The notion of geoengineering includes a wide array of technologies that seek to intervene in and alter earth systems on a large scale – a “technofix” to climate change. There are many reasons to be wary of these technologies. They do not address the underlying causes of climate change themselves, anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, thereby delaying the implementation of a transition away from fossil fuels. Moreover, as they are very pricy, they redirect funding and investments away from real climate solutions.
A continuing insistence on nuclear will be detrimental to our ability to power a Just Transition: while the jobs it creates are few and primarily for the highly skilled, its enormous costs will likely result in austerity policies.
With a one-year delay, the 2021 UN climate change conference (COP26) is scheduled to take place from 31 October to 12 November 2021 in Glasgow, under the presidency of the UK. For the first time since the Paris Agreement, signatory states must submit updated and more ambitious greenhouse gas reduction pledges. Will they help closing the so far big gap between necessary reductions and reality? What are ways to achieve them in a socially and gender-just manner? What financing contributions are needed to support developing countries? What false solutions must be avoided? We explore those questions in various contributions, with a focus on the EU.
Related dossiers and blogs
The EU's Fit-for-55 package: The European Green Deal's fitness test
There is hardly any other food that pollutes our environment and the climate as badly as meat. However, no government in the world currently has a concept of how meat consumption and production can be significantly reduced. But if the sector continues to grow as it has up to now, almost 360 million tons of meat will be produced and consumed worldwide in 2030. With ecological effects that are hard to imagine.
Sustainable transport and mobility are key to tackle the climate crisis and to achieve the targets of the European Green Deal. However, transport today accounts for nearly 30 percent of the CO₂ emissions within the European Union. How can the EU reduce its transport and mobility emissions while connecting citizens, creating green jobs and leading the innovation in the sector?
The findings of this joint policy brief challenge the flawed underlying assumptions of the original EU Joint Research Centre (JRC)’s assessment, published in April 2021, which concluded that nuclear energy is detrimental neither to people nor to the environment. These concern chiefly four aspects: the role of nuclear energy for power generation in the EU27; nuclear waste management; the risk assessment of nuclear technologies; and nuclear proliferation.
The debate in France today on choosing the electricity mix is set against the backdrop of an ageing production infrastructure that is earmarked for replacement. So, what electricity mix is the answer? And does the country need to build new nuclear reactors in order to have decarbonised electricity?
To stop climate change, we have to limit global warming to 1.5°C. But can we still achieve this target? And if so, what pathways can society take in transiting towards a climate-just economy?
Both in Germany and internationally, the debate on the pricing of greenhouse gas emissions is experiencing a renaissance. However, an enlightened and realistic discussion of ways and means is needed so that CO2 pricing instruments can play a stronger role in climate policy. In this study, climate and energy expert Felix Chr. Matthes of the Öko-Institut examines the relevant elements of a CO2 pricing strategy. He gives an overview of design criteria and mechanisms of action.
This report maps the gender gaps and opportunities in the EU’s flagship European Green Deal. It explores how, though gender issues affect environmental policies and vice-versa, they are not integrated into the European Green Deal, and provides recommendations on how to move from gender-blind to gender-transformative environmental policies. These include intersectional and gender equal environmental objectives, moving towards a feminist economy of well-being and care and ensuring the use of gender mainstreaming methodologies in environmental policies.
The rate of deforestation in Amazonia during the Bolsonaro era has risen dramatically, now also spurred by the Covid-19 crisis. This publication takes closer look at the complex social, economic and political causes of deforestation and land degradation in the so-called "lungs of the planet".
Insects are a fundamental part of the basis of life in our world. The extent of insect mortality in Germany, in Europe and worldwide is therefore dramatic. The Insect Atlas 2020 explains why the industrial agricultural industry in particular is threatening the habitats of insects so massively, what ways out are possible, and many other exciting aspects. It provides data and facts about beneficial and harmful insects in agriculture, formulates criticism of the overly hesitant policy to protect them.