Just Green Transition | November 2021

This newsletter reaches you when COP26 has just ended. The Glasgow climate conference triggered an unprecedented flood of announcements, pledges, soft and (rarely) hard commitments. If all of them were implemented in a meaningful manner, they would bring us significantly nearer to keeping the 1.5°C target within reach. But greenwashing and false solutions abound, and the implementation of meaningful commitments is far from assured. So civil society has to remain vigilant.

The focus of this COP was on raising ambition, significantly increasing climate finance, and the question of financial compensation for climate damage and loss. The Paris 1.5 degree target requires a rapid phase-out of coal, oil and gas, not empty "net zero" promises that rely on risky technologies or compensation mechanisms. We have published a dossier with detailed analyses and background articles. Read more about Real Ambition vs. False Solutions and why Net Zero is Not Zero. A global call demands Real Solutions, Not ‚Net Zero‘ and the Net Zero Files explain how ‘net zero’ is being used to shape our look at climate ambition. The website German Climate Finance looks at countries’ contributions to climate change mitigation.

Stay tuned for an in-depth analysis of the COP26 results in our Glasgow dossier in the next few weeks.

Debt Relief for a Green and Inclusive Recovery
The project “Debt Relief for Green and Inclusive Recovery" has developed an innovative solution to address the sovereign debt crisis that many low- and middle-income countries are facing at a time when urgent climate action is needed. Read our Report or if you are pressed for time, watch our three-minute explainer video to get quickly up to speed on our proposal.

“Plastic, Waste & Me – Unpacked!”
The plastic crisis affects us all, but not all to the same extent – and it’s issues of fairness and diversity that this book about plastic is particularly interested in. We answer questions about plastic in 70 graphics and stories, each shown on a separate page. You can flip through the book from front to back or jump back and forth, because each page stands on its own. We have also made suggestions for further reading on each page. Visit the digital version or find out more about the project.

“The Liquidity and Sustainability Facility for African Sovereign Bonds: Who Benefits?”
In an effort to improve access to global financial markets for African countries, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has set up a Liquidity and Sustainability Facility (LSF). But the complex financial engineering comes with side effects and risks. With we Eurodad and Nawi (Afrifem Macroeconomics Collective) commissioned Daniela Gabor – Professor of Economics and Macro-Finance – to analyse the LSF proposal and its implications. More

Bejing-led AIIB – Global Leader in Infrastructure Finance, at what cost?
In October 2021, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has begun using a newly revised but still problematic environmental and social framework. This framework contains the right words and appears to tick all the boxes, but it includes too many loopholes and caveats that undermine early disclosure of environmental and social risks. Read our analysis

Meat Atlas 2021
Eight years ago, the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Friends of the Earth Europe and BUND published the first Meat Atlas. Since then, a lot has changed in Europe and globally. Industrial meat has become a critical issue in society, the media and science. Consumers are increasingly turning to vegetarian products or to sustainably produced meat. Revealing new data and facts, and providing links between various key issues, the Atlas 2021 is a crucial contribution to the work done by many to shed light on the problems arising from industrial meat production. More

“Power Poverty Hunger”
In 2020, 768 million people suffered from hunger and undernourishment. That is almost 10 percent of the global population. With this publication we want to make a contribution to a lively social debate. We want to present the causes of hunger and malnutrition and show that clear political rules and strategies are needed to counter these developments. We want to show that hunger and malnutrition are the consequences of injustice, instability and poverty – and that policies must therefore also address these underlying causes. More

Biodiversity
We are losing ecosystems, species and biological diversity on a daily basis – worldwide and often forever. Humankind with its ways of producing and living endangers the planet’s biodiversity to an extent that scientists are speaking of a sixth mass extinction. At the same time, synthetic biology and new genetic engineering technologies pose various risks and challenges for regulation. The dossier illustrates new developments and their background. Read the dossier or see the related overview article.

“The Case for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty”
Finding viable solutions for managing the fossil-fuel industry’s decline is now more critical than ever. A Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty offers a vision and path for what true international climate leadership and cooperation could look like. Read the article by Tasneem Essop and Lili Fuhr, Head of the International Environmental Policy Division of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, at Project Syndicate. More

“Food Systems on the Edge”
Those most affected by the negative consequences of large-scale industrialized food production must play a vital part in discussing how to transform it. The world therefore needs a people’s Food Systems Summit that aims to end hunger and malnutrition, protect ecosystems, and provide small farmers with a decent livelihood.
By Barbara Unmüssig, President of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, at Project Syndicate. More

Development Policy Discussion Days:
Partners in climate?
The role of African renewables in the European Green Deal

Trap or trampoline
Smallholder digitalisation in sub-Saharan Africa?

The emperor’s fair clothes
Are labels and due diligence key to more sustainability

Online Summer Academy for Pluralist Economics:
Reimagining Economics. Learning from the Past, Navigating the Future

Next Generation Central Banking:
Climate Change, Inequality, Financial Instability 

Climate litigation before international courts and tribunals:
Why is it missing and what needs to happen?

Solar Geoengineering:
Warnings from Scientists, Indigenous Peoples and Climate Activists