We are delighted to announce that Dr Georgios Kostakos has agreed to give a lecture to BSIS on The Search for Global Sustainability – a first-hand account of the UN Global Sustainability Panel and the Rio +20 Conference.
The lecture will take place in the Wilson Room on Wednesday 14 Nov at 13h. If you wish to attend please send an email confirmation to bsis@kent.ac.uk.
Synopsis
A number of major challenges facing the world today, from climate change to food shortages, energy insecurity and financial instability, underline the importance of moving towards a more sustainable way of living and organizing human affairs. Attempts to achieve this include the recent UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD or “Rio+20”), the follow-up to which may determine the global development framework for the post-2015 period. The speaker will share his insights from Rio+20 and its preparatory process, combined with his first-hand experience with the Global Sustainability Panel (GSP), a related initiative of the UN Secretary-General. These case studies will allow for a broader discussion on issues of sustainable development, global governance and the role of multilateral institutions in addressing today’s global challenges.
Guest speaker’s CV
Dr Georgios Kostakos is currently an independent consultant on global challenges and sustainability, governance and UN affairs based in Brussels, Belgium. He holds an MA and a PhD in International Relations from the University of Kent at Canterbury (UK), and a Mechanical Engineering degree from the National Technical University of Athens (Greece).
From September 2010 to July 2012 he served on the secretariat of the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability (GSP) as Senior Adviser and Acting Deputy Executive Secretary. Before that he worked as Senior Programme Officer in the Secretary-General’s Climate Change Support Team (CCST) and as Senior Policy Adviser on climate change in the Secretariat of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB). He had earlier served with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat; the Strategic Planning Unit at the Executive Office of the Secretary-General; the Department of Safety and Security; the Department of Political Affairs; and on UN field missions in South Africa, Mexico, Haiti and Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Outside the United Nations system, he has been an associate of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) and the University of Athens in Greece. Either as a practitioner or as an academic he has been dealing with issues of global sustainability, climate change, UN system coordination, UN reform and policy planning, political affairs, conflict resolution, peacekeeping and peacebuilding.