Publications

The G20 countries are responsible for around 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Last year, energy-related CO2 emissions in the G20 fell slightly for the first time, by 0.1% after a rise of 1.9% in 2018, without an economic crisis as a trigger. The key to these initial successes is the continuing boom in renewable energies.

African countries have considerable and largely untapped potential in renewable energies. They have the potential to leapfrog to smart, participatory, distributed energy systems of the future without locking themselves into stranded fossil fuel assets and overly centralised energy systems. Thus, African countries can show the way to the future through bold plans and on-the-ground implementation.

Rail is already one of the cleanest transport modes. A renaissance of a truly European rail network could not only make a major contribution to achieving the European Union’s climate targets but could also make Europeans feel and live European integration in daily life. Yet, decades of political focus on road and air travel as well as nationalist thinking have led to a patchwork of national rail systems, which are sometimes in very poor shape. Cross-border rail transport is the sore spot of the European transport system. This policy paper presents eight measures to start off the European rail renaissance.

The new EU-Africa Strategy was proposed in March 2020 by the European Commission and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. The aim is to strengthen cooperation in five key areas.

Germanwatch discloses: Chicken meat from the PHW-Group, Germany's largest poultry company, is almost 60 percent contaminated with antibiotic-resistant pathogens. This is the result of a Germanwatch study in which chicken meat samples from the three largest EU producers were tested in the laboratory. Every third sample even showed resistance to reserve antibiotics. These are emergency antibiotics that people need when other antibiotics no longer help. The more resistant pathogens are introduced into the food chain and into our kitchens with chicken meat, the greater the health risk that these last-line antibiotics will lose their effectiveness.

In order to strengthen corporate responsibility along supply and value chains, so-called multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) are often used nationally and internationally. Most recently, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) announced its intention to step up its efforts to promote EU-wide sectoral dialogues within the framework of Germany’s EU Council Presidency.

The Briefing Paper on the 12th meeting of the Executive Committee (ExCom) of the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage from 12-16th October 2020 is mainly directed at persons interested in the discussions on Loss and Damage within the UNFCCC process.
The meeting will take place in the middle of the Covid-19-crisis that comes across with severe challenges for vulnerable groups but also in regards of keeping up climate diplomacy.

Climate and disaster risk financing (CDRF) measures and activities that governments or other actors carry out can affect the enjoyment of human rights. The Paris Agreement therefore recognises that, “Parties should, when taking action to address climate change, respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights […]” (Paris Agreement 2015). This paper presents a human rights-based approach to Climate and Disaster Risk Financing (HRBA-CDRF).

To become climate neutral by 2050 at the latest, the European Union needs to reduce transport emissions by 90%. Rail as one of the cleanest modes of transport can play a key role here. On 21 September 2020, Germany as the EU Council Presidency is convening a Ministerial conference on rail transport. NGOs from Germany, Poland, France, Spain and Brussels are calling on EU transport ministers to initiatie a European Rail Renaissance. This would be a win for economic recovery, European cohesion and the climate. The declaration asks for concrete measures to make rail cross-border rail transport in Europe more attractive.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) was created to serve as one of the primary funding institutions of the international climate finance architecture under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement. Its overall goal is to promote the “paradigm shift towards low-emission and climate-resilient development pathways’’ by providing support to developing countries, specifically those that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt of global warming effects. With a portfolio of over hundred projects and programmes across developing countries, the GCF is expected to reduce more than 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gases and to improve the life of over 276 million (direct and indirect) beneficiaries across 97 countries.