Author: Secretariat

Opinion/Analysis: When Green Growth Is Not Enough

By Nick Meynen, EEB

In recent years, the concept of green economic growth, i.e. the expansion of the economy without an accompanying increase in environmental harm, has gained political acceptance. However, the idea that this policy alone is enough to deal with the environmental challenges we face appears to be founded on little to no scientific basis.

The empirical data and theoretical literature is both overwhelmingly clear and sobering: there is no evidence supporting the existence of a decoupling of economic growth from environmental pressures on anywhere near the scale needed to deal with environmental breakdown. This is the conclusion of the new report ‘Decoupling debunked: Evidence and arguments against green growth as a sole strategy for sustainability’.

The authors also explain that there are at least seven reasons to be sceptical about the occurrence of sufficient decoupling in the future: rising energy expenditures, rebound effects, problem shifting, the underestimated impact of services, limited recycling potential, insufficient and inappropriate technological change, and cost shifting.

To be clear: the fact that decoupling on its own, i.e. without addressing the issue of economic growth, has not been and will not be sufficient to reduce environmental pressures to the required extent is not a reason to oppose decoupling (in the literal sense of separating the environmental pressures curve from the GDP curve) or the measures that achieve decoupling. Quite the contrary, without many such measures the situation would be far worse. In other words, decoupling shifts us from racing down the fast lane to cruising along the slow lane, which is an improvement. But to get off the highway, we need to do more.

The true cause for concern is the predominant focus among policy-makers on green growth as a panacea, with this focus being based on the flawed assumption that sufficient decoupling can be achieved through increased efficiency without limiting economic production and consumption.

Sustained growth is not sustainable

This scientific finding is strongly at odds with the eighth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG8), which aims to “promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth”. While almost all SDGs have very important goals and targets that humanity desperately needs to achieve, SDG8’s pursuit of the economic growth is undermining the possibly of achieving the others.

The question now is whether governments will be willing to act upon the best available scientific evidence when they review SDG8 on 10 July in New York. Countries such as Finland have already reacted to this contradiction within the SDGs by downgrading the importance of GDP growth in their plan to achieve the SDGs, but the EU as a bloc has yet to admit that there is a problem with target 1 in SDG8.

Researchers have some ideas about the truly sustainable way forward. The main conclusion of ‘Decoupling debunked’ is that increasing efficiency only makes sense if it is part of a wider pursuit of sufficiency, which is the direct downscaling of economic production and consumption in those sectors where it is needed most. In the view of the authors and based on the best available scientific evidence, only sufficiency strategies respect the EU’s ‘precautionary principle’.

The report ‘Decoupling Debunked. Evidence and arguments against green growth as a sole strategy for sustainability’ was produced by the EEB, with the support of the German Alliance for Nature Conservation (Deutscher Naturschutzring), in the context of the EEB’s work on economic transition in the context of the Make Europe Sustainable for All (MESA) project. It was released on 9 July and can be downloaded at https://eeb.org/library/decoupling-debunked/

Originally published on 09.07.19 – https://meta.eeb.org/2019/07/09/when-green-growth-is-not-enough/

A Morning To Stamp Out Inequalities

By Marie-Amélie Brun, EEB

Inequalities are everywhere and they are growing. Activists organised a guerrilla action at the European Development Days to ask for political actions! META followed them around and here’s what happened. 

On 18 June 2019, activists fighting for equality in the EU and around the world gathered at the European Development Days to distribute a newly published report.

Inequalities in the EU are growing to the point that we might not deliver on the commitments it took with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Marie-Amelie followed around the team to learn more about the challenges we are facing and about the recommendations from the NGOs.

Originally published on 20.06.19 – https://meta.eeb.org/2019/06/20/a-morning-to-stamp-out-inequalities/ 

Europe’s Deepening Inequalities Are Leaving Too Many Behind

By Khaled Diab, EEB

Despite the European Union’s commitment to ‘leave no one behind’, millions of people in Europe are falling victim to widening inequalities, a newly released EU-wide report concludes. Meanwhile, European governments are not doing enough to bridge the chasm.

On Tuesday 18 June, ‘Falling through the cracks: Exposing inequalities in the European Union and beyond’, a major new report on inequalities in Europe was released by SDG Watch Europe and Make Europe Sustainable for All (MESA), two Europe-wide civil society platforms which seek to raise awareness of and promote the ambitious implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The SDGs are the world’s crisis plan to end poverty and protect the planet, and tackling inequalities is one of the 17 goals that all EU countries have signed up to deliver in the coming years. Inequalities also cut across and affect many of the other SDGs.

The release was timed to coincide with the European Development Days (EDD), whose theme also related to addressing inequalities and “building a world which leaves no one behind”.

A Fight Inequality campaigner talks about the report with a passerby. Image: Sonia Goicoechea

While visitors and delegates to the event received a wealth of information about inequalities in developing nations and how the EU social model could help tackle these inequalities, missing from the official programme was how the much-vaunted European model was under assault and how many forms of inequalities were widening in a part of the world which prides itself on its egalitarianism.

To raise awareness of this oversight, a team of ‘Fight Inequality’ activists, dressed fetchingly in sandwich boards with eye-catching designs, talked to hundreds of visitors outside the EDD venue in Brussels about inequalities in Europe and about the report.

“Inequality is not only a fact in the Global South, it is also a problem in Europe,” Patrizia Heidegger, director of global policies and sustainability at the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), said during a packed side event at the EDD.

“The EU is one of the wealthiest regions on the planet and prides itself on being a leader in social progress and sustainability,” she explained. “The reality is quite different.”

Fractured lives

‘Falling through the cracks: Exposing inequalities in the European Union and beyond’ finds that the European Union and its member states are failing millions of the most vulnerable and marginalised people in Europe and the wider world, as significant socio-economic and environmental inequalities worsen or persist.

The report maps the reality of various forms of inequality, both nationally and at the European level. It includes national reports from 15 countries that, together, represent nearly three-quarters of the EU’s combined population and 11 thematic reports exploring key dimensions of inequality, including gender, age, disability, ethnicity and homelessness.

“The gap between the richest and poorest in Europe is widening – 20% of the EU population earns less than the poverty threshold in their country,“ explained Ingo Ritz, director of programmes at Global Call to Action against Poverty, one of the organisations involved in the report.

But the story does not end at the chasm between the haves and the have-nots. “Across the EU, 10% of those employed and living in poverty. The gender pay gap in the EU is 16% and much higher in some countries. The gender pension gap stands at 40% in the EU, exceeding 45% in Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands,” Ritz elaborated. “The richest men in France have a life expectancy of 84 years, while the poorest men have a life expectancy of 71 years.”

Inequalities are also sharpening in other European countries too. In Germany, “40% of full-time workers live below the poverty line, which also affects the lives of families and children,” noted Anja Ruhlemann of Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF), which also contributed to the report.

When it comes to age, “young people have become the population group at greatest risk of poverty and social exclusion, with more than one in four young people affected by this risk,” the report observes in its chapter on youth.

In countries where age-related inequalities are at their starkest and where young people lack opportunities, there is enormous pressure to migrate in search of a better life. However, young people are fighting to create opportunities at home. “I don’t want to leave my country because I want to be a part of my country’s future,” Teodora Grau (16), a youth activist from Romania and a member of the World Vision Children Consultative Council, told the audience at the report launch.

Sustained demands for sustainability

‘Falling through the cracks: Exposing inequalities in the European Union and beyond’ makes numerous recommendations designed to tackle, reduce or eliminate the inequalities it highlights.

A group of recommendations revolve around repairing Europe’s frayed social safety net and strengthening it. Examples in this regard include introducing a basic minimum income for all, ensuring equal pay for equal work, and the expansion of social transfer and social protection policies.

On the other side of the balance sheet, the report demands that taxation policies be reformed to help reduce inequalities, protect the environment, to encourage more sustainable lifestyles and to avoid harming countries outside the EU. Several recommendations relate to human rights and policies to overcome discrimination against women, the young and people with disabilities, among others.

Rather than the current fixation on economic growth, the European Union should seek to enhance quality of life and welfare, the document insists. Towards this end, the report proposes that the EU be guided by a Sustainability and Wellbeing Pact.

Campaigners have been calling for the EU to put sustainable development at the heart of its agenda for many years. Civil society even launched a Manifesto for a Sustainable Europe in September last year.

Since the European election last month, demands have become more vocal for the EU to deliver on the SDGs, by making them and sustainable development in general the “golden thread” that runs through all of the EU’s work.

Originally published on 19.06.19 – https://meta.eeb.org/2019/06/19/europes-deepening-inequalities-are-leaving-too-many-behind 

Fossil fuel support is rising again in a threat to climate change efforts

By the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Fossil-fuel subsidies are environmentally harmful, costly, and distortive. After a 3 years downward trend between 2013 and 2016, government support for fossil fuel production and use has risen again, in a threat to efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, and the transition to cleaner and cheaper energy. Support across 76 countries increased by 5% to USD 340 billion in 2017, according to a new OECD-IEA report prepared for the G20.

OECD-IEA Update on Recent Progress in Reform of Inefficient Fossil Fuel Subsidies that Encourage Wasteful Consumption also shows that even in the group of 44 OECD and G20 countries, where fossil fuel support is still declining, the reduction has slowed down. Support in these countries was down 9% in 2017, a slower decline than the 12% recorded in 2016 and 19% in 2015.

The reversal comes as some countries reinstated stronger price controls on fossil fuels, in response to volatility in international oil prices, which made it harder to continue energy pricing and taxation reforms.

Some progress has nonetheless been made: the report finds that many countries, including Argentina, India, Indonesia and several Middle Eastern and Northern African economies, have continued to take steps to reduce support for energy consumption. Western Europe has completed its phasing out of hard-coal subsidies and efforts continue to end state aid to coal-fired power generation in the European Union.

Oil and gas industries in several countries, however, continue to benefit from government incentives, mostly through tax provisions that provide preferential treatment for cost recovery. Such policies go against domestic efforts to reduce emissions.

The report was presented to G20 energy officials ahead of the G20 Ministerial Meeting on Energy Transitions and Global Environment in Karuizawa, Japan, where countries reiterated their commitment to phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies and encouraged countries that have not done so to volunteer for a Peer Review.

“This new OECD-IEA report signals a worrying slowdown in our efforts to phase out fossil fuel subsidies,” said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría. “The critical nature of the climate change crisis has never been clearer than it is today. Countries should be accelerating their reforms, not taking their feet off the pedal. We cannot promote inclusive and sustainable growth if we continue subsidising fossil fuels!”

The report combines the IEA’s price-gap approach to capture the transfer to consumers of policies that keep fossil fuels below reference prices and the OECD’s 2019 Inventory of Support Measures for Fossil Fuels, which takes stock of spending programmes and tax breaks used in the 36 OECD countries and eight emerging countries (Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa) to encourage fossil fuel production or use. These include measures that reduce prices for consumers or that lower exploration and exploitation costs for oil and gas companies.

Increasing transparency on the use of scarce public resources can help to keep up momentum for fossil fuel subsidy reform. Building on the evidence brought to the table by the OECD, G20 countries committed in Pittsburgh in 2009 to “rationalise and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption.” Since then G20 countries – China, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico and the United States – have completed voluntary G20 Peer Reviews of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, and Argentina and Canada are just starting theirs. The OECD has been asked to play Secretariat role for all the country reviews, to chair and facilitate these processes, which have to date evaluated more than 100 government interventions relating to the production and use of fossil fuels.

“OECD evidence leaves no doubt” says Gabriela Ramos, OECD Chief of Staff and G20 Sherpa – “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies undermine global efforts to tackle climate change, aggravate local pollution, and are a strain on public budgets, draining scarce fiscal resources that could be invested in education, skills, and physical infrastructure. We urge all G20 countries to keep up the effort, and join the voluntary G20 Peer Reviews of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.”

Download a PDF of Update on Progress in Reform of Inefficient Fossil Fuel Subsidies  

See the OECD Inventory of Support Measures for Fossil Fuels 2019

See more OECD work on fossil fuel subsidies

For further information journalists are invited to contact the OECD Media Office (+33 1 45 24 97 00.)

Working with over 100 countries, the OECD is a global policy forum that promotes policies to improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.

Originally published on 17/06/2019 at http://www.oecd.org/newsroom/fossil-fuel-support-is-rising-again-in-a-threat-to-climate-change-efforts.htm

Sustained Pressure For A Sustainable Europe

By Khaled Diab, EEB

Civil society organisations from across Europe are urging European Union leaders to make sustainable development the golden thread running through all EU policies.

European Union leaders are due to hold a summit in Brussels on 20-21 June 2019 where they will hammer out the EU’s strategic agenda for the coming five years. A leaked draft of the five-year plan obtained by Euractiv reveals that the top priority EU leaders wish to pursue between 2019 and 2024, under the misleading heading “protecting citizens and freedoms”, revolves around migration, border controls and counter-terrorism.

While this may appear to be the populist thing to do, it is not the most popular, according to various opinion polls. Protecting the environment and sustainable living are popular amongst European citizens, regardless of their political ideologies. A near universal 94% of EU citizens say that protecting the environment is personally important to them, according to Eurobarometer, the EU’s polling agency.

Moreover, a recent YouGov poll found that the majority of Europeans polled were in favour of introducing greater protections for the environment, even it negatively affected economic growth, and that corruption, housing, health, pensions and unemployment rank above or equal to migration.

These trends were confirmed by what has been dubbed as the ‘green wave’ during the European Parliament elections.

Despite this clear preference for the environment among European citizens, the leaked draft plan relegates green policies to third place, behind migration and “developing our economic base”.

The golden thread of sustainability

Reflecting the clear preferences of millions of citizens to prioritise the environment, housing, health and employment, as well as responding to the urgent environmental and socio-economic crises facing Europe and the world, European civil society decided to join forces to demand the political establishment get its act together.

More than 150 organisations signed an open letter urging EU leaders to render sustainable development “the golden thread running through all EU policies” in the 2019-2024 strategy and beyond.

“Urgent action is needed to address escalating inequalities and tackle the climate crisis, stop the rapid loss of biodiversity, ensure sustainable consumption and production and quality employment for all, and manage a just transition towards an economic system founded on wellbeing and quality of life,” the signatories stated.

The letter was the brainchild of the European Environmental Bureau, the European Confederation of Relief and Development NGOs (CONCORD) and the Platform of European Social NGOs (Social Platform).

“The next five years will be decisive if we are to advance social justice, including by fighting poverty and social exclusion, creating quality employment, and ensuring the health, dignity and well being of all people,” says Kélig Puyet, director of the Social Platform. “To achieve this, our leaders need to do more than pay lip service to social and environmental sustainability.”

“The outgoing European Commission wanted to make us believe in infinite ‘green’ growth while leaving the economic system untouched,” notes Patrizia Heidegger, director of global policies and sustainability at the EEB. “We need the next Commission to focus on an economy for human well-being within ecological limits – and a political leadership that dares to ask: how much is enough to live well?”

Making Europe sustainable can only be achieved through sustained pressure. “The high priority that the large majority of European citizens assign to the environment and their active and constant demands for a better and more sustainable future are making a difference in the corridors of power in national capitals and in Brussels,” says Jeremy Wates, secretary general of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB). “But they need to keep up the pressure by making it abundantly clear to politicians that they will not settle for anything less than a sustainable Europe.”

Originally published 13.06.19 on EEB’s META: https://meta.eeb.org/2019/06/13/sustained-pressure-for-a-sustainable-europe/

Newsletter from the SDG Watch Europe network – JUNE 2019

See our full newsletter here. 

EDITORIAL: Towards a sustainable future: Time for bold and courageous political leadership
Statement on the European Elections 2019

Europe’s failure to stamp out inequalities – by EEB & GCAP

The Spring 2019 Climate Alliance South America Tour – Supporting climate justice with indigenous partners – by Climate Alliance

Do you want to learn more about the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals? A new game tests your knowledge about the SDGs and takes you on a treasure hunt through downtown Brussels – by EEB

Small Towns facing global challenges of Agenda 2030 & Petition to create European Day of Memory and Welcome – by Snapshots from the Borders 

 

 

Europe’s failure to stamp out inequalities

By Khaled Diab, EEB & Tanja Gohlert, GCAP

Despite the European Union’s commitment to leave no one behind, millions of people in Europe are falling victim to widening inequalities, according to a new major EU-wide report – ‘Falling through the cracks: Exposing inequalities in Europe and beyond’. The report will be launched on 18 June 2019 at the European Development Days (EDDs) in Brussels.

Please join this special EDDs side event on Tuesday 18/06 from 16:00-17:30 in Room L1, which will present the report, highlight the action and inaction at the European level, and feature the perspectives from youth activists, inequalities from a national context, as well as the inequalities experienced by disabled persons.

You will be able to download the report from 18 June at www.sdgwatcheurope.org/SDG10.

Read more: https://www.sdgwatcheurope.org/europes-failure-to-stamp-out-inequalities/

About the report

‘Falling through the cracks: Exposing inequalities in Europe and beyond’ shines a light on the impact of rising inequalities on people and planet. The report makes for sobering reading and maps the reality of various forms of inequality, both nationally and at the European level. It consists of 15 national reports and 11 thematic chapters exploring key dimensions of inequality, including gender, age, disability, ethnicity and homelessness.

Why this matters

The EU, the world’s second largest economy, prides itself on its egalitarianism and progressive social model, while glaring inequalities are seen as a problem afflicting other parts of the world. But this is not the reality – there are many forms of inequalities in Europe and they are widening. If urgent action is not taken to address these gaping disparities, the EU is at risk of not meeting its commitments to the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 10, to narrow inequalities within and between countries.

Civil society has taken the opportunity to provide an analysis of the different dimensions of inequality that exist – and persist – across the European Union. We are using this moment to present concrete policy recommendations to the EU, its new political leadership and its Member States. Our purpose is to provide information and proposals to address inequalities effectively – a first and necessary step towards ensuring a just transition towards human well-being within the planet’s ecological limits, and to leave no one behind.

This report has been produced as part of the pan-European project, Make Europe Sustainable for All, in close collaboration with SDG Watch Europe, and with the contributions of 58 organizations.

The report also contributes to the global Faces of Inequality and European Fight Inequalities campaigns, which gives social exclusion, poverty and discrimination a face. The campaigns are built jointly by members and partners – especially organisations of marginalized and excluded peoples.

About us

SDG Watch Europe is a cross-sectoral civil society alliance made up of over 100 organisations. It advocates for ambitious implementation of the SDGs.  

Make Europe Sustainable for All (MESA) is coordinated by the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and implemented in 15 European countries by 25 partners. It aims to raise awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

For questions and queries, please contact:

Khaled Diab

Senior communications officer, EEB

e-mail: khaled.diab@eeb.eu

Tel: +32 2 289 1369

Snapshots From The Borders

Small Towns facing global challenges of Agenda 2030 & Petition to create European Day of Memory and Welcome (3 October).

By Snapshots From The Borders

Migration is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon and a political issue which needs concrete actions taken by all levels of society. The project promotes a more effective policy coherence through a strengthened network of European border Towns directly facing migration flow. This is central to adress mobility and inequalities, build a world which leave no one behind. Critical understanding of European, national and and local authorities’ policy/decision makers and of public opinion about factors determining migration flows towards European borders, contributes to sustainable development.

Our campaign: No More Bricks in the Wall

The No More Bricks in the Wall Campaign informs European citizens about migration as a complex and multidimensional phenomenon and a political issue which needs efforts and concrete actions taken by people and organizations/networks at all levels of society. It wants to attract citizens in border areas and all around Europe both already working in solidarity with migrants and the most skeptical and critical ones.

Our Petition: Make 3rd October the European Day of Memory and Welcome

Borders areas want to raise their voices and call on all institutional levels (national & European) to implement coherent policies. People fleeing war and persecution very often do not have safe and regular alternatives to reach Europe. Only by making these solutions available urgently, people will not be forced to resort to traffickers risking their lives. By bringing voices and effective solutions from the border territories where migration is lived directly, we call for a fairer world.

Sign the petition here.

In 2016 the Italian Senate established by law that the date of 3 October would be the Day of Memory and Welcome, to be celebrated every year to remember and commemorate all the victims of immigration and to promote awareness and solidarity initiatives. It is time we introduce this day in entire Europe.

Since 3 October 2013, over 17,900 migrants and refugees have died or are missing in the Mediterranean Sea. While 2016 was the most lethal year, with 5,096 people who lost their lives in a desperate attempt to find salvation in Europe. In 2018 one out of every 18 people who crossed the Mediterranean heading to Europe lost his/her live: an unacceptable human cost and an unacceptable human statistic.

The 3rd of October will be a day to commemorate and reflect on these human losses; a day where wrong policies confront our individual and European values which should always stand higher. A day to remember the past, to correct the present and to envision our European future of solidarity and respect of all human lives.

Our Borders Towns and Islands Network

Strengthened networks of border towns and islands for equal opportunities, poverty reduction, gender equality and sustainable development

The Border Towns and Island Network allows border towns and islands to host migrants in solidarity and dignity, improving the human conditions of migrant people hosted but keeping in the focus also the need of local people and communities hosting. It is a network of actors that want to strengthen the voice of those territories and act to improve policies at all levels and the lives of any human being in their community. It collects the voices, experiences, needs and priorities of both local citizens and migrants hosted in their communities at EU borders.

Project: Snapshots From The Borders

Snapshots From The Borders is a 3-year project co-funded by the European Union (EuropeAid DEAR budget line), run by 35 partners, border Local Authorities and Civil Society organisations. The project aims to improve the critical understanding of European, national and local decision makers and of public opinion about global interdependencies determining migration flows towards European borders, in the perspective of reaching SDGs targets, especially SDG 1, 5, 10 11 and 16. Specifically, the project intends to strengthen a new horizontal, active network among cities directly facing migration flows at EU borders, as a way to promote more effective policy coherence at all levels (European, national, local).

More information:  

Website > www.snapshotsfromtheborders.eu

FB > https://www.facebook.com/snapshotsfromtheborders/

Twitter > https://twitter.com/SnapshotsEU

Instagram > https://www.instagram.com/snapshots.eu/

Do you want to learn more about the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals?

A new game tests your knowledge about the SDGs and takes you on a treasure hunt through downtown Brussels.

By KHALED DIAB, EEB

Although the United Nations set the Sustainable Development Goals back in 2015, awareness about and knowledge of them amongst European citizens is patchy. Almost nine out of 10 EU citizens have either not heard about the SDGs (58%) or have heard about them but do not know what they are (29%), according to a survey conducted by Eurobarometer, the EU’s polling agency.

If you are not a member of the knowledgeable 10%, the Make Europe Sustainable for All (MESA) project, which has 25 members in 15 European countries, has just the ticket for you. It has developed a virtual treasure hunt based on the SDGs which you can play on your mobile phone.

“With this game we hope to bring clarity about the SDGs to people and to encourage them to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle, coherent with the spirit of the SDGs,” said Eva Izquierdo, project officer for global policies and sustainability at the European Environmental Bureau, the lead partner on MESA.

After downloading and installing the ‘Spot the 17!’ game and scanning the relevant QR code, players in Brussels are ready to roll and to stroll. Using your phone’s geolocation abilities, the game leads you on a guided exploration of the wonders of the 17 SDGs and of the delights of the EU and Belgian capital.

The game, which was developed on behalf of MESA by the Greek NGO Fair Trade Hellas, is currently only available for Brussels, but versions for other cities may soon be in the pipeline. “This fun game can easily be replicated in different EU cities,” notes Izquierdo.

Spoiler alert

So what are the Sustainable Development Goals and why do they matter to you?

Without wishing to spoil ‘Spot the 17!’ for you, here is a brief overview of the SDGs.

Passed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, the SDGs succeeded the earlier Millennium Development Goals. The 17 SDGs, which should be achieved by 2030, include the eradication of poverty and hunger, promoting good health and wellbeing, quality education and gender equality. For the 17 goals, there are 169 targets.

Unlike the MDGs, the SDGs apply to every country in the world, not just the so-called global ‘South’. Despite this, Europeans are generally not aware that the SDGs apply to them too, and European policy-makers have not prioritised them, even though they are essential to the sustainability and fairness of European society.

This is the raison d’etre of the MESA project which seeks to raise awareness and understanding of the SDGs in Europe and to promote their ambitious implementation through advocacy and communications activities in partnership with SDG Watch Europe, which specifically seeks to hold governments to account for the implementation of the SDGs by 2030.

 

The Spring 2019 Climate Alliance South America Tour – Supporting climate justice with indigenous partners

By Climate Alliance

In March and April 2019, a Climate Alliance delegation undertook a tour in Ecuador, Peru and Brazil in support of indigenous partners and partnerships.

We are happy to share the experiences of Climate Alliance President and Mayor of Cologne Andreas Wolter, Climate Alliance Executive Director Thomas Brose and Climate Alliance Austria Executive Director Markus Hafner-Auinger as well as Johannes Kandler of Climate Alliance Austria and Silke Lunnebach of the Climate Alliance Headquarters in Frankfurt below. For more photo highlights, see our Flickr albums!

Find out how your network is supporting climate justice and enjoy the read!

First stop: Quito, Ecuador

COICA’s Birthday Celebration

COICA, our key indigenous partner of over 25 years, has just celebrated its 35th birthday! Our gift: the launch of a new renewable energies fund for small scale projects throughout Amazonia. COICA highlighted its commitment to protecting indigenous sacred headwaters via an initiative by the same name as well as to the use of renewable energies for energy independence and territorial protection.

“I’m a grandfather now, but I still feel strong enough to fight for the Amazon.”

– Evaristo Nugkuag Ikanan, first COICA coordinator and co-founder of Climate Alliance

Fund for Renewable Energies

Many indigenous peoples either lack access to energy or are reliant on the very fossil fuel companies threatening their existence. Initiatives such as solar lamps and solar powered boats counter this situation and are very much worth supporting. In honour of COICA’s birthday, we thus announced a new fund for renewable energies. Towns and other interested parties will soon be able to contribute via the fund and thus support small scale renewable energy projects in Amazonia.

Second stop: Lima, Peru

Meeting with indigenous mayors

In Lima, Climate Alliance President & Cologne Mayor Andreas Wolter opened a meeting between indigenous mayors, representatives of Peruvian communal reserves and the Climate Alliance delegation as part of Cologne’s climate partnership. The meeting allowed for an discussion of synergies in support of climate goals. Here we exchanged with the Peruvian Ministry’s Natural Protected Areas department (SERNANP) as well as the indigenous organisation ANECAP. Our next step: a letter asking the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development to include indigenous communities in their Municipal Climate Partnership programme.

Fridays for Future message

Olenka, the workshop’s youngest participant, was excited to learn about the Fridays for Future movement. Andreas Wolter’s explanation of how students in Cologne and across the world are striking for the climate inspired her to deliver her own video message, which we are happy to share.

“It is important that we all stand and fight together for the global climate and for the protection of the Amazon – the lung of our planet.”

– Olenka, Yanesha girl from Santa Rosa de Chuchurras, Selva Central, Peru

Third stop: Yarinacocha, Peru

Delegation tour Municipal Climate Partnership Cologne – Yarinacocha

Pucallpa – District Yarinacocha

Next we stopped in the Yarinacocha District of Peru, as part of Cologne, Germany’s Municipal Climate Partnership. What a welcome! The mayor of Yarinacocha Jerly Diaz Chota, city representatives, the partner organisation FECONAU and the entire indigenous community welcomed us with music and dance.

Exchange with indigenous youth  and the LGTB community

The inclusion of civil society and indigenous peoples is key to the success of the Cologne – Yarinacocha partnership. The Acitcjia Bekanwe youth organisation as well as the Ucayali Equality and Future movement (MOCIFU) each invited us to exchange on climate partnership ideas.

Climate action unites!

Shipibo community visit

We had the opportunity to visit the Shipibo community of San Salvador. The community  takes part in Cologne’s municipal climate partnership and can count on support in the fields of health care, economic development and infrastructure. Like many communities near urban areas, San Salvador no longer has any intact rainforest and lacks its own territory.

Indigenous women – community pillars     

The Shipibo are well known for their textile art. The designs symbolise their vision of the cosmos and their cultural identity. San Ken Xobo, and indigenous women’s cooperative for handicrafts, has already benefited from the Cologne climate partnership: representatives of the cooperative sold their goods at a Christmas market in Cologne last year and plans to develop an online marketing platform with the support of a school in Cologne are now underway.

Water and waste water

The lagoon of Yarinacocha may be the namesake of the Pucallpa district, but its waters are extremely polluted. There are almost no sewage treatment plants and the huge palm oil plantations in the region make the situation even worse. Through its climate partnership, Cologne is supporting the City of Yarinacocha and its action plan with both its knowledge and experience.

Renewable Energy for the University

During the tour, the mayors of Yarinacocha and Cologne commissioned Yarinacocha’s first solar plant on the roof of the local university with the university’s president. The pilot project consists of 20 panels (6.4 kW) and is a small, symbolic contribution  intended to raise awareness on renewable energies – amongst the professors, the students and the community. Read more in this Deutsche Welle article (in Spanish).

“Climate action means moving away from oil and coal and towards renewable energies – to protect the climate and the rainforests.”

– Andreas Wolter, Climate Alliance President and Mayor of Cologne.    

The forest and municipality of Alexander von Humboldt

To get a glimpse of ongoing efforts on the ground to preserve pieces of intact forest, the mayor of the municipality of Alexander von Humboldt invited the Climate Alliance delegation to the Humboldt forest. There we learned about a variety of initiatives that are a strong counter-movement to the countless acres of palm oil plantations in the area.

“Nature must be felt, who only sees and abstracts it, can […] dissect plants and animals, he will know how to describe nature, but he himself will be eternally alien to it”

– Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt

Fourth stop: Manaus, Brazil

Renewable Energy and Communities fair

As the final stop on our tour, we had the pleasure of participating in the first fair on renewables for communities in Amazonia with our partner and fair organiser ISA (Instituto Socioambiental). The focus of the fair was on energy strategies in the Amazon region and solutions for communities without access to the public power grid. Climate Alliance and Climate Alliance Austria participated with various activities and discussed new approaches with more than 400 participants from the Amazon region.

Among the highlights:

  • Climate Alliance exhibition with photo booth
  • Screening of the documentary, Heat, accompanied by a discussion with Almerinda Ramos of FOIRN and Johann Kandler of Climate Alliance Austria
  • Workshop on small scale solutions with COICA and Kara Solar

The presentation of the Kara Solar project was a special highlight. Kara Solar is a solar-powered boat that has been developed in collaboration with the indigenous Achuar people of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Adolfo Chávez of COICA helped present this pilot project as an important part of COICA’s energy strategy for the entire Amazon Basin. We support COICA in this strategy and also presented experiences from the long-standing solar lamp project in Peru.

“The fair is a good opportunity to exchange with others on renewable energy strategies for communities… We are delighted to be able to support COICA and its member organisations in these questions going forward.”

– Thomas Brose, Executive Director of Climate Alliance

Your Climate Alliance Network is hard at work in the fight for climate justice, both here in Europe and in the rainforests of the Amazon…

Want to find out more? Contact us!

Silke Lunnebach

  1. +49 69 717 139-32
  2. s.lunnebach@climatealliance.org

Thomas Brose

  1. +49 69 717139-31
  2. t.brose@climatealliance.org