The inaugural issue of the Nuclear Abolition Forum offers a variety of perspectives on international humanitarian law (IHL) and nuclear weapons, including the development of IHL since the 1996 International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons and the current state of the law with regard to use, threat and possession of nuclear weapons.
On the occasion of the UN International Year of Forests, the WFC chose forests as the topic for the Future Policy Award 2011 to highlight challenges faced by many of the world’s forests and the solutions in place for people who depend on them. To ensure that forests can still provide their multitude of services in the future, decision-makers urgently need to spread policies for the sustainable management, conservation and sustainable development of forests.
This article examines the linkages between nuclear and climate risks, identifies areas where both threats converge, and offers an approach to move from living under these security threats to building sustain-able peace. By bringing to light the multidimensional interplay between climate change, nuclear risks and nuclear disarmament, this study aims to help the reader grasp their interconnectedness and recognize its critical implications for the strategic security environment. In addition, it explores prospects and open-ings to tackle these key challenges.
This report is a documentation of the parliamentary hearing hosted by the World Future Council, the Nordic Folkecenter and the Climate Service Center (CSC) at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht. The workshop took place on October 4th to 7th 2012 at the Nordic Folkecenter in Hurup Thy, Denmark. It provided a platform for policy makers and experts to share knowledge, exchange ideas, develop strategies and build up networks in order to implement the 100% Renewable Energies (RE) target across European regions. The overall goal was to enable decision makers from European regions to undertake the necessary political action to realize the 100% RE goal by presenting political instruments and strategies that showed success elsewhere in Europe. In this multi -stakeholder dialogue, 40 representatives from national, regional and local governments as well as academia and civil society from 15 European countries and Canada participated.
The centrepiece of the WFC proposal is the establishment of a financing tool that uses the ability of the IMF to create new international reserve money in the shape of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). The intention is to support financing facilities such as the new Green Climate Fund established at the COP 16 in Cancun. The IMF member states can decide on the issuance of new SDRs. These are usually distributed to them proportionate to their quota shares. Pursuant to the agreement on the formation of the new Green Climate Fund, member states should agree in advance to commit all or most of the new SDRs to this Fund. A small portion (e.g. 10% – 20%) could be claimed by the member states for the financing of specific climate protection projects.
2010 has been a very successfull year for the World Future Council. We were busy counselling policy-makers and spreading ‘best policies’ and thus, multiplying incentives for positive action.
The World Future Council chose the topic of biodiversity for the Future Policy Award 2010 to raise awareness about its acute loss, which threatens wildlife, the environment and our common future. In the face of the looming biodiversity crisis, policy-makers must work urgently towards ambitious and comprehensive biodiversity policies.
Creating regenerative cities primarily means one thing: initiating comprehensive political, financial and technological strategies for an environmentally restorative relationship between cities and the ecosystems from which they draw resources for their sustenance. Introducing “Agropolis”, “Petropolis” and “Ecopolis” this WFC brochure by WFC Honorary Councillor Herbert Girardet explains how such a healthy relationship can be built.
This legal working paper discusses the creation of a new international crime: crimes against future generations. The initiative of creating crimes against future generations grew from discussions held by the Commission on Future Justice set up by the World Future Council (WFC) to develop new laws and policies in order to guarantee human security, ecological integrity and social equity in the interest of future generations and was led by Hon. Christopher J. Weeramantry, Bianca Jagger, and Prof. Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger.
Celebrating visionary policies raises public awareness, encourages rapid learning and speeds up policy action towards just, sustainable and peaceful societies. That is why, each year, the World Future Council chooses one topic on which policy progress is particularly urgent and calls for 3 nominations of model policies that are inspiring, innovative and impactful.
The Future Policy Award 2009 celebrates successful policies for food security – policies that create fair and sustainable food systems, be they regional, national or global, and thus contribute to a better world.
