Climate & Environmental Policy

On Thursday March 17th at the U.N.’s 60th Commission on the Status of Women,  hbs North America led a parallel event entitled “Why Are Gender Considerations Key for Climate Finance Actions?” Here is a quick peek into the outcomes of the discussion. 

What is the Green Climate Fund? Is it gender-responsive? Will communities profit directly from its funding? How will civil society groups find out if the GCF is funding a project in their country or community? These are some of the questions that this set of five easy-to-read fact sheets answers in straightforward understandable language.  

Instead of changing our economic system to make it fit within the natural limits of the planet, we are redefining nature so that it fits within the economic system.

Some twenty-four years after the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a lot has been done to advance climate change law, both internationally and in Germany and the European Union. However, neither international law nor national law have been able to achieve true progress. Global emissions continue to rise, and the anticipated impacts of climate change are now becoming reality. 

Engulfed in an environmental scandal about lead-contaminated drinking water, the city of Flint, Michigan, has come to epitomize the decrepit state of America’s infrastructure, environmental racism, and mismanagement at the hands of public authorities.

More than two thirds of anthropogenic GHG emissions are caused by only 90 companies. These oil, coal and gas companies are reaping exorbitant profits and are getting huge government subsidies. It’s time to make them pay a levy for the loss and damage they cause. A proposal from the Climate Justice Programme (CJP).

The history of climate policy is also one of the massive sway of the energy industry lobby. More recently, however, that lobby is having to surrender its forts- is dirty business losing its sway on politics? 

The transition to a low-carbon energy system can only succeed if we switch to renewable energy and energy efficiency while parting from fossil fuels. Already, the global share of renewable energy in electricity production has increased sharply. Nevertheless, many new coal power plants, anticipated to run for many decades, were connected to the grid in recent years. How do these divergent trends add up? 

Globally, political leaders are lauding the acceptance of the global and legally binding Paris Agreement on Climate Change at COP 21 as a historical moment. It achieves a goal long believed unattainable. However, judged against the enormity of the challenge and the needs and pressure from people on the ground demanding a global deal anchored in climate justice (“system change, not climate change!”), the Paris Agreement can only be called a collective failure and disappointment. Read a critical assessment by hbs colleagues from around the world.