Ecology

Migration policy, economic and trade policy, health policy, technology policy, and climate policy are increasingly being thought of in terms of “security”.

Finance for Loss and Damage was a critical issue in the lead up to and at COP26. While the outcome in the Glasgow Climate Pact was underwhelming—a push by developing countries to establish a Glasgow Loss and Damage Facility could not overcome developed countries’ strong resistance—the momentum gained on this issue, if not derailed, can lead to more success at COP27 in Egypt.

COP26 in Glasgow started with a plethora of declarations. But in the end it failed to deliver on the real and immediate action needed to avoid climate catastrophe, and to address the demand for justice and equity for those most impacted by climate harms.

That was Silke Helfrich’s life, and that is what it will remain. Now we are grieving her, our staff member for many years, our colleague, our friend. We are all shaken that Silke was fatally injured on 10 November. She was torn from this world. Her wonderful work will remain with us and inspire us. We will treasure and promote it. We extend our deep sympathy to her family.

The development and diffusion of precision agriculture might speed up since fresh money could become available through eco-schemes under the new CAP Strategic Plans. How does the EU support precision agriculture and what does it mean from a global south perspective? This article looks at the case of Rwanda and suggests technological developers and policy makers to proceed with caution to avoid widening inequality between smallholders and commercial farms, privacy breaches or undesired data dependency on tech giants like Google.

The fossil fuel industry tries to present carbon dioxide removal technologies as a safe and effective technical solution to climate problems. However, they have not been proven to be safe and effective. Although the technologies have been extensively subsidized and promoted for several decades – with both public and private funding – there has been no significant progress in their development. Many projects have been abandoned due to high costs or technical problems.

This online event was organised to discuss about how the EU Member States are advancing their preparations of the CAP Strategic Plans before their final submission to the European Commission. The main focus is on the fairness elements of the draft plans. Fairness is not limited to the monetary and distributional aspects of direct payments but encompasses a broader set of considerations, such as labour, market organisation, and targeting towards environmental needs.

COPs are a time of a plethora of announcements, pledges and initiatives by countries, businesses and financial institutes. It is hard to keep up and even harder to distinguish between newsworthy reason for hope and old wine in new bottles. Lisa Tostado reports on the climate “communication nightmare” of welcoming progress while emphasizing the persistent astronomical gap to what would be Paris Agreement-compatible.

Lisa Tostado interviewed Green MEP Jutta Paulus her about her expectations and initial assessment concerning this year’s COP26, as well as the on role of the EU and particularly Germany in international climate negotiations.

COP26 was supposed to be the “most inclusive COP ever”. Lisa Tostado reports on why the promised cannot be considered fulfilled and where inclusion and representation remain an issue to be addressed urgently.