Climate

The question of CO2 removals was part of the negotiations on Article 6. 4 of the Paris Climate Agreement at the UN climate conferennce COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh. Erika Lennon of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) explains what the issues and concerns were at the conference around this topic.

As central banks tighten monetary policy, dozens of climate-vulnerable, highly-indebted countries teeter on the edge of a financial abyss. To address the confluence of economic and environmental disasters ravaging the Global South, the international community must provide immediate debt relief in exchange for green investments.

Before the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in Montreal, Member of the German Bundestag Jan-Niclas Gesenhues answered questions about the interconnection of the climate and biodiversity crisis, economic models that consider  well being, and more sustainable consumption.

With the future of biodiversity on the line, UN member states meeting in Montreal this December must set a framework for a new conservation paradigm.

The Egyptian regime is using COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh to distract from its ongoing crackdown on civil society by touting its sustainability credentials.

The Egyptian military dictatorship hosting this year's COP poses a political challenge for all participants. But upon close inspection, reference points for demanding human rights emerge.

In the run-up to COP27, we note with great concern the human rights situation in Egypt. Therefore, together with other international and German civil society organisations, we have signed the Egyptian Human Rights Coalition's petition to the COP27.

Rich nations must prove they are willing to hold up their end of the climate bargain of the Paris Agreement at COP27.

In its latest assessment report the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that one in three people is extremely vulnerable to climate change. This vulnerability is intertwined with social inequality and therefore unequally distributed across the globe.  The assessment results emphasize a central question of our time: how can we protect affected population and adapt to present and future change in the climate?

The US Congress has passed the most comprehensive American climate legislation ever. With President Biden's signature, the $369 billion package is now law. What's in it?

Emilia Reyes is an international advocate for women's rights and expert on gender responsive public policies and budgets and sustainable development, including comprehensive disaster risk management and climate change. She highlights the necessity of degrowth and the issues of our global neoliberal system.

Tarcila Rivera Zea from the Quechua-Chanka Nation of Peru has been an important indigenous activist and recognized defender of the rights of indigenous girls, women, youth and peoples for more than 40 years. She provides wisdom on how to educate young people to value Mother Earth.

Keya Chatterjee is the Executive Director of US Climate Action Network (USCAN) and author of the book The Zero Footprint Baby: How to Save the Planet While Raising a Healthy Baby. She lays out how to defend democracy and fight the climate crisis.

Hilda Flavia Nakabuye is a Climate, Gender and Environmental Rights Activist, Public Speaker, Writer and Founder of Fridays For Future - Uganda. She exlains how climate justice necessarily means social justice.

Anna Cavazzini has been a member a Member of the European Parliament for The Greens/EFA since 2019. She gives her thoughts on what needs to be done to secure a circular economy and a just transition.

Global environmental policy 50 years after Stockholm 1972. In this dossier we do not only look back at 50 years of global environmental policy, but also forward: What can we do better now to ensure the necessary transformation still succeeds?

Loss of biodiversity, global warming, the hole in the ozone layer – in the past fifty years, humanity has tackled major problems. But how did we do?

In June 2022, the world will meet in Stockholm for the anniversary of the first UN conference. Now it must not only name the problems, but also point the way to the future. 

What have we learned from the last 50 years? This review highlights some important milestones in global environmental policy. 

Climate, a pandemic, armed conflicts and hunger – "multilateralism as usual" will not be enough, if we want to get a grip on the overlapping crisis.