President Biden delivered his annual State of the Union Address last evening. It’s always a momentous night in Washington and every year I recall addresses from years past. Many of those memories are from working the run-up to the event, from watching with colleagues in various marble halls of government and from venerable viewing perches like Off the Record.

The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) begins Monday in Davos. This year’s theme is Cooperation in a Fragmented World, which captures the crucial point that collaborative solutions are needed if we are to mitigate the critical global risks we are currently facing.

The 15th conference of the parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity concludes in Montreal today. The conference serves as a biennial convening of global governments to set 10-year goals on conservation and sustainable resource use and to carve a path to mitigate biodiversity loss.

Many charitable organizations are conducting year-end wrap-ups including assessments of key accomplishments and metrics, annual reporting and board meetings. Given the complexity of IRS and state charitable org regulations for public charities and private foundations, governance is often seen as checklist when it is in practice dimensional as it must be incorporated into organizational strategy and operations to be effective.

The global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions map has been circulating recently and receiving its due reaction. The visual depiction is striking. The more radiant the light, the more intense the CO2 emissions. The graphic, produced by geospatial data scientist Adam Symington (Python Maps), illustrates CO2 emissions around the world based on the European Commission’s 2018 tracking data.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by United Nations Member States in 2015, launched the well-known Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 17 SDGs were designed as imperatives to be achieved through partnership with the understanding that strategic and collective action was necessary for progress. The United Nations General Assembly meeting this year marked the midpoint in the SDG timeline and with it came the warning that we are not on track to meet the goals.

The 27th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) closed yesterday in Sharm El Sheikh. The convening has historically provided a forum for governments around the globe to align commitments and to discuss paths forward to mitigate the impacts of climate change.