In the United States, Interfaith Power and Light is organizing a national Preach-In on Global Warming on 11-13 February 2011. Materials from various faith groups, including the American Baha'i community, are available for download from the IPL web site at http://interfaithpowerandlight.org/2010/10/national-preach-in-on-global-warming-2011/. These include Baha'i materials introducing the topic, for devotionals, youth and children.
In preparation for the 26th Governing Council of the UN Environment Programme (to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 21-25 February 2011), the recently created civil society Advisory Group on International Environmental Governance is working on a background document to be presented to governments. The document will seek to address five key questions:
1. Why should international environmental governance reform be of interest to developing countries? What are the relevant outcomes?
IEF Board member Peter Adriance was a keynote speaker at the 2010 Bahá'í Conference on Social and Economic Development in Orlando, Florida on 17-19 December 2010. The conference theme was "Deeds, Not Words: Uniting the Spiritual and the Practical", and Peter's talk was on "Faithful Environmental Stewardship: the role of religion in addressing the environmental crisis".
The International Environment Forum web site has just migrated to a new content management system (Drupal) on a new server. We can now offer many more interactive features to our members. We have not yet created user profiles for our members, so please request one. New member applications can now also be submitted on line, and regular users of the site can register. We shall be adding more features as time allows.
The United Nations Environment Programme has announced the creation of a Major Groups and Stakeholders Advisory Group on International Environmental Governance that includes International Environment Forum President Dr. Arthur Dahl.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN RIGHTS
The IEF participated in the 2010 Social Forum of the UN Human Rights Council on the subject of climate change and human rights. The Social Forum is organized each year to facilitate a dialogue with civil society on an important issue for human rights.
Early results from the Values-based Indicators of Education for Sustainable Development (ESDinds) project show that it has succeeded in developing indicators to measure trust, integrity, justice, empowerment, unity in diversity, and care and respect for the community of life in businesses and civil society organizations.
At least 14 IEF members participated in the International Climate Change Conference (15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 7-18 December 2009.
The Bahá'í International Community has adopted a Seven Year Plan for Action on Climate Change.
