Climate Change

This Germanwatch study analyses CBAM perceptions in major EU trading partners and provides recommendations on how to increase their acceptability of the instrument. The study reveals that one of the keys for international acceptance of an EU CBAM is revenue recycling. The EU should use CBAM revenues to support the green transition of trading partners affected by the CBAM. We show that through a smart CBAM, complemented by offers of climate partnerships, the EU can set new standards of global climate cooperation.

Global efforts to realise rapid emission reductions and build resilience must be ramped up without further delay to meet the 1.5 °C Paris target and enable vulnerable communities to deal with climate impacts. Where individual states reach their limits in implementing the SDGs and Paris objectives, bilateral or multilateral partnerships can provide support for the necessary transformation to net-zero-emission and resilient societies. Partnerships are indispensable to achieve whole-societal transformation, as they enable countries to share knowledge, experience and resources. Germany entertains solid climate cooperation with several countries in the Global South. In this study, PAREMIA - Partnerships for ambitious resilience and mitigation action, we analyse preconditions for such partnerships with 13 countries and suggest thematic starting points for three of them – Chile, India and South Africa.

​​​​​​​In the light of the upcoming EU summit on 24 and 25 May and the publication of the European Commission's "Fit for 55" package, leading environmental NGOs from Poland, France and Germany joined together for the first time to challenge their governments and the EU. They are calling for more climate ambition, more solidarity among member states and responsibility of the member states for adopting the targets.

In its decision today, the Federal Constitutional Court has largely accepted the constitutional complaint of nine young people for a humane future: Freedoms and fundamental rights are already being violated today by insufficient climate protection. The legislator must adapt the Federal Climate Protection Act by the end of 2022. Lawyer Dr. Roda Verheyen (Hamburg), who represents the young people, comments on the decision: "Today, the Federal Constitutional Court has set a globally remarkable new standard for climate protection as a human right.

On 21 April 2021, the European Commission published its proposal for a new EU Corporate Sustainable Reporting Directive (CSRD). In a joint public statement, Germanwatch and other NGOs associated with the Alliance for Corporate Transparency welcome many aspects of the proposal, including the development of mandatory sector-specific EU sustainability reporting standards.

This year will be key for future climate policy and especially for sustainable finance in Germany and Europe. Sustainable Finance plays a crucial role in improving climate protection and sustainable growth. To this end, Germanwatch joined forces with the Alliance for Corporate Transparency in order to push towards greater corporate responsibility and disclosure requirements to meet the EU and Paris climate targets. In the second article of our briefing series "Full Disclosure: Monthly Briefing on EU Corporate Transparency Regulation", we aim to shed light on the revision the EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive carried out by the European Commission.

This year will be key for future climate policy and especially for sustainable finance in Germany and Europe. Sustainable Finance plays a crucial role in improving climate protection and sustainable growth. To this end, Germanwatch joined forces with the Alliance for Corporate Transparency in order to push towards greater corporate responsibility and disclosure requirements to meet the EU and Paris climate targets. This article kicks off and introduces our briefing series "Full Disclosure: Monthly Briefing on EU Corporate Transparency Regulation", in which we aim to shed light on the need for and benefits of forward-looking reporting requirements in a changing EU regulatory environment.

The Coronavirus pandemic has delayed the collection of evidence in the trial between the Peruvian farmer Saúl Luciano Lliuya and the German utility RWE at the Upper State Court in Hamm (Germany). Nevertheless, a new scientific study is providing credence to the legal claim: a prestigious team of researchers has used climate models to demonstrate that the risk of glacial lake flooding affecting the city of Huaraz is almost entirely due to anthropogenic climate change.

The Global Climate Risk Index 2021 analyses to what extent countries and regions have been affected by impacts of weather-related loss events (storms, floods, heat waves etc.). The most recent data available — for 2019 and from 2000 to 2019 — were taken into account. The countries and territories affected most in 2019 were Mozambique, Zimbabwe as well as the Bahamas. For the period from 2000 to 2019 Puerto Rico, Myanmar and Haiti rank highest.

Bonn/Berlin (25th Jan. 2021). Vulnerable people in developing countries suffer most from extreme weather events like storms, floods and heat waves, while the impacts of climate change are visible around the globe. Being the deadliest and costliest tropical cyclone in the South-West Indian Ocean, tropical Cyclone Idai was labelled “one of the worst weather-related catastrophes in the history of Africa” by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.