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The EU Regulation on due diligence in mineral supply chains came into force on 8 June 2017. It aims to disrupt links between conflict, human rights abuses, and the global minerals trade, by requiring companies bringing ores and metals of tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold (3TG) into the EU—from anywhere in the world—to do so responsibly. The Regulation is based on the existing, internationally-endorsed, OECD standard for responsible mineral supply chains.

Applications are now open for the three-day training, where former US Vice President and Climate Reality Founder and Chairman Al Gore will train people from around the world to become Climate Reality Leaders and take action to address the climate crisis. This will be the first such training in Europe since 2013. The training offers the chance to learn directly from Al Gore and a lineup of renowned climate scientists and communicators on how to inspire action and lead their communities in fighting for a sustainable future powered by clean energy.

The project „Empowerment for Climate Leadership“ (ECL) is an extra occupational 18-months-online training course and exchange program. It is organized by the Climate Action Network (CAN) Tanzania and Germanwatch e.V. ECL supports 22 young professionals from Tanzania, India and Germany that are actively engaged in youth or civil society organizations for a global and just sustainable development. In April, the German participants had a preparatory meeting for the upcoming Tanzania exchange phase in Bonn, Germany and the Tanzanian participants met for a seminar in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

In only two weeks we will all meet again in Arusha. We hope you are feeling pleasant anticipation towards our next and final reunion. We also hope that you are full of curiosity about the program we compiled for you with the help of your good ideas, helpful comments and attentive questions. May this newsletter give you some insights on what happened so far in and around our offices and the ECL-project team. Perhaps it also helps you a little bit to shorten the waiting period. Thanks to Sixbert for the excellent preparation meeting at "Alter Zoll" bier garden!

Hope you are doing well! Only a bit more than 50 days to the next exchange meeting! Looking forward seeing you all in Arusha!
We hope you all make headway with the deliverables of the last modules or finished them already. If any problem occurs you can contact us any time and we find a solution together. Feedback for your deliverables from our side will be given in the upcoming weeks as soon as possible.

Coolproducts, a coalition of environmental NGOs, with the support of over 30 stakeholders across Europe and beyond (including Germanwatch), urge Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, to regulate smartphones by 2021 with requirements that will make smartphones more energy efficient and more durable, repairable and recyclable.

The project „Empowerment for Climate Leadership“ (ECL) is an extra-occupational 18-months-lasting platform of exchange and training, organized by Climate Action Network (CAN) Tanzania and Germanwatch. ECL supports 20 enthusiastic, climate-active young people, aged 20 to 30 years, who are professionally or voluntarily committed in civil society. Now, the second stage of the ECL-project is initiated

Dr. Jim Taylor, director of environmental education for the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) and & Dr. Mark Graham, director of GroundTruth, report about the consequences of the extreme drought in Cape Town (South Africa) and what kind of positive learn effects this water crisis has - besides the negative impacts.

India faces major environmental challenges with respect to the stress on its natural resources such as biodiversity and water and increased air, water and land pollution. All of these provide major challenges but also opportunities for development considering the path that India would choose to take. The development that is currently seen in the West with its high ecological and carbon footprint is not sustainable. Therefore, the developing countries simultaneously need rapid development, high population, increased aspirations and the need to protect the environment. We need to do this in ways which leapfrog the country to a more sustainable level of development than is visible in any of the models of developed countries today.

Loss and damage (L&D) due to climate change impacts is already a reality for many people, especially the most vulnerable. So far, there is no prospect of sufficient financial support for dealing with actual L&D within the climate regime (UNFCCC). Where international climate diplomacy doesn’t advance, affected people start to take the legal avenue to address the problem of L&D. Based on this assessment, this paper analyses the status quo of international climate change litigation, revealing how the current court cases are turning an abstract risk of climate claims into a concrete one.