Ashfaq Khalfan

Last week, we hosted a book launch event 'Eco-Social Contracts for Just and Sustainable Futures' with @gsos-lse.bsky.social at LSE.

The panel called for an eco-social contract that fundamentally redefines the relationship between people, planet & power.

🎧Listen to the recording: buff.ly/y8RJQgA

Legal and policy pathways for OECMs This study examines national approaches to OECMs and offers insights to help strengthen equitable and effective conservation toward the 30×30 target.

Fantastic to see this new WWF - @cisdl.bsky.social brief on Advancing Legal and Policy Frameworks for Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs): Global Lessons for Policy and Practice. Congrats to the entire team, esp. Dr Daniel Ruiz de Garibay www.worldwildlife.org/publications...

Tax the Rich. They’re Not Going Anywhere Christopher Marquis and Nick Romeo expose the fallacies behind the millionaire-exodus panic.

To develop a reasonable position on any proposed tax increase on the wealthy, we need to dispel the “millionaire exodus” narrative.

III working paper by @samfriedman.bsky.social, @andy-summers.bsky.social, Victoria Gronwald, and Emma Taylor cited in a new article for TIME ⬇️

Join us for this wonderful event on February 24. Thank you London School of Economics, @granthamlse.bsky.social @gsos-lse.bsky.social for hosting this important discussion on Pathways to Breathe Clean Air.

“This is the dismantling of the humanitarian infrastructure [in Gaza]. It sidelines principled humanitarian actors and replaces them with entities that lack clear humanitarian mandates – including privatised military contractors.” - Oxfam's Bushra Khalidi www.telegraph.co.uk/global-healt...

Eco-social contracts for sustainable and just futures For changemakers, students, and everyone seeking hope, direction, and clarity during a time of global uncertainty, join us for the launch of a book that serves as both a call to action and a guide for...

Details on how to register to attend in person or online: afsee.atlanticfellows.lse.ac.uk/events/eco-s...

Eco-Social Contracts for Sustainable and Just Futures This open access volume offers a transformative and actionable vision for sustainable and just futures, with examples from the Global South and North.

And here is the link to the book being launched: Eco-Social Contracts for Sustainable and Just Futures
Mobilising Collective Power to Deal with the 21st Century Polycrisis: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

The social contract is broken—and for much of humanity & nature, it never really worked. Join us this Wednesday, 18 February at LSE (6.30 - 8.00 pm) in person or online for a book launch on eco-social contracts with Mary Robinson, Najma Mohamed and Manisha Desai.

📮 Full text of the letter calling on the Government to engage with the growing risks First Past the Post now presents

✍️ Signatories include leading academics, political scientists and constitutional experts - including a former Chief Executive of the UK Electoral Commission

👇 Read it in full

Over 50 Academics Warn That Voting System Is Not Fit For Multi-Party Politics Dozens of academics have written to the government to warn that the current voting system risks producing distorted results on an 'unprecedented' s...

🚨 Over 50 leading academics have sounded the alarm on the UK's voting system

⚠️ In an era of multi-party politics, First Past the Post risks “random and arbitrary” results like never before

🗳️ The experts' letter warn Ministers they must address this to stem growing instability and distrust

Do you have a link to the letter. It was not provided in the article in politics home

At @australiainstitute.org.au webinar @josephestiglitz.bsky.social argued for very high tax rates on corporate natural resource super-profits.
As long as there are excess returns, companies will continue to invest.
Tax those super-profits heavily the resources belong to the Australian people.
Here⤵️

Today, Administrator Zeldin took a chainsaw to the Endangerment Finding, undoing this long-standing, science-based finding on bogus grounds at the expense of our health.

🪁 Join me as the UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment together with a diverse group of speakers to reflect on clean air from scientific, policy, legal, and human rights perspectives.

webinar advert: Climate Accountability & Asmania et al. v. Holcim, listing speakers, time and date

WEBINAR: What does the Asmania v. Holcim ruling mean for climate litigation worldwide?

Hear from plaintiffs & legal experts during our upcoming session:
🗓️ 16 Feb | ⏰ 11:00 CET
✍️ JOIN US: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Nearly 23 million extra deaths worldwide by 2030 as aid cuts bite, study says The findings – published in the influential health journal The Lancet – show that Donald Trump’s closure of USAID could lead to more than 14m deaths alone

“We are witnessing the impact of aid cuts every single day.” Magnus Corfixen, humanitarian lead for @oxfamgb.bsky.social says in this @the-independent.com piece. The piece looks at findings published in The Lancet on the impact of aid cuts globally.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

President Trump, along with the support of the world’s richest man Elon Musk executed a full-blown assault on U.S humanitarian assistance, one year ago. Today, Oxfam is bearing witness to the devastation these cuts have caused. 1/2

Between four noted tax havens (Bermuda, Switzerland, Ireland, and Singapore) PepsiCo is reporting it reduced its income taxes for 2025 by $661m, utterly dwarfing the effect of U.S. anti-abuse rules like GILTI.

Current U.S. tax rules are clearly not dissuading companies from the use of tax havens.

Quote from Beth John, Climate Justice Advisor at Oxfam; "Abandoning those most exposed to a crisis they did not cause, whilst doing very little to ensure the biggest and richest polluters pay their fair share for the climate damage they are responsible for is deeply unfair. Deciding not to fairly tax these wealthy polluters – which could raise billions of public finance a year without costing the UK taxpayer – is not just a conscious choice by the government, but a statement about whose futures matter."

“The UK should be expanding its support for communities on the front lines of the climate crisis - not shrinking it."
Following reports of planned cuts to the UK's climate finance budget, Oxfam GB joins calls for the UK government to increase climate finance and pay its fair share.
👉 bit.ly/4rvEN0X

Labour made mistakes in its Caerphilly byelection defeat. It may be about to repeat them in Gorton and Denton | Will Hayward In Wales, Plaid Cymru sailed through as the anti-Reform party, at Labour’s expense. Unless lessons are learned, the Greens could do the same, says Guardian columnist Will Hayward

"If Keir Starmer takes one thing from both Caerphilly and Gorton, it needs to be about the voting system. The archaic dog mess that is first-past-the-post needs to be ditched. It allows outright majorities based on a minority of voters."

✍️ @willhaycardiff.bsky.social

As we shape priorities for the coming years, I’d love to hear from policymakers, regulators and other policy influencers: Where would rigorous academic research be most useful to your work? Please get in touch and follow updates from @gsos-lse.bsky.social (7/7)

A core focus is regulation that advances environmental protection, human rights and social equity, while also being economically sound and able to secure broad public support (6/7)

We’ll work with colleagues across LSE focusing on politics, law & governance, a Global School of Sustainability theme of work led by Veerle Heyvaert, JoanaSetzer, Joana Setzer and robertfalkner.bsky.social, which links together 120 LSE researchers (5/7)

The goal: Policy-relevant insights that help strengthen regulatory design and implementation: What works, for whom, and under what conditions? (4/7)

What’s the SRO for? To examine how sustainability regulation works in practice: Its effectiveness, trade-offs, and unintended consequences in the areas of nature & biodiversity; sustainable finance & business; and energy & climate change (3/7)

Until the end of March, I’ll be part-time while I wrap up current projects at Oxfam America – modelling the principles of managed phase-out and just transition! (2/7)

I’ve recently started at the London School of Economics, helping set up the new Sustainability Regulation Observatory (SRO), part of the Global School of Sustainability @gsos-lse.bsky.social and sitting in the LSE law school @lselaw.bsky.social and Grantham Institute @granthamlse.bsky.social (1/7)

10 days. That’s all it takes for the richest 1% to blow through a year’s worth of carbon. Pollutocrats are living large and burning fast, costing people and planet. It’s time we hold the richest polluters accountable. Sign the petition to #MakeRichPollutersPay: makerichpolluterspay.org

Today, the richest 1% have already blown through their entire carbon budget for 2026.

Ten days of pollution.

A year of damage.

#PollutocratDay exposes how extreme wealth is incompatible with a safe planet.

youtube.com/shorts/zZ-EI...

#MakeRichPollutersPay

I'm proud to have co-authored this paper together with Martin Brehm Christensen, @Anders Sypniewski Dahlbeck, @christianhallum.bsky.social and Alex Maitland with input with a wide variety of colleagues across Oxfam and partners (14/14)