The United Nations has launched another series of on-line post-2015 consultations, including one on Education for Sustainable Development. The IEF submitted the following contribution on 7 May 2013, based largely on recent statements from the Baha'i International Community, with an additional focus on sustainability.

http://www.worldwewant2015.org/node/342413#comment-52576

Contribution on EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT from the International Environment Forum

As part of the consultation on the Post-2015 agenda, the United Nations invited on-line comments on three themes related to Environmental Sustainability: Equality; Human Rights, Peace and Security; and Poverty. The IEF submitted comments on each of these themes, adapted from some of the statements it prepared for Rio+20. See http://www.worldwewant2015.org/sustainability2015.

EQUALITY

Equality and Youth

The Wilmette Institute on-line learning course on "Scientific and Spiritual Dimensions of Climate Change" which started 1 February for seven weeks is oversubscribed, with more than 50 participants. The Wilmette Institute has therefore decided to offer a repeat of the course from 5 May to 23 June 2013. The course was developed by Christine Muller and other faculty are Carole Flood, Karryn Olson-Ramanujan, and Arthur Dahl, all IEF members. It is based on the similar inter-faith course for local group use available on the IEF web site (http://iefworld.org/ssdcc0.html).

Every year for the past three years, the national Baha'i administrative body in the United States has written to the American Baha'i community about the broad interfaith effort on climate change in collaboration with the United Nations, including the Baha'i International Community's Seven Year Plan of Action on Climate Change.

The United Nations, as part of The World We Want 2015 process, invited contributions of 1,500 word discussion papers on what should be included in development and sustainability action after 2015. The International Environment Forum and some of its members submitted the following four papers by the 28 December 2012 deadline.

The World Bank has just released a major report "Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4° Warmer World Must be Avoided", available at http://climatechange.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/Turn_Down_the_he…. The actions pledged by governments so far to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are insufficient to keep the planet below a 2°C temperature rise in this century, making a rise of 4°C or more increasingly likely. The report summarizes the latest scientific data on the present trends and probably implications of such a rise in temperature, and the vision presented is frightening.

Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, celebrated Green Week on 12-16 November 2012, including an International Youth Forum, a UNEP Regional Consultation Meeting with Major Groups and Stakeholders, an open lecture at the Azerbaijani Diplomatic Academy on Environmental Diplomacy, and a Green Economy Round Table. The Green Week was organized by the International Dialogue for Environmental Action (IDEA) in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The ECPD Eighth International Conference on "Reconciliation, Tolerance and Human Security in the Balkans - New Balkans in a Changing World with a Changing Europe" was held at the City Hall in Belgrade, Serbia, on 20 October 2012. It was chaired by Ambassador Takehiro Togo, Chairman of the ECPD Academic Council, and opened with a special message from Former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali who is President of the ECPD Honorary Council.

IEF board member Peter Adriance, who is the Representative for Sustainable Development of the Baha'is of the United States, has just had another piece published in the Huffington Post on The Power of Interfaith Collaboration: Linking Energy Conservation and Faith Communities.

The United Nations has created a new web site as its Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform: http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.html. The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) website includes resources describing inter-governmental processes, the UN system and major groups as well as resources on sustainable development in action.