Welcome to the V. World Organic Forum
The V. World Organic Forum focuses on the local implementation of the UN Agenda 2030 with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The V. World Organic Forum focuses on the local implementation of the UN Agenda 2030 with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
24th of May, 2022 – International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament. Our partner Youth Fusion would like to celebrate by hosting a webinar. The theme is going to explore: ‘Women, Peace & Disarmament: Perspectives and Actions from the Global South’. The aim will be to hear from speakers from countries of the Nuclear Weapon Free Zones in the Global South.
One of the speakers will be Ana María Cetto Kramis, one of the Councillors at the World Future Council. She is also the Former Deputy Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and a Professor at UNAM.
An Open Letter urging nuclear weapons states to adopt no-first-use and other policies to ensure a nuclear war is never fought has been endorsed by prominent signatories
As the Ethiopia domestic conflict further escalates, the World Future Council calls upon conflicting parties to end the devastating infighting, to respect international humanitarian law and provide safety for all the country citizens, specifically children, women and the eldery.
Reinforcing the European Youth Employment Policy through the European Green Deal:
In many respects, the world is facing an unprecedented crisis. At the same time, the world is on the brink of a new dawn.
The appeal was endorsed by 237 women leaders from was released to coincide with International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament on May 24.
The intention of Count the Nuclear Weapons Money is to show the true scale of the investments that nine countries are planning for the modernisation of their nuclear arsenals over the next 10 years. Volunteers in New York, London (UK), New Mexico, Philadelphia and Wellington (New Zealand) gathered to manually count $1 Trillion over 7 days and 7 nights.
Our Youth Ambassador Kehkashan Basu is speaking at the UN High-Level meeting on Nuclear Disarmament in New York today. You can read her presentation here.
Hamburg/ Göttingen (Germany) 18th July 2018 – The University of Göttingen (Germany) announced yesterday that they will end all investments in fossil fuel and nuclear energy industries. The move follows an appeal from students of the university organised by Fossil Free Göttingen, and a similar announcement by the City of Göttingen in May last year.
‘We commend the University of Göttingen for taking this important step to divest from fossil fuels and help protect the climate for current and future generations,’ said Alyn Ware, Disarmament Programme Director for the World Future Council.
‘The growing threat to our future posed by climate change has stimulated students to take action,’ says Luisa Neubauer, Communications Officer for Fossil Free Göttingen. ‘The fossil fuel industry has been blocking change to sustainable energy for their own financial interests. We must therefore make it in their financial interests to change. Divestment can help achieve this.‘
‘In line with our motto “IN PUBLICA COMMODA – FOR THE GOOD OF ALL”, we not only bear responsibility for the findings of science, but also for how these findings can influence and guide society,’ said President of the University Ulrike Beisiegel. ‘For this reason, we also take on social responsibility for our investments and select them not only according to economic considerations, but also, in particular, using socially, ethically and ecologically sound criteria.’
The decision by the University impacts its investment portfolio of €190 million. Following the decision, the University Stiftung (investment foundation) will not invest in coal, gas or oil companies, nor companies involved in nuclear energy.
However, unlike the City of Göttingen which decided to also exclude nuclear weapons and conventional weapons from its investment policy, the University of Göttingen decided not to exclude these industries.
Nuclear weapons divestment is part of Move the Nuclear Weapons Money, a global campaign initiated in 2016 by the World Future Council and others to cut nuclear weapons budgets, end investments in nuclear weapons and shift these budgets and investments into social, economic and environmentally beneficial enterprises.
‘We had hoped that they would also include nuclear weapons divestment in their recent decision. However, the nuclear weapons divestment campaign is still young, and perhaps the University will follow the example of Göttingen City once they have had experience of implementing their policy with positive result.’, says Alyn Ware, who is also the Global Coordinator for Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND) and a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (‘Alternative Nobel Prize’).
‘Nuclear weapons also pose an existential threat to humanity and absorb billions of dollars that are sorely needed for better purposes, such as investment in renewable energy,’ says Ms Neubauer. ‘In times of increasing tension between nuclear-armed countries, a demonstration of financial restraint can help governments step back from the nuclear brink.’
‘The Göttingen City action to divest from fossil fuels and weapons producers is a wonderful follow-up to the example of the Göttingen Eighteen, the group of Nobel laureates and other scientists from Göttingen who in the late 1950s argued against the deployment of nuclear weapons in Germany,’ says Dr Ute Finckh-Krämer, PNND Council Member and an adviser to the Move the Nuclear Weapons Money campaign. ‘The action complements similar divestment actions at State and Federal level. Berlin City, for example, has taken action to exclude investments from city funds in fossil fuel, nuclear energy, nuclear weapons and the conventional weapons industry.’
For interviews and all other media enquiries, please contact,
Alyn Ware
Programme Director Peace & Disarmament
Tel: +420 773 638 867,
Miriam Petersen
Media & Communications Manager, World Future Council
Tel: +49 40 307 09 14 19
miriam.petersen@worldfuturecouncil.org
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