Articles

With this fellowship, the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union gives a select number of journalists the opportunity for on-the-ground reporting on climate disinformation case studies. The articles will be published as part of a web dossier on battling climate disinformation. Deadline: Thursday, 5 October 2023, 23:59 CEST. Decisions will be made on a rolling basis. Early applications are preferred.

It’s been one year since the US passed the most significant climate bill in American history. The achievement, after years of failures, offers lessons for progressive movements on building coalitions, creating hopeful narratives, rebuilding trust in government-led solutions, and expanding grassroots support.

In her address, European Commission President von der Leyen missed the opportunity to develop bold proposals for the future. This contribution analyses her informal bid for a second term in office by looking at her thematic focuses.

In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Government, in power since 2010, has systematically curtailed LGBTIQ+ rights. Hundreds of such parents have adopted children with their same-sex spouses or partners, have given birth to children themselves or have availed themselves of surrogates to have their own genetically-related offspring. This article offers a glimpse into the lives of two such families in Hungary.

Since 2010, the Hungarian Government has been advocating for a conservative, restrictive notion of the family. The Ninth Amendment of the Fundamental Law led to the adoption of the so-called ‘child protection’ law (also referred to as the ‘anti-LGBT’ or propaganda law). This article tells the story of a successful advocacy campaign against these developments.

With more than two billion tonnes of CO2, the draining of peatlands is responsible for about 4% of all human-made emissions globally. This is outlined in the Peatland Atlas 2023 - Facts and figures on wet climate guardians, published today by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, the Michael Succow Stiftung (partners in the Greifswald Mire Centre) and BUND (Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland/Friends of the Earth Germany), with support of the Global Peatlands Initiative.

For thousands of years, peatlands have served as the backdrop for horror stories. In gruesome legends and lore, they swallow people and even whole towns, are the home of ghosts, the devil, and many other supernatural spectacles.

Rewetting drained peatlands will be a major challenge for societies all over the globe. Achieving success will take innovativeness, political initiative and a paradigm shift in the global economy.

Some of the world’s most important and most recently recognized peatlands can be found on the African continent. They are home to unique and rare flora and fauna – and threatened by the oil companies’ greed for money.