Environment & Development Resource Centre (EDRC)

Environment & Development Resource Centre (EDRC)

Description

The Stichting Environment & Development Resource Centre (EDRC) was established in Amsterdam in 1991* as a non-profit foundation.

It's aim is to contribute to the achievement of global sustainable development - development that is environmentally sound, socially just and respectful of cultural diversity.

EDRC also serves as a catalyst for new initiatives to redress shortcomings in the international environment-development policy-making process. The Centre acts as an independent 'honest-broker', carrying out and commissioning innovative studies, promoting co-operation between the environment and development movements, between researchers and activists, and between NGOs and decision makers.

From 1988 through 1998 EDRC played a leading role in the preparations for and follow-up to the 1992 Earth Summit, organised a series of studies and conferences on Europe's role in implementing Agenda 21, in North-South trade and economic relations, and in North-South dimensions of urban environment and development, and, in 1994-1995, co-founded the European NGO Council on Drugs and Development (ENCOD).

From late-1998 through mid-2000, EDRC's Director, Ronald A. Kingham, served as European Co-ordinator for the Transatlantic Environment Dialogue (TAED) based at the European Environmental Bureau. This included the organisation of 1st and 3rd TAED conferences in Brussels in 1999 and 2000. These were followed in 2000-2001 with EDRC organising (in association with European Partners for the Environment) 2 multi-stakeholder transatlantic workshops on sustainable and multi-functional agriculture at the Luso American Development Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal.

In 2000-2001, EDRC also assisted in the development of the European branch of Counterpart International including help in the organisation of "Contraction & Convergence: From Idea to Deal" at the COP6 Climate Conference, The Hague, November 2000 together with the Global Commons Institute.

In 2000, EDRC assisted the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the Consortium for North-South Dialogue on Climate Change in the development and implementation of a survey and data system for the study: “Who Needs What to Implement the Kyoto Protocol? An Assessment of Capacity Building Needs in 33 Developing Countries”.

Also in 2000-2001, EDRC helped to establish and co-ordinate the European Rio+10 Coalition and its "Europe in the World" Contact Group preparing for Europe's role in the World Summit on Sustainable Development. EDRC also assisted in the organisation of the 1st and 2nd European Rio+10 Conferences in Brussels in June 2000 and May 2001.

In 2002, EDRC was a partner in the founding of the Institute for Environmental Security (IES) established in The Hague, with representatives in Brussels, London, Vienna, Beirut, Islamabad, Addis Ababa, Beijing, California, New York, Toronto and Washington, DC. The Institute's mission is "To advance global environmental security by promoting the maintenance of the regenerative capacity of life-supporting eco-systems." Its multidisciplinary approach integrates the fields of science, diplomacy, law, finance and education. Activities are designed to provide policy-makers with a methodology to tackle environmental security risks in time, in order to safeguard essential conditions for peace and sustainable development. EDRC’s Director, Ronald A. Kingham served as the Director of IES until September 2017 and remains a senior advisor and the IES representative in Brussels.

Since 2017, EDRC coordinates the Brussels Dialogue on Climate Diplomacy (BDCD) which is an informal network set up for the exchange of information and to promote cooperation among European institutions and international organisations active in the nexus between climate change and international, national, human and environmental security.

 

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*Our sister organisation, the International Association EDRC was established in Brussels in 1988 and dissolved in 1998. During its 10 years of the operation, the association's membership consisted of individuals working primarily on international policy issues that have significant implications both for environment and for development. It was their shared conviction that neither area of concern can be effectively addressed in isolation from the other, and that, together, they should be at the centre of political debate on international economic, financial and trade relations - especially South-North and East-West relations.

The association worked with a variety of partners with a common interest in co-operating to overcome the environment-development policy log-jam. It promoted bridge building and active co-operation between the development, environment and conservation movements - North, South, East and West, and between representatives of non-governmental organisations and officials of international institutions and national administrations as well as parliamentarians, researchers, industry / the private sector, consumers' organisations and trade unions.

Activities focused especially on Western European environment, trade and development policies as they affected Amazonia, Africa, Asia and Central and Eastern Europe.

Categories

Non Governmental Organisation

References