Oil Giant Royal Dutch Shell has known about climate risks of fossil fuel production for six decades. As early as the 1980s Shell knew about their accountability for 4 % of global carbon emissions. Still, while pragmatically protecting their own offshore oil rigs from the dangers of sea level rise, Shell massively promoted climate denial and climate obstruction as the CIEL report shows.

This synopsis paper provides a summary and analysis of papers produced by the Heinrich Boell Foundation offices in eight countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa. The scope of this synopsis is limited to these countries and focuses primarily on the need for a transition to renewable energy in the context of economic growth and climate change.

The European Energy Atlas shows a clear alternative: It not only provides a compass on the different energy discussions in different Member States but also reveals how a Europeanization of the energy transition will be the more efficient and cost-effective option for all Europeans.

Liberal democracies are under pressure, both worldwide and in Europe. For example, in Hungary and Poland, farright nationalist to nationalistic parties are in government and propagate an ‘illiberal’ democracy. The dismantling of democracy in an EU member state is not a national problem – it is a European one. The study makes clear the dilemma in which the EU finds itself and what possibilities for action are available to it.

Why are urban commons so crucial for a social-ecological transition? A review on grassroots initiatives for urban commons transitions in the global north and south and the construction of an institutional framework.

Argentina’s shale gas and shale oil resources are estimated in second and fourth place globally. Almost all of this potential is concentrated in the Neuquén basin in Northern Patagonia. This paper deals with the great risks to global climate and the impacts on the environment, health and society in the affected communities.

Over the last years, Asia has undergone an impressive digital transformation. Large parts of the continent have turned from the world’s factory into a creative industry.The different contributions across the continent highlight both the opportunities and risks of digitalization in Asia.

The prospect of controlling global temperatures raises serious questions of power and justice: Who gets to control the Earth’s thermostat and adjust the climate for their own interests? Who will make the decision to deploy if such drastic measures are considered technically feasible, and whose interests will be left out?

For the past decade, a small but growing group of governments and scientists, the majority from the most powerful and most climate-polluting countries in the world, has been pushing for political consideration of geoengineering, the deliberate large-scale technological manipulation of the climate.