Archiv für die Kategorie: Newsletter

At the beginning of this October, Extinction Rebellion took over streets, squares and junctions in about 60 cities around the globe. The month was, once again, marked by protests for more ambitious climate policies.

Lately, we saw several reasons for climate protests to continue: The EU Environment Ministers did not decide on whether to update the EU 2030 emission reduction targets, leaving a back door open for an “update” that does not even include increased mitigation efforts. In Germany, the government adopted its Climate Action Strategy and while it is being sold as a great step forward, it should rather be considered as a backdrop. But it is not only Germany or the EU that lag behind, actually more than half of the signees of the Paris Agreement are not planning to update their currently insufficient mitigation efforts, as new UNDP & UNFCCC research shows.

As long as governments and politicians are not eager to implement policies that are ambitious enough, news of protests will – hopefully – continue to be our faithful companion. And as long as we have not reached 100% renewable energy worldwide, the Energy Watch Group will continue to speak up and provide research and insights on how to best get there in time.

It is more important than ever to stay active, stay involved and stay informed – our October Newsletter will help you with that!

Discussions about global warming and its manifold devastating impacts have been dominating the international media landscape all along this summer – also this month, is on track to become earth’s hottest month on record. Despite all this and the associated transfer of political attention toward the climate crisis, the amount of action taken by governments over the last month has been woefully lacking. The EU’s newly inaugurated President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, presented the idea of a European Green Deal. While this sounds ambitious, concrete proposals and measures are missing. And while having introduced the idea of becoming climate-neutral by 2050, the EU bodies have not managed to commit to this goal either. Frustrated with such two-faced statements and actions of national governments all over the world, cities & communities are taking matters into their own hands: declaring „Climate Emergency“ and taking action for themselves. Another possibility to make your national government care about global warming: Sue them. A recently published survey found that climate litigation cases have drastically increased through the last years, with a resounding amount of success. Individuals, organizations, businesses and cities demanding and taking legal action for more climate action is one of the most remarkable accomplishments of our time. Yet, we have to emphasize: Aiming for net-zero by 2050 is not enough. In order to get even close to 1.5°C, we need to reach zero emissions way before. And how will such a zero-emission economy look like? We don’t know yet, what we do know is that it will be fueled by a 100% renewable energy system, as solar & wind are already picking up the torch from dying king coal. If you ask us, this cannot happen fast enough. And while it happens, read our newsletter right here to provide you with all the information and analysis you need on the way.