Annual Report 2023-2024

The 28th Annual Report of the International Environment Forum summarises the events and activities from 22 October 2023 to 5 October 2024 between two annual General Assemblies. The 2024 General Assembly was held online on 5 October 2024. A summary report with slides is available here.

27th IEF GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2023

The 27th General Assembly of the International Environment Forum was held over the Internet on the Zoom platform on 21 October 2023. The meeting was held twice to accommodate members and associates from different time zones.

Altogether, there were 28 participants from 18 countries:

Participants at the first meeting: Todd Chirko (China), Arthur Dahl (Switzerland), Emily Firth (Australia), Arhwin Kalai Chelvan (Malaysia), Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen (Netherlands), F.U. Rehman (Pakistan), Gary Reusche (Ukraine), Michael Richards (U.K.), Rafael Shayani (Brazil), Yifan Singharaja (Belgium), Firuz Sobhani (Corsica, France), Victoria Thoresen (Norway), Daniel Truran (Spain)

Participants at the second meeting: Cedric Åkermark (Sweden), Khela Baskett (USA), Carol Curtis (USA) Arthur Dahl (Switzerland), Elsa Deshmuk (Puerto Rico), Cynthia Diessner (USA), Kiara Ehsani (USA), Tuana Inhan (The Netherlands), Mark Griffin (USA), Tahirih Matthee (South Africa), Desta Mesbah (The Netherlands), Laurent Mesbah (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Christine Muller (USA), J. Thomas Pawlowski (USA), Gabriel Porch (USA), Michael Semple (Switzerland).

The following IEF members were elected to the Governing Board for the coming year: Arthur Dahl (Switzerland), Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen (Netherlands), Christine Muller (USA), Laurent Mesbah (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Victoria Thoresen (Norway), Wendi Momen (UK), and Halldór Thorgeirsson (Iceland).

The consultation revolved about topics such as ways to focus on the positive, on constructive ways of going forward despite the turmoil and negative forces in the world, about the importance of including interconnectedness with nature in children’s classes and devotional gatherings, and the coherence between public discourse and social action. A major topic was how to increase youth engagement. To read more about the consultation, see the 2023 IEF Annual Report.

IEF GOVERNING BOARD

IEF Board Officer Election

The IEF Board voted for Arthur Dahl as Chair and Christine Muller as General Secretary.

IEF Board Meetings

The Board held five meetings during the almost 12 months covered by this report. Each Board meeting consisted in online consultations over an average of two weeks and a Zoom consultation.

In addition, five Board members met with five members of the Youth team on 14 January 2024 for a special consultation to learn about their views and ideas and to consult about their activities.

Capacity Building

The IEF Board recognizes the need for building capacity of its members and for finding more members that actively contribute to the running of IEF. This item was on the Board’s agenda at each meeting. Members have the opportunity to learn new skills and to use them in service: Are you interested in participating in conference planning, in managing a newsletter, in learning html code and how to post on the IEF website?

MEMBERSHIP

The Board has approved 15 new member and 9 associate applications during this reporting period. These numbers are lower than last year’s 28 new members and 17 associates. The number of newsletter subscribers increased substantially.

There are now 547 members, 167 associates, and 74 newsletter subscribers, all together representing 94 countries.

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States sent a letter to the Baha’i community in March sharing information on Faith Climate Action Week and Environmental Sustainability Resources. One of the resources mentioned was the IEF. Following this letter, there was a noticeable increase in membership applications.

IEF 28th ANNUAL CONFERENCE

The 28th Annual Conference of the International Environment Forum took place 14 - 28 September 2024 alongside the UN Summit of the Future (SoTF). It aimed to contribute to the global discussion about our planet's future and the transformative changes essential for our collective survival and progress. The overall conference theme was A World-embracing Vision for a Sustainable Future. 

The conference consisted of four events:

A vision for a Sustainable Future - a Conversation with Youth
Developing a vision for global collaboration
Building Futures in Communities
Where Do We Go from Here? - Deeds not Words

Participants at the 28th Annual conference came from the following countries: 

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Haiti, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Namibia, Nigeria, Norway, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Zimbabwe

The four events had on average 68 participants coming from a total of 42 countries. This is significantly higher than last year when there were on average 30 participants representing 33 countries. 

For recordings and reports of the events, visit https://iefworld.org/conf28. 

Thanks go out to the conference planning team Aaron Kelly, Philippe Gerling, Anisha Prabhu, Elsa Deshmukh, Khela Baskett, Rebecca Teclemariam Mesbah, Arthur Dahl, Christine Muller, and to Bill Kelly and Aaron Kelly for editing all the recordings of the IEF conference and the IEF webinars!

IEF WEBSITE AND MEMBERSHIP DATA BASE

Mike Semple has continued to improve the IEF website with the new Olivera theme as well as the membership data base. He also provides quarterly updates on membership, associates, and newsletter subscribers for the IEF archives, and regularly updates the email lists for Sendy, the newsletter distribution list. Mike’s services for the IEF are essential for its functioning and are deeply appreciated!

Now more members and associates need to take advantage of sharing their knowledge, expertise, and experience with each other by updating their new user files.

IEF NEWSLETTER LEAVES

The newsletter was published every month with the collaboration of Christine Muller (manager), Todd Chirko (language editor), Arthur Dahl (advisor), Alan Cundall (proofreader), Michael Semple (email list), and Michael Richards (mailing). The newsletter team was strengthened this year by Bill Edgar who is helping with the layout of the pdf version of the newsletter.

We thank the following IEF members who have contributed articles to the newsletter during the time this report covers: Cedric Åkermark (Sweden), Austin Bowden-Kerby (Fiji), Arthur Dahl (Switzerland), Pete Haug (USA), Uros S. Popadic (Serbia), Rafael Shayani (Brazil), and the three IEF members of the Ottawa Cluster Environment Group (Canada), as well as IEF Associate Dr. Santos Kumar Mishra (India).

IEF WEBINARS

IEF member Khela Baskett conducted eight webinars for the IEF community and the public. She engaged the following speakers in chronological order: Pascal Molineaux, Bill and Aaron Kelly, Christine Muller, Rosie Poirier, Gary Reusche, Austin Bowden-Kerby, Halldór Thorgeirsson, Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen, and Arthur Dahl. In addition, Khela facilitated a workshop on “How to Talk about Climate Change” and a “book club style” webinar where participants listened to and discussed "Gathering Moss”, a chapter of Robin Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass. You can find all the information about past and future webinars on this Webinar page.

IEF YOUTH TASK FORCE

The IEF Youth Team conducted four informal gatherings from February to June 2024 providing a space where young people can freely share their concerns, hopes, and ideas.

IEF SOCIAL MEDIA

The IEF is now active on three social media platforms. Kiara Ehsani manages the IEF Instagram page, Rebecca Teclemariam Mesbah the IEF Linkedin page, and Christine Muller the IEF Facebook page. We are looking for a volunteer who can regularly post interesting things on Facebook because Christine is too busy with the IEF secretariat.

OUTREACH TO THE WIDER COMMUNITY

IEF submission to the Summit of the Future

In preparation for the UN Summit of the Future to consider UN reform in September 2024, the organisers invited civil society organisations to make verbal and written submissions on what they would like to see in the outcome document. The IEF made both a short verbal contribution on 13 December 2023, and submitted a written proposal.

IEF ENDORSEMENTS AND SIGN-ONS

On 7 December 2023, the IEF signed the COP28 Faith Pavilion Call to Action. For the full text of this Call to Action, go here: https://iefworld.org/COP28interfaith.

IEF MEMBER COLLABORATION WITH OTHER ORGANISATIONS

Mobilizing an Earth Governance Alliance (MEGA)

In its 30 November 2023 meeting, the IEF Board decided to become a co-sponsoring organization of Mobilizing an Earth Governance Alliance (MEGA). MEGA is a coalition of civil society organizations working in cooperation with like-minded governments and other stakeholders to strengthen existing environmental governance mechanisms and establish additional mechanisms.

Coalition for the UN We Need (C4UN)

The IEF is a supporter of C4UN, a platform to enable greater civil society impact on the work for a strengthened United Nations system, co-chaired by IEF member Dan Perell.

Nature Positive Forum

On June 2, 2024, the IEF accepted an invitation to become a partner in the Nature Positive Forum which recognizes an urgent need to gather a broader partnership for nature positive, in order to successfully address the biodiversity crisis and restore natural ecosystems that underpin humanity’s sustainable and equitable development.


ebbf

Our collaboration with ebbf continues, with Arthur Dahl moving from the Governing Board to the Advisory Board, while IEF board member Wendi Momen continues on the Governing Board, and Maja Groff chairs the ebbf Governing Board. Arthur contributed to a learning circle discussion on 30 April, and a keynote and workshop at the ebbf Annual Conference in Lisbon on 16-19 May on "The Cooperation Economy": https://iefworld.org/ddahl24g

Global Governance Forum

IEF President Arthur Dahl and member Dan Perell participated in a Global Governance Forum project to draft a Second UN Charter launched in September. The Charter proposes making management of the Earth System the fourth pillar of the UN alongside peace and security, economic and social development, and human rights.

McGill Youth Advisory Delegation for SOTF

The IEF received an invitation for collaboration from the McGill Youth Advisory Delegation (MYAD), the external portfolio of the International Relations Students Association of McGill (IRSAM). A representative from MYAD was nominated to participate in the youth conversation, the first event of the IEF conference.

Climate Governance Commission

IEF President Arthur Dahl has been representing IEF on the steering committee of the Climate Governance Commission (CGC), which is convened and led by IEF member Maja Groff. The CGC commissioned and is now actively supporting a proposal by IEF members Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen and Arthur Dahl to create a Global Environment Agency to manage the Earth System.

G20 Interfaith Forum (IF20)

IEF member Monica Maghami joined Arthur Dahl as a member of the IF20 environment working group, since Victoria Thoresen stepped down. Arthur moderated an IF20 webinar on "Climate change and the importance of indigenous knowledge" on 27 May. Arthur prepared a concept paper on climate change for the IF20 Forum on Religion and Sustainable Development in Brasilia in August, as well as a policy brief on climate change. Both Monica and Arthur attended and spoke at the IF20 Forum. The G20 Interfaith Forum's (IF20) Formal Appeal to the 2024 G20 Summit is at: https://www.g20interfaith.org/2024-policy-briefs/ and the policy brief on Faith Action in Response to Climate Action largely drafted by Arthur has now been posted on the IF20 website: https://www.g20interfaith.org/app/uploads/2020/09/IF20_climate_change_2024_policy_brief-TPS-KP-1km-1_Arthur_WEBSITE.pdf.

IEF INVOLVEMENT IN COURSES

Wilmette Institute

Several IEF members have served as faculty for online courses at the Wilmette Institute:

Sustainable Development and the Prosperity of Humankind, July 24 - September 24, 2024 with faculty Laurent Mesbah, Arthur Dahl, Christine Muller, and Rebecca Teclemariam-Mesbah.

Bahá’í Perspectives on Agriculture and Food with IEF faculty Gary Reusche and Arthur Dahl.

Baha’i Institute for Higher Education in Iran (BIHE)

The 3-Credit Course Climate Change for the graduate students of BIHE’s Environmental Sciences Department ran this past spring semester with three students, one technical assistant, and IEF member Christine Muller serving as the teacher.

IEF member Rebecca Teclemariam-Mesbah was co-teaching a course on Environmental Sustainability for the same students at the same time.

IEF MEMBER PARTICIPATION IN OTHER EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES

The listed activities of IEF members below are by far not comprehensive. They are limited to the information which the IEF secretariat has received.

On 28-29 October 2023, IEF President Arthur Dahl prepared the concept notes for and spoke at the European Center for Peace and Development Conference on "The Future is to be Invented" and Youth Forum on "Youth leadership for system change" in Belgrade.

Over 1-7 November in Lucknow, India, the City Montessori School, founded by Baha'is and now with 61,000 students on 21 campuses, had IEF President Arthur Dahl speak on "Climate change and environmental justice" to over 2,000 students, as well as at 3 universities, and at their 24th International Conference of Chief Justices of the World.

On 16-17 November, IEF President Arthur Dahl gave the closing keynote at an International Symposium on Global Ocean Governance in Paris organized by French and Belgian Academies of Science Overseas with the collaboration of IEF member Virginie Tilot.

In December 2023, IEF member Victoria Thoresen gave speeches in South Africa at the University of Fort Hare; Rhodes University; the Wildlife Society for South Africa; and Ground Truth. The talks focused on, among other things, "caring, consulting and collaborating".

On 4 January 2024, Pennsylvania Interfaith Power and Light (PA IPL) invited IEF members Helga Stokes and Christine Muller to be panelists in their series "Exploring Religion and Environment." The one-hour program "Baha'i Faith and Environment" is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MvYysYy1bs&t=2s.

On 8 February, Aaron Kelly spoke on the panel of the Global Sikh Council on “Interfaith Perspective of Environment Protection”. Link to the complete four panel presentation and subsequent discussion: https://youtu.be/M5b2oXRUO5s?si=Q4NmiP6lInFAkzF3 (Aaron’s presentation starts at 25:40).

IEF member Wendi Momen spoke at a regional meeting of Soroptimist International on the theme: “Climate Crisis: Women Challenged and Challengers” highlighting how women are affected by climate change and how they are rising to meet the challenge.

On 29 March-1 April, Arthur Dahl gave the opening keynote and two workshops at the Justice Conference in the Netherlands on "A Systems View of Justice": https://iefworld.org/ddahl24

On 27 May 2024, at the start of the 4th International Conference on Small Island Developing States, the International Dialogue Centre KAICIID and the IF20 Environment Working Group chaired by IEF President Arthur Dahl facilitated a dialogue demonstrating how Indigenous and faith approaches to spirituality and well-being can help in the pursuit of climate justice.

On 15 June, Arthur Dahl gave a virtual keynote on "Climate Change Adaptation" to a public panel meeting in Edmonton, Alberta (a major fossil fuel from tar sands producer) with local experts.

On 22 June, the Academic Council of the UN System (ACUNS) organised a roundtable featuring the work of IEF members Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen and Arthur Dahl on accountability.

On 8 July, Arthur Dahl spoke to the Quaker UN Summer School in Geneva (from Berlin) on "Reframing economic systems and paradigms".

On 22-27 July, Arthur Dahl participated in the Initiatives of Change Intergenerational Forum at Caux in Switzerland, where there were opportunities for deep exchanges on the Bahá'í Faith with leaders of IofC from a number of countries.

PUBLICATIONS AND PAPERS BY IEF MEMBERS

Governance and Human Values

Article by IEF President Arthur Dahl, published in Kosmos Journal Volume 2023 Issue 4. To read the entire article, go here: https://iefworld.org/ddahl23t_governance.

Pathways to Equity in Addressing Climate Change: A Bahá’í Perspective

Article by IEF member Robert S. Sarracino and Margery Dixon, published by Zygon: https://www.zygonjournal.org/article/id/10959/.

Life of Richard St.Barbe Baker

IEF President Arthur Dahl transcribed Paul Mantle's "Life of Richard St.Barbe Baker" from an abandoned website and posted it on IEF: https://iefworld.org/StBarbeBaker.

The Many Problems with Shrimp

IEF member David Bellamy shared a presentation about shrimp with the Wilmette Institute community: https://wilmetteinstitute.org/the-many-problems-with-shrimp/.

Science, Innovation and Digital Technology

IEF President Arthur Lyon Dahl and Soon-Young Yoon wrote a background paper for Chapter 3 of the People's Pact for the Future on topics relevant to the IEF community: https://iefworld.org/PPFscience_brief.

Towards Effective Multilevel Environmental and Sustainability Governance for Shared Ecological Risks

This chapter by Arthur Dahl was published in Global Governance and International Cooperation: Managing Global Catastrophic Risks in the 21st Century, edited by Richard Falk and Augusto Lopez-Claros, chapter 19, pp. 317-331, London: Routledge, available at http://yabaha.net/dahl/papers/2024c.pdf.

‘Adasíyyih

New book by IEF Member Paul Hanley. The book is available from the Baha’i Bookstore: https://www.bahaibookstore.com/Adasiyyih-P10838

IEF President Arthur Dahl prepared a book review about it: https://iefworld.org/Dahl2024f_Adasiyyih.

How I navigated the rhetoric and realities of climate change through a spiritual lens

Commentary by IEF Member Pete Haug, published by FāVS News: https://favs.news/navigating-the-rhetoric-and-realities-of-climate-change-spiritually/.