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The hostile environment created by the government makes the work of civil society actors practically impossible. To be a human rights activist in Macedonia is to be a person that is constantly threatened, attacked, and demonized.

Ralf Fücks visited the United States in the week after the elections for talks and events in New York and Washington DC. Reflections and highlights from a nation in shock.

Trade has contributed to inequalities in many countries. Therefore the G20 should ensure that its trade agenda does not conflict with that of the WTO or the United Nations. Many processes need to be revised to reduce so inequalities can be reduced.

Seven “Engagement Groups” circle around the G20 and attempt to influence its decisions. However, their relative power to influence outcomes differs greatly.

The Ebola crisis prooved, that the G20 aims to ensure infectious agents to not cross borders rather than acting in disease prevention. This is why there is a serious concern that public health needs of poorer countries will be ignored.

Discrimination in the healthcare system, exclusion from society, limited job opportunities - in South Caucasus LGBTI persons are still victim of discrimination and violation. An owerview of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Compared to COP21 where the EU had a decisive bridge-building role between developed and developing countries in leading a strong climate coalition, in Marrakesh Europe appeared silent and divided.

Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi decided to stake everything on the referendum: his personal credibility and his political legitimacy. His failure leads us to the question what kind of change Renzi was actually representing.

Parties to the CBD need to send a strong message to their climate counterparts to find real solutions that work for ecosystems and people instead of offering quick technofixes.

Along with 160 global groups the Heinrich Böll Foundation signed the call for a global moratorium on genetically-engineered gene Drives. Support against gene drives also comes from the German government.

The Group of 20 (G20) is a “club” of nations with significant influence. There is a significant democratic deficit in the G20 since its decisions and actions are not governed by international law and it is not accountable to representative bodies.

At the UN’s COP 22 climate conference in Marrakech, the international community closed ranks despite (or perhaps because of?) the election of Donald Trump as the next U.S. president.

What in the world is the Group of Twenty (G20)? We have chosen eight indicators to present the most important economic, social, and environmental data and created seven maps and graphics that present this comparison visually and at a glance.

Heads of state and government of all UN member states negotiated in the most comprehensive consultation process of the UN’s history so far, about the most urgent questions concerning the future. 17 goals of the "Agenda 2030" shall be implemented by 2030.

When a government takes on more public debt than it can service, there are serious consequences. Besides cuts in public budgets one country’s over-indebtedness can have spillover effects on regional or even global markets, as we saw in the recent Greek financial crisis.

The endorsement of the Paris Agreement at the Chinese G20 was clearly a step forward for energy sustainability in the face of climate change. Still the indications of how it might be achieved is limited in scope.

The G20 uses the term “Green Finance” as a broad umbrella term that refers to the major shift in financial flows required to support projects that benefit the environment and society by reducing pollution or tackling climate change.

G20 governments are spending $444 billion every year to support fossil fuel production. These financial flows are limiting the expansion of renewable energies that could curb global warming and meet a variety of sustainable development goals.

The Group of Seven (G7) and the Group of Twenty (G20) are informal governance clubs, which hold annual Summits of Heads of State to discuss issues of global importance.

Each year in December, a different G20 member country assumes the presidency of the Group. ➨ Read about how the rotation and the regional groups work.

Tackling corruption is crucial to the G20’s goal of generating inclusive growth and establishing a cleaner, safer, more sustainable economic framework. The cross-border nature of the problem requires global solutions, ones that the G20 must lead on.

Who are the G20 member countries? What issues do they have? Who leads? Our factsheet gives a first overview.

We don’t need any “reconciliation of the economy and ecology”. Instead, we should be saying no to destructive and exploitative projects and policies - and yes to a repoliticisation of environmental debate.

An underreported aspect of Viktor Orbán’s rule is the harm Fidesz is doing to the environment. Due to urban development projects all over Budapest, thousands of healthy trees are in danger of being cut down.

Marrakech was never going to write history on loss and damage in the same way that Paris did in 2015. Whilst the progress made in the Paris Agreement was tangible at Marrakech, rich countries didn’t allow a real breakthrough yet. The Marrakech talks did, however, lay some groundwork for future progress.

Pakistan might be one of the most vulnerable countries in the world when it comes to climate change – ranking seventh in this year’s Long-Term Climate Risk Index brought out by Germanwatch – but it still not focused on protecting its 200 million strong population from serious impacts such floods, glacier lake outbursts, and sea level rise.

Morocco’s elections in October 2016 were a test for the democratic transition that was promised by the monarchy in the context of the 2011 upheavals. However, the national poll showed indices of undemocratic practices.

Contrary to all forecasts, Donald Trump was declared the winner of the US presidential elections in the early hours of November 9, 2016. This marks a turning point for the United States, for open liberal societies and democracies in general. What happened, and what happens next?

On Thursday the 27th of October, United Nations adopted a landmark resolution to launch negotiations in 2017 on a treaty outlawing nuclear weapons.