The international community is focusing increasing attention on the need for more informatioon and transparency on climate finance. This brief reflects on the practical experience of monitoring climate finance from Climate Funds Update (CFU), a joint initiative of the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Overseas Development Institute.
The World Bank's May 2012 volume on "Inclusive Green Growth" has some positive solutions to offer, but falls short in several crucial ways: the lack of emphasis on poverty reduction, equality and human rights; an uncritical regard for market mechanisms to govern asset markets, and a view of infrastructure as the “heart of green growth,” among other things.
Is it hysteria or emotional populism that Germany has decided to phase out nuclear energy? On the contrary, a majority of Germans has been unconvinced of its merits since the early 1980s; the source of this anti-atom consensus lies in the persuasive, fact-based arguments of a powerful, grassroots social movement.
Recognizing the significance of inequitable gender relations for women’s vulnerability to climate change, this study analyzes if and how an adaptation measure involving a relocation program that gives titles to new public housing to women implemented in response to severe flooding in the Mexican state of Tabasco in 2007, has contributed to modifying gender relations and strengthening gender equality.
The chemical industry in Germany plays a key role in the economy as a whole and the country's international competitiveness. It provides more than 290,000 well paying jobs. The capacity of the chemical industry for innovation is crucial for finding solutions to some of the major challenges of our time such as climate change and the resource crisis: chemicals can help to insulate buildings, generate solar power, build cleaner cars and increase material efficiency.
Recent estimates of global fossil fuel subsidies for production and consumption are staggering, putting the total near US$730 billion annually or higher. This analysis looks at ways that fossil fuel subsidy phase out can benefit the climate and recommends actions that can be taken immediately in the UNFCCC.
Since 2002, the world community has been struggling to formulate a framework for sustainable consumption and production. In this paper, "Preventing Wall-E", Victoria Floor describes the struggle, the high stakes and the importance of a Rio +20 agreement.
Germany has seen record investments in solar energy. Thus, coal and nuclear utilities are calling for an end to solar incentives. They might be able to delay the boom of solar power. But it is too late to stop it altogether, argues Volker Quaschning in this article.
In this essay, the president of the Heinrich Boell Foundation, Barbara Unmuessig, critically reflects on the opportunities for and the shortcomings of the concept of a "Green Economy" to influence economic policy making globally, its relationship to the paradigm of sustainable development and the need to rethink our understanding and focus on growth.
Can Europe assert leadership on climate change in light of its myriad problems? The EU was key in shaping the outcome of the last UNFCCC negotiations, the so-called Durban Platform. This paper analyzes the prospects for Europe to continue to act as a driving force towards a greener planet, both at home and abroad.
