. Climate security and energy security are two sides of the same coin: one cannot be achieved without the other. This book is an important contribution to exploring this vital part of the environmental security agenda."

P. Simran Sethi, Associate Professor of Journalism and Mass Communcations, University of Kansas and Founding Writer/ Co-Host of Sundance Channel's environmental programming "The Green" said:

Climate and energy are two of the most urgent and formidable issues of our times. This seminal text comprehensively details our challenges and explains the ways in which they are inextricably linked to human rights and environmental stewardship.'

and Ashok Khosla, Chairman, Development Alternatives and President, IUCN and the Club of Rome#

'Should the massive stimulus packages mobilized by governments manage to revive somewhat the financial flows within and between countries, it would be quite disastrous for those who control the global economy to assume that business can simply limp back to its old ways. Even if the financial crisis were to be resolved so easily, the other crises - growing poverty, changing climate, depleting resources, vanishing species and peaking energy among them - will throw up another, redoubled financial crisis soon enough. The destruction of our land and ocean ecosystems over the past century with all its consequences for the energy, water and livelihood security of the world's people can only be halted if we understand and deal with the deeper, underlying systemic issues - which are the subject of this extremely important and timely book.'

Buy now for Xmas while stocks last

The book is available from Stakehold Forum or any good bookshop online!