By Prof. Bharat H. Desai
The year 2024 is all set to become a landmark in succession to 2023 and 2022 that witnessed summits on the Sustainable Development Goals (New York; September 18-19, 2023) and the Stockholm+50 Conference (Stockholm; June 2-3, 2022). The outcome of both these global conferences [(1) 2023 - here; (2) 2022 - here] has shown the gravity of the smouldering planetary level environmental crisis (here; here). During 2024, as mandated by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution 76/307 of September 8, 2022 (Modalities Resolution), another momentous Summit of the Future will be held in New York on September 22-23, 2024. Hence, the year will be cast in stone as the year of the Planetary Future.
The gravity of the planetary crisis came out vividly in the June 02, 2022 address of the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who reminded the UN member states that we have not kept our promises on the global environment, our consumption is “at the rate of 1.7 planets a year” and the “global well-being is in jeopardy” (Secretary-General's remarks to Stockholm+50| UNSG).The gathering storms and the growing scientific evidence underscore the planetary-level environmental crisis at work. As the coming events cast their shadows before, humankind seems to have sleepwalked into planetary crisis (The Sleepwalking into a Planetary Crisis; (here; here) Some Heads of Government have showed realization that “the decisions we make today are going to determine our future for decades to come” (Remarks by President Biden | The White House) as well as in securing “a better future to the world, and a better world to the future” (Indian PM Modi address to the US Congress (narendramodi.in). Can we reverse this planetary crisis? What lies in store for the planetary future with rapidly depleting time?
It is in this wider context that this author has audaciously organized the EPL (Environmental Policy and Law) Special Issue 54 (2-3) 2024 on The Planetary Future wherein some of the global thought leaders from the five continents would contribute their ideational and solution-oriented papers to look ahead into the future. The first part of EPL Special Issue comprises 10 cutting-edge contributions by these eminent scholars: Edith Brown Weiss (Georgetown University); Oran R. Young (University of California at Santa Barbara); Maria Frenanda Espinosa Garcés (former Ecuadorian Foreign Minister and President of the 73rd UN General Assembly); Klaus Bosselmann (University of Auckland); Kazuhiro Nakatani (Tokai University); Eve Darian-Smith (University of California at Irvin); Vesselin Popovski (Jindal Global University); David L. VanderZwaag (Dalhousie University); Oliver C. Ruppel (Stellenbosch University & University of Graz). This EPL Special Issue 54 (2-3)2024 will be uploaded during this week and all the articles can be accessed under O2S model (here).
Apart from the abovementioned concrete scholarly churning organized from the home turf of the School of International Studies (here, here), far-away from the decision-making centres’ of the world, this author will moderate a Global Webinar (June 05 @ 5.30 PM) on the 2024 World Environment Day. The first part of the discourse will be held on June 05, 2024 with a panel of eminent speakers on the theme: The Planetary Future: Part – I (World Environment Day). It will be followed by two more successive webinars during 2024: Part – II (Summit of the Future; September 19, 2024); Part – III (World Human Rights Day; December 10, 2024).
The program for the WED Webinar on June 05, 2024 will be as follows:
PROGRAM
Welcome by Reina Steenhuizen (IOS Press, Amsterdam)
Introduction by EPL Editor-in-Chief Bharat H. Desai
(Jawaharlal Nehru University)
Discussion moderator: Bharat H. Desai, EPL Editor-in-Chief
Panel of Speakers:
Nicholas A Robinson, University Professor Emeritus, Elisabeth School of Law, Pace University, New York, USA
Richard Macrory, Professor Emeritus, University College London, University of London, UK
Sara Seck, Schulich School of Law and Marine & Environmental Law Institute, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
Closing remarks by Bharat H. Desai, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
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Register for this free webinar to be held on Wednesday June 5, 2024 @ 08:00 AM (EDT) / 02:00 PM (CETS) / 5:30 PM (IST)
Prof. (Dr.) Bharat H. Desai is Professor of International Law and Chairperson of the Centre for International Legal Studies (SIS, JNU), who served as a member of the Official Indian Delegations to various multilateral negotiations (2002-2008), coordinated three knowledge initiatives for SIS Faculty Wall of Honor (2023), Inter-University Consortium (JNU; Jammu; Kashmir; Sikkim: 2012-2020) and Making SIS Visible (2008-2013) as well as contributes as the Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Policy and Law (IOS Press: Amsterdam)