Publication
Climate Laws in Europe
Front Page Climate Law Briefing
Essential for achieving climate neutrality
This report gives an overview of the climate law situation in each of the following countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Some of the participant countries have a climate law, for some it is in the pipeline and for others it is a bottom up push from civil society.
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News
Court taking evidence in Peru for RWE case
The RWE case is finally moving forward: in summer, the Higher Regional Court of Hamm will conduct a site visit to Huaraz. The visit had been delayed since 2019 due to the COVID 19 pandemic. In Peru, judges and court-appointed experts will examine the risk of glacial lake outburst flood affecting the plaintiff Saúl Luciano Lliuya’s house.
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Publication
Guidance Notes for Sustainable Urban Infrastructure Investment
Cover Leitfaden Nachhaltige Infrastruktur Investition
How the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) can advance the urban transformation
As the decade of implementation gets underway, public development banks need to follow up on their goals and statements of intent with action. The world's fastest growing development bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), plays a critical role in infrastructure investment in Asia, where the bulk of future urban development will take place. The challenges of the mega-trends of urbanization and climate change must be met with consideration for particularly vulnerable populations. To this end, this report provides a method of analysis based on seven principles to strengthen urban transformation in a sustainable and inclusive way.
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News
What does a just and inclusive Green Transition look like?
Afirca-Europe-Week
Africa-Europe Week

Together with African and European Civil Society Organisations and Local Authorities, we bring you two forums focused on moving the Africa-EU partnership forward through “Participatory and transparent governance: A people-centred approach”. The programme includes joint opening and closing sessions, which will concentrate on the roles of CSOs and LAs in the partnership; as well as two dedicated forums discussing the themes and topics pertinent to each stakeholder group.

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Publication
Criteria for an effective and socially just EU ETS 2
Titelbild Criteria for an effective and socially just EU ETS 2
Assessment of the EU Commission’s Proposal on an EU ETS for buildings & road transport (EU ETS 2)
In July 2021, the European Commission proposed introducing an emissions trading system for transport and buildings. Does the proposal meet the requirements of effective climate action and social compatibility? Where should improvements be made? These questions are answered by the study “Criteria for an effective and socially just EU ETS 2 – Assessment of the EU Commission’s Proposal on an EU ETS for buildings & road transport (EU ETS 2)”, which was prepared by the Forum Ökologisch-Soziale Marktwirtschaft and the Forschungsstätte der Evangelischen Studiengemeinschaft on behalf of Germanwatch, Klima-Allianz Deutschland, WWF Deutschland and CAN Europe.
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Publication
Renewable Energy for a Decentralised, People-Centred Energy Transition in Africa
Titelbild Renewable Energy
A Factsheet for Civil Society
One of the challenges many African countries are facing is the lack of access to electricity. Addressing this difficulty is particularly complicated in rural areas where a connection to the national grid would require a big and often not feasible infrastructure expansion. This factsheet offers an overview of alternative solutions to grid-connected electricity, namely decentralised renewable energy (DRE) systems. The factsheet analyses advantages and challenges of these systems, informs about technical specifications, and gives an overview of the various ownership models of DRE systems. Finally, the factsheet gives recommendations for an enabling national policy on decentralised renewable energy.
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Blogpost
Ferrogrão - a new train for the Brazilian agribusiness
soja plants
Katharina Brandt
In Brazil, a railway project threatens to overrun the environment and the rights of indigenous peoples.
A thousand kilometer railway line is intended to make industrial soy production in Brazil cheaper and increase exports. As the second largest buyer of Brazilian soy, the European Union is already partly responsible for the social and ecological damage caused by soy production and for the expansion of cattle pastures in forest areas. Brazil's indigenous population are resisting the construction, pointing to the disregard of their rights and the threat to the climate and biodiversity.
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Blogpost
How to finally end deforestation in the EU’s supply chains?
Bild Containerschiff
The European Union’s high demand for soy still causes deforestation and nature degradation of large areas in the countries of origin. In an online seminar hosted by Germanwatch, researchers, activists, members of civil society organisations and political decision makers discussed different measures to end EU-driven deforestation and ecosystem degradation in South America, especially in the tropical dry forest of the Gran Chaco.

On 14 October 2021, Alejandro Brown, president of Fundación Proyungas from the Gran Chaco, researchers Laura Kehoe (University of Oxford) and Alfredo Romero Muñoz (Humboldt University Berlin) as well as policy advisor Barbara Hermann (Climate Focus) highlighted the impacts of deforestation in the Gran Chaco through international trade and the difficulties of a zero-deforestation approach. They warned that the Gran Chaco is in a very critical state and further deforestation could lead to the total destruction of the ecosystems.

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Blogpost
MDBs Pledged to Align Financial Flows with the Paris Agreement. They’re Not There Yet
Blogpost
Two years after the 2015 Paris Agreement, the world’s multilateral development banks (MDBs) committed to align their financial flows with the landmark climate pact’s goals. Now, four years later, it’s clear that as a group, the MDBs are still a long way away from realizing their commitment throughout their portfolios. While MDBs have focused on aligning direct investments with Paris goals, this effort is not sufficiently ambitious, nor is it complete. They have paid less attention to whether their indirect investments support climate goals. And policy-based loans — a favored instrument during times of crisis — also remain a blind spot.
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News
COP26 must deliver on Loss & Damage Finance
Cover offener Brief
AN OPEN LETTER TO WORLD LEADERS
More than 300 civil society organisations have sent an open letter to COP26 President Alok Sharma and world leaders demanding that COP26 urgently commits to deliver finance on Loss and Damage. Loss and damage refers to unavoidable impacts of climate change that cannot be averted or minimized through adaptation and mitigation activities. The poorest and most vulnerable countries and communities least responsible for climate change are already facing the majority of its negative impacts, but finance to address these is lacking.
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