Asia

It is not always the lack of attention from policy-makers but their capacities and knowledge on environment-related issues that put the environment on the back-burner. In Pakistan, unfortunately, there is less sensitivity about the environment and ecological considerations in policy-making circles. Therefore hbs initiated a Green Parliamentarians’ Caucus in collaboration with a premier think tank of Islamabad, the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI).

President Duterte is the most controversial figure in the Philippines today, and arguably in the ASEAN region. He is now President of the Philippines, which chairs ASEAN in 2017. What is in store for the Philippines and for the chairmanship of ASEAN? 

A three day (29th, 30th August and 1st September 2016) initiative called “Reclaim Ecology in the Heart of Islamabad” was launched by Heinrich Boell Stiftung in partnership with Pakistan Youth Climate Network. It was part of hbs’ larger campaign on climate change and environment conservation called “there is no planet b.”

In Pakistan NGOs face harsh restrictions and human rights activists risk imprisonment and harrasment. It is important that the government recognizes the role of civil society and promotes a culture of cooperation and trust.

Civil society organisations can be a vanguard of progress for the LGBTI community. Despite the growing number of laws and policies impeding LGBTI advocacy, activists and organisations successfully challenge these trends.

India has the largest number of homeless and landless persons in the world, as well as the greatest number of urban and rural poor.  Shivani Chaudhry, the Executive Director of Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN), argues that the New Urban Agenda must pay more attention to the human right to adequate housing. Interview with Shivani Chaudhry.

Amitav Ghosh’s new book “The Great Derangement” examines climate change and climate policy from unusual perspectives. It is bound to get much international attention because it asks some fundamental new questions concerning the handling of climate change in literature and activist politics, and because it represents a well-known voice from Asia.

In the year 2016 exposure visits for journalists are taking place. They are taken to projects that are meant to mitigate or adapt to climate change such as renewable energy and reforestation projects. Location visits, meetings with involved communities and the project implementers provide the background for analyses and reporting back in the newspaper. Journalists likewise act as a watchdog and spread awareness to further promote climate-friendly initiatives.

After the UK vote for leaving the European Union, India, with historically close ties to Britain has to reassess its relations with both sides. A weakening of either the EU or the UK is against India's interests, which could lead to a revivification of the Commonwealth and to new multilateral free trade areas.

The UK’s divorce from the EU has diminished the hope of both the British and the Chinese in placing the UK as a spring board to the whole European market. Beijing is losing its newly acquired “best partner in the West”.