Pardee Center Director Presents at the United Nations on Rio+20

Prof. Adil Najam, Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and Boston University Professor of International Relations and Geography and Environment, was invited to present at a special panel event before the Second Committee (on Economics and Finance) of the 65th Session of the United Nations General Assembly titled ‘Advancing Sustainable Development: What Should Rio+20 Achieve?.’ The event was held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Friday, October 29, 2010.

The Pardee Center has undertaken a series of activities in connection with the forthcoming Rio+20 conference, including a Task Force on the institutional dimensions, a series of policy briefs related to sustainable development, and a number of Pardee Center events including two held at the United Nations in 2009 and 2010. In light of these activities the Pardee Center Director was asked to speak to the delegates to the General Assembly on Institutional Frameworks for Sustainable Development.

In his presentation, Prof. Najam outlined various institutional challenges and also institutional opportunities into making environmental governance more development focused and ensuring that practical headway could be made towards improving the global human condition. Prof. Najam also outlined a number of the emerging findings from various streams of Pardee Center research on this issues.

The panel discussion lasted three hours with extensive national responses from the delegates and several rounds of responses from the panelists, including Prof. Adil Najam. The panel was moderated by Mr. Muhammad Aslam Chaudhry, Chief, Global Policy Branch, Division for Sustainable Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and in addition to Prof. Adil Najam of the Boston University Pardee Center, it included: Professor Rehman Sobhan, Center for Policy Dialogue, Bangladesh; Dr. Soogil Young, Chairman, Presidential Committee on Green Growth, Republic of Korea; and Mr. Felix Michael Dodds, Executive Director, Stakeholder Forum.