North America: ice age legacy Peatland Atlas 2023 One-third of the world’s peatlands are in North America. Those landscapes close to urban areas have suffered severe degradation, and urgent repair work is needed to restore them. In the north of the continent, peatlands are increasingly threatened by the oil and mining industries. By Maria Strack , Marissa Davies and Curt Richardson
Civil society proposals to reconcile trade rules with the need for regulatory action Commentary When governments adopt new legislation, they need to check if their plan is in line with international agreements they signed up to. Consumer and digital rights organisations from the EU and the US are concerned that rules in trade agreements could deter domestic regulation that is in the public interest. To address this, the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung and Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue organised a discussion between NGOs, public officials, parliamentarians, and academics. The NGOs aimed to raise awareness and find solutions to prevent trade rules from discouraging government action and ensure improved protection for citizens writes Léa Auffret. By Léa Auffret
Regulating at a glacial pace: barriers to progress written into our trade regimes Commentary We’re at a climate tipping point, yet international trade rules remain a persistent barrier to climate action. Momentum is also quickly building toward a digital tipping point: one where Big Tech surveillance is too far out of control to reign in, and where human rights and democracy only exist at the whim of tech corporations. Recurrent trade pressures could impact the willingness of the EU and the US to take action to better protect consumers in the digital market, or even to act to fight against climate change. So how did we get here, and what role do the new US–EU cooperation venues have to play? By Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue
Why the European response to the IRA must be more Europe Commentary The EU’s half-baked response to the U.S. investment offensive is putting its competitiveness and our future prosperity at risk. Now is the time for deeper European integration and major adjustments to EU treaty law. By Jan Philipp Albrecht
2022 US midterms Dossier On 8 November 2022, a new US Congress will be elected. What are the main points of debate? What will the results mean for the transatlantic relationship, for the climate, and for the world? How do elections function in the US? The Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung's Washington, DC office tries to answer these questions and more.
Climate pragmatism or Faustian bargain? What the new US climate law does—and where it fails Analysis The Inflation Reduction Act is seen as an expression of climate pragmatism by some and a Faustian bargain with the fossil fuel industry by others. What exactly is it? By Liane Schalatek
Abortion rights in the United States: The end of Roe v. Wade Interview On Monday night, a surprise draft ruling by conservative Justice Samuel Alito was released in the U.S. indicating that a majority on the Supreme Court wants to reverse the legalization of abortions. Ella Müller, director of the Democracy Programme at the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Washington, DC, puts this impending caesura and the political developments behind it in context. By Carl Roberts
Artificial Intelligence: “Talk about an AI divide between the US and the EU is exaggerated” Interview A Bill of Rights for the AI-enabled world, regulatory challenges, and socio-technical risks: Jessica Newman, who leads the AI Security Initiative at UC Berkeley’s Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, discusses recent AI developments in the United States and Europe with our Transatlantic Media Fellow Ekaterina Venkina in an interview for BigData-Insider. By Ekaterina Venkina
“We need to be careful what we optimize our AI systems for” Interview How do we preserve our humanity in a world of intelligent machines? AI researcher Mark Nitzberg on the need to build AI models that are safe for humans and make explainable decisions – and why standards and oversight are key. Our fellow Ekaterina Venkina interviewed the Executive Director at the Center for Human-Compatible AI at UC Berkeley (CHAI) for RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND). By Ekaterina Venkina
22nd Foreign Policy Conference Online conference The aggravating climate crisis has made the implementation of the Paris Agreement a central issue in German and European foreign policy. Nevertheless, the integration of climate and foreign policy is still fraught with uncertainties, both in its geostrategic and in its operational dimension. The 22nd Foreign Policy Conference of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung will focus on current debates at the intersection of foreign and climate policy and assess the prospects for a new carbon-neutral foreign policy.