International Politics

In the upcoming UNEA6 meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, to be held between February 26 and March 1st, Switzerland has proposed a resolution to advance global talks on controversial solar radiation manipulation techniques. 

The European Union has understood the importance of critical minerals in building a sustainable future. But neglecting to address the mining industry’s human-rights violations and environmental destruction could harm the ensure access to raw materials and boost the climate change.

The UN’s Global Sustainable Development Report 2023 shows that achieving the agreed targets requires sweeping reforms, not incremental steps. To ensure broad-based support for wholesale change, policymakers will need to create new narratives and pursue an equitable and just transformation.

In the climate negotiations at COP28, the question of financing the climate crisis will be at the forefront of the debate. However, many countries in the Global South are struggling to channel extra funds into climate action, due to the unfolding debt crisis.

Nuclear weapons have catastrophic long-term impacts on human life and our environment. Therefore, we have to listen to those most affected by the production, testing, and use of nuclear weapons.

Green hydrogen is increasingly heralded as the best alternative to fossil fuels. But to prevent it from becoming another excuse for greenwashing, Western policymakers must work with their counterparts in the Global South to create an economically viable sector with strong environmental and social standards.

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.

This analysis outlines the main critical areas of the upcoming negotiations and key demands from civil society ahead of the COP27 Opening Plenary.

In a joint declaration, nine organisations call for binding and ambitious sustainability criteria for the production and trade of green hydrogen.

Rangelands in dry areas frequently offer perfect conditions for renewable energy projects. However, project developers often do not take the consequences for pastoralist communities into account. A transparent and participatory process is needed that includes pastoralists and respects their right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC).

We are experiencing two very different pandemic realities between low-income and high-income countries. Unfortunately, instead of seeking a solidarity-based response, the international community has once again demonstrated its disunity in this health crisis. The task now is to regain credibility and rebuild trust.

In the second round of the presidential elections on 19 December 2021, Chile will be deciding between the far-right candidate, José Antonio Kast, and the left-wing progressive Gabriel Boric. Non-voters and anti-politicians may be able to tip the balance in these pivotal elections. Interview with Gitte Cullmann, office director of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung in Santiago de Chile.

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.

Starting from October 2021, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will begin using a newly revised but still problematic environmental and social framework. This framework contains the right words and appears to tick all the boxes, but it includes too many loopholes and caveats that undermine early disclosure of environmental and social risks.

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.

The Corona crisis demonstrated in fast motion the dilemma into which market-state-thinking leads. This is where commons come into play, i.e. what people do and are able to do with each other in a self-determined, self-organised, needs-oriented manner and without any marketing interest.

For the highly indebted developing countries, the corona pandemic accelerates the debt crisis. An interview with Barbara Unmüßig from the Board of the Heinrich Böll Foundation about the latest developments.

In the run up to the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325 (2000)) Women In International Security (WIIS) and the Heinrich Böll Foundation Washington, DC are launching an international graduate student essay competition 1325An Beyond.

The OSCE was designed to promote a culture of cooperative security in Europe. But in recent years military tensions between Russia and the West have flared up again. Can the OSCE help to defuse these tensions and restore confidence in the Euro-Atlantic area?