Articles

Governments worldwide have been adopting national AI strategies to guide the design of policies for enhancing Artificial Intelligence (AI) development. Through these strategies, many countries have expressed AI’s potential for helping combat environmental degradation, but almost none have reflected on the role of strategies in reducing AI’s own environmental impacts. This article discusses this trend and reflects on how public policies could help make AI development and deployment less impactful.

To achieve international climate and development goals, developing and emerging countries would need an additional three trillion US dollars annually. But the Global South is currently groaning under the weight of an unmanageable debt burden. It’s time for a debt cut.

This webinar with EU DisinfoLab took place on 16 April 2024, with Devin Bahceci, expert from the Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD), who shared his insights on how platforms have responded to the EU regulations to prevent climate disinformation.

The climate emergency is the number one policy priority, requiring a fundamental overhaul of our economic system. During the Val Duchesse Social Partner meeting, the European Commission announced the creation of a Social Dialogue envoy. However, the roles of social dialogue and collective bargaining remain underappreciated, and the European Institutions need to focus on strengthening the role of trade unions in shaping the just transition throughout the next legislature.

On 14 February 2024, more than 164 million people cast their votes in Indonesia’s presidential election, making it the largest single-day election in the world. Frontrunner Prabowo Subianto, Indonesia’s defence minister, won by a landslide. This article analyses what Prabowo’s victory means for Indonesia, as well as EU–Indonesia relations, by looking at the current state of the relations and Prabowo’s recent nationalistic discourse.

With this media fellowship, the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Washington, DC gives a select number of US- or Canada based journalists the opportunity for on-the-ground reporting on climate disinformation case studies in North America. The articles will be published as part of a Böll dossier on battling climate disinformation. Deadline for applications: Wednesday, 15 May 2024.

Governments around the world are trying to tackle “Big Tech”, and in Canada, the government has rolled out a package of digital legislation: Bill C-11 and C-18. But it isn’t without controversy. This Böll.Spotlight podcast episode takes a closer look at these bills, how they’ll affect the average Canadian, the criticisms and what this means for European legislation.

News outlets have a complex love-hate relationship with the far right, marked by antagonism and mutual benefit. Far-right specialist Cas Mudde shares a few simple tips on how to inform citizens without falling into the traps of laziness, manipulation and connivance.

In late 2019, the European Green Deal was presented with pomp and circumstance, garnering widespread support. Just over four years later, as the current EU political cycle comes to an end, this support is withering. The European Commission has shelved parts of the Deal, scrapping proposals to halve the use of pesticides, for example. In the Council, the Nature Restoration Law hangs in the balance. And in the European Parliament, the conservatives have worked to reduce the ambition of the Green Deal, while  the liberals have called for a “regulatory pause”. Meanwhile, the social democrats are campaigning to put the social dimension front and centre.

The AI Act has finally overcome its latest hurdle in the European Union’s legislative procedure after its adoption by the European Parliament. However, a void in its final version draws attention to the weakening of obligations aimed at reducing AI’s environmental impacts, despite the technology’s severe impacts on local communities, fauna and flora, both within and beyond European borders, particularly in the Majority World. This commentary investigates the opportunities missed by EU bodies to address such impacts during the AI Act debates.