Climate

Recent carbon-neutrality pledges may seem ambitious, but merely serve to promote a new set of false climate solutions under a different guise. Such pledges may persuade many people, but the climate isn’t buying it.

COP26 takes place against the backdrop of nationalist health policies with daunting consequences, failed promises to adequately scale up climate action and financial support, and an unprecedented push for false solutions that divert global attention from the urgent need to phase out fossil fuels.

At the climate summit in Glasgow (COP 26), the issue of climate finance is inextricably linked to success or failure. In Glasgow, past failures and shortcomings in climate finance mobilization and delivery must be ruthlessly addressed by presenting an implementation plan for future improvements.

CAN – the Climate Action Network - is the largest international civil society network, that has monitored the UN climate negotiations for many years. Whether at national or international level, how can civil society participation be ensured at all in times of pandemic? What does this mean for the capacity for action and strategy of a global network like CAN? A conversation between Tasneem Essop, Executive Director of CAN International and Barbara Unmüßig, President of the Heinrich Böll Foundation

The prospect of a green hydrogen economy comes with significant opportunities and risks. There is a need to both promote and carefully shape the much needed expansion of production, while limiting the end use of green hydrogen.

With the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the global community wants to make a new attempt to halt the rapid and dramatic loss of ecosystems, species and genetic diversity, or biodiversity.

At the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Kunming, China, the course is set for or against the conservation of biodiversity.

No Single Pathway. Southeast Asian countries’ targets and wish lists toward carbon neutrality are like individual recipes that use different ingredients in various ways, to produce the same dish (hopefully).

With this publication we want to make a contribution to a lively social debate. We want to present the causes of hunger and malnutrition and show that clear political rules and strategies are needed to counter these developments. We want to show that hunger and malnutrition are the consequences of injustice, instability and poverty – and that policies must therefore also address these underlying causes.

Most regions in the world have been – to some extent – affected by climate change, and Southeast Asian countries are no exception. Within the group of people who are affected,  recognition needs to be accentuated on the disproportionate impact of climate change along gender lines.

As well as in 2008, the very necessary, unavoidable actions of central banks now in the Covid-19 crisis have massive side effects: cheap money is fostering asset price inflation, fueling inequalities. At the same time, central banks are still disregarding climate risk in the way they treat fossil assets as collateral.

Crises are moments when the hairline cracks and chips in the structures of our societies start to show. Whether the crisis is of an economic, public health, rule of law or climate nature: for bold responses to the crises of our times, strong and progressive alliances are needed now more than ever. 

With the two-day Biden leaders summit on climate attended by 40 countries, the United States has returned to the international stage of climate diplomacy. Whether the increased ambition of new climate action pledges via video made by several core countries can be implemented in a binding manner, however, remains an open question.

On 22 April 2021, Joe Biden hosted heads of States at a climate summit, announcing a new climate goal of the United States under the Paris Agreement. In Europe, a compromise for the EU’s climate goal for 2030 was found. What do these targets mean in terms of actual emission reductions?

Most of food production in Africa is shouldered by small scale farmers and the majority of farmers are women. Alarmed by the effects of climate change on her family’s farm Ayakha Melithafa from South Africa’s Western Cape joined an environmental school club and engages now in a national and an international youth movements for climate justice.

Plastic is a material that used to be a symbol of progress and modernity. Now it represents an industry that subordinates everything to profit, even if the world is ruined in the process.

The financial industry also sees the climate crisis as a threat to future speculation profits. Industry giants like BlackRock are calling for an end to fossil fuels and siding with the environmental movement.

December 12, 2020, will be the 5th anniversary of the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement. This analysis provides important materials and pursues the questions: Where do we stand in dealing with the climate crisis? What false solutions must be avoided? And how can we push the urgently needed radical course change in pursuit of climate justice?

"Build back better" has been Joe Biden’s campaign promise. Climate policy is central to this, both in domestic and foreign policy. Ultimately, it is also a question of whether the Biden government can succeed in regaining lost credibility on the international stage.