Interview with Felix Dodds – environmental campaigner and Executive Director of the Stakeholder Forum, an international organisation promoting sustainable development and democracy. From 1997 to 2001 Felix chaired the NGO Coalition on Sustainable Development at the UN. This self-confessed workaholic told Global about his accidental stumble into green politics and the power of positive thinking
You have been campaigning on the environment since the 1980s. How did you become interested in green issues and ideas of sustainable development?
I lost the vote. We had a whole lot of Young Liberals together and I wanted us to campaign on anti-apartheid but we had invited too many Greens along and so all these geography students wanted to do green issues. Being a great democrat I accepted the challenge and have not looked back since. Over those 20-odd years the environment has moved up in people’s understanding. Clearly we haven’t done enough of what was promised particularly in 1992 [at the Rio Earth Summit]. That’s the challenge for this generation. We have to find a way of pushing at those horizons of recurring crisis or we are going to face our own form of the perfect storm as water security, food security, energy security and migration start to hit in a really big way.
How can we weather that storm?
In the discourse around the next Earth Summit in 2012, what we are looking at is a recognition to deliver a change in the economic system towards a more green and equitable world. We only have one planet and we’re already exceeding the capacity of that planet. Together we need to find a way to live within these boundaries and I think that’s a really challenging and exciting opportunity for some really good ideas to come forward. But there has to be equity and fairness and a recognition that we have historical responsibilities for what we’ve caused. If BP is being hassled by the US government under the ‘polluter pays’ principle then there is no reason why developing countries should not be applying the same principle to us for the damage we’ve caused, and are causing, as far as global warming is concerned.
What can we expect from the Rio 2012 Earth Summit?
What we are hoping for is to capture the spirit of what happened in 1992, which galvanised a generation of people to get involved in environmental issues at their local community level. And I’m hoping that we’ll see communities across the world trying to work out what their local green economy should look like. I think by galvanising ideas at that level we will see the kind of life-style changes that we need to see to be able to live within the planetary boundaries. So that’s my hope for it and I think that there are a number of things that will be delivered by it. I think we will have an agreement on climate change – not this year in Cancun but possibly next year in Johannesburg – which would allow heads of state in May 2012 to sign a new climate agreement 20 years from when they signed the first one.
What did you do yesterday?
Stakeholder Forum had a drinks party. We have a new member of staff so we used it as an opportunity to bring some people who’ve been associated with the organisation in the past to come and meet the new member of staff and we also invited some friends. It was a really nice day.
How would you describe your home?
Too often it’s a hotel room because I do too much campaigning around UN meetings. But my home is wonderful. I’ve just bought a new house and it’s got a lot of space. I like space and I like not having too many things in that space. It’s got some beautiful César Manrique (a Spanish artist) work on the walls, which gives me a feeling of brightness.
It’s somewhere I have an opportunity to just think and I enjoy that very much.
Who would you have most liked to meet?
Robert Kennedy. He inspired a generation of people to believe in public service and that you could change the world. I think that he was one of the first people to challenge GDP. In one of his quotes – and I’m going to get this wrong – he said, “The gross domestic product of the US measures the amount of people who have been killed on our roads, it measures how many people buy cigarettes and how many people are killed in Vietnam. It doesn’t measure the quality of our families, the love we have for our children.” I think he inspired a group of people to look at different ways of measuring how we are on this planet.
What do you do to relax?
Well, I’m a workaholic so my relaxation tends to revolve around writing. I have been going to film festivals and blogging from them as a way of combining my interest in films and my interest in writing. I like to go to jazz festivals. I used to live in San Sebastian, which has a wonderful jazz festival and film festival, so I immersed myself in both of them.
If you could change anything in the world what would it be?
I guess I’d try to change people’s attitudes towards each other because I think that would then enable us to address poverty and consumption patterns. I think we need to learn to appreciate each other in a different way in the 21st century, and that has to be a way that has no place for hate or mistrust or for blaming other people, but for working together.
What is your greatest fear?
That the time we have to address the problems in the world is shorter than we think it is, and that we won’t make the right decisions in the short term that will have such a huge impact on so many people in the long term.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
Always think positively.
Do you follow this advice?
I try to. I think if you believe that things are going to happen and if you try to invest positive energy into them you can inspire others to get involved and that begins a cascade that can change the world.
