Climate

Grand visions, bold announcements – yet implementation remains sluggish. Green hydrogen was hailed early on as a beacon of hope for the Global South, but the project risks falling into familiar patterns of raw material export and asymmetric dependency. 

Human rights expert Lotte Leicht explains how the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion reshapes the climate debate: states are legally bound to prevent climate harm. At COP30, states can no longer treat climate action as optional.

The recent ICJ ruling is a landmark decision for the fight against climate change, addressing state responsibility for ambitious, scientifically supported climate action. It also clears the path for potential climate reparations in the future.

Outside actors are increasingly looking to test speculative climate fixes such as solar geoengineering in African countries. But this potentially dangerous course of action would divert financing and support from real solutions.

Rights of nature require intercultural dialogue. Indigenous peoples actively advocate for them, but their worldviews and structures often differ from existing legal systems.

Climate-smart mining appears to be a better alternative to traditional mining, known for its destructive nature. By hyphenating ‘climate’ with smart mining, it is a repackaged tool to attract the mineral-rich but developing countries. 

Southeast Asia’s geographical location is blessed with abundant natural resources – minerals, forests, and wildlife. For hundreds of years, these resources have been a source of livelihood and even life for Indigenous peoples, as well as local communities. However, the capitalist perspective of development is rapidly encroaching on the mineral-rich lands of these peoples. 

Civil society open letter to the IPCC raising concerns around the planned Methodology Report on Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) and Carbon Capture Use & Storage (CCUS) and how it may legitimise unproven technologies and overreliance on CDR and CCUS.

The Rights of Nature (RoN) movement in the UK has been revitalised over recent years, with much of activists’ work focusing on local initiatives for river rights, networking projects as well as alternative, direct approaches.

Rights of Nature are a legal reality in many countries around the world and, since the recognition of the Spanish saltwater lagoon Mar Menor as a legal entity, also in Europe. In light of the ever-worsening ecological crises of our time, the idea of Rights of Nature has been gaining increasing traction in Germany.