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Large-scale wind farms and solar power plants are springing up everywhere one looks. That’s good for the climate, but small-scale farmers and the poor are becoming the pawns of hard-nosed business interests around the world.

Venezuela already overtook Saudia Arabia as the country with the largest oil reserves in the world and 2012 is likely to be a crucial year for the climate, as the country aims to ramp up production of huge reserves of tar sands-like crude in the eastern Orinoco River Belt. But economical exploitation comes with huge environmental concerns.

Madagascar is increasingly a target for extractives exploration and extraction.  Despite its unique eco-systems – the island is a biodiversity hotspot – extractive industries are regarded as one of the strategic pillars of the country’s future development. 

The huge 1,790 km square tar sands concession includes savannah, tropical rainforest and wetlands that are home to endangered bird species.The history of oil production in the Republic of Congo does not provide an encouraging scenario for future tar sands extraction. Testimonies by communities impacted by oil report intimidation by both the government and the oil companies.

In 2009 Trinidad and Tobago awarded a license to Petroleum Co. of Trinidad and Tobago Ltd. to explore tar sands at Parrylands-Guapo fields, which are thought to contain 2 billion barrels of oil. An Institute of Energy and Mining has recently been established that will "cater for the specific needs of what, in effect, will be an entirely new part of the local oil industry".

In July 2011, ISAF officially handed over seven areas to Afghan National Security Forces, beginning a process to gradually transition all security responsibility from international to Afghan leadership. Drawing on The Liaison Office’s experience in the region Loya Paktia, this paper examines the shortcomings of a transition strategy that focuses on security, while ignoring important social and political factors that could undermine the strategy. 

The current crisis is not a crisis of confidence, nor is it purely financial in character. The current crisis is, above all, a device for domination, spoliation, and precarisation. What we witness today is the depredation and expropriation of common goods, of wealth, and of rights. What we need is a common social, fiscal, and budgetary policy.

Germany appears to have come into its leadership role in the crisis involuntarily. Nevertheless, it is time that Germany also acknowledges that the crisis can only be overcome together with solidarity and stability and a sustainable future foundation for the European Union. 

Using the example of Greece, Anna Visvizi illustrates what kind of growth European countries need. She points out, that the strategy of the EU can not only focus on promoting economic growth per se but must be aimed at the fundamental factors for a sustainable socio-economic growth.

Some sort of fiscal and political union is feasible. Yet does it make sense for Germany to be in such a union? Isn't is about time that German consumers had their day in the sun? That, amongst other things, is what a euro break-up would deliver.