Environmental Justice Articles

World media recently lauded a new project, backed by the World Bank, that will allegedly “save” the Dead Sea and prove that peace is possible through cooperation to manage natural resources. But the scheme only threatens to make an already disastrous situation worse, as well as robbing Palestinians of their right to water.

The gulf has run out of pearls and we all know oil is next. During the COP18 in 2012, four countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) filed a historic joint submission to the UNFCCC to put forward their national efforts and cooperative actions under the umbrella of economic diversification. At COP19 in Warsaw, the climate negotiators from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Qatar held a side event to share their national progress made in climate related initiatives.

“Arabs – Time to lead” was the slogan emblazoned on my black t-shirt during my participation at COP18 last year in Doha as a youth delegate from the Arab Youth Climate Movement (AYCM). This was our call for the Arab world to take climate change seriously, and to push our own leaders to develop and communicate a comprehensive low carbon development strategy. Sadly, little happened in Doha, and the true test is now how to keep pushing Arab governments for voluntary commitment. After the first week of the climate negotiations in Warsaw, we could infer that the Arab stance will not change.

Between the 12th and the 23rd of November 2013, Warsaw hosted the 19th Conference of Parties (COP19) of the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC). As the cold intensified in Warsaw, cold atmospheres penetrated indoors hitting the political mood in and around the conference meetings, making the political initiatives and solutions look meager and feeble, and affecting in return the ambitions and hopes of the participants, as well as of those who follow up the biggest annual congregation specializing in climate change.

A 'map'! I guess this is the best description I could reach over the course of two consecutive weeks of negotiations on climate change that were held in Warsaw in Poland. COP19 is the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC), aiming to reach a binding agreement to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations and mechanisms to adapt to the effects of climate change. Yes, all these together stand behind the climate negotiations.

The Conference of Parties (COP19) of the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC) has started in Warsaw in the Republic of Poland, accompanied by several expectations in terms of funding. It was even thought that it would be the 'money conference', in addition to hopes pertaining to finally be able to come out with a mechanism for loss and damage.

Hebron fosters these days a new kind of nonviolent resistance against the Israeli settlements through a youth group called 'Youth Against Settlements'. The group was able to stop the expansion of settlements into the heart of Hebron by means of nonviolent popular and legal activities, and also by altering parts of the areas threatened by settlements into lively areas bursting with non-partisan cultural events and receptive to the world...

It is impossible today to build a competitive new nuclear plant in a transparent market economy without massive government subsidies. Existing nuclear plants are facing increasing difficulties to cope with significantly rising maintenance and, in many cases, post-Fukushima upgrading costs. Therefore rather than nuclear power making, as the IAEA has claimed, a growing contribution, the sector remains in decline or, as Vermont Law School economist Mark Cooper has called the development, a “renaissance in reverse”...

Today, few people retain any illusions that United Nations conventions like the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity can avert global warming, the loss of biodiversity and the depletion of arable soil and water. Likewise, the pursuit of hard caps for CO2 emissions and stricter environmental and social standards to reduce natural-resource consumption and protect workers seems to have fallen out of vogue, with crisis-stricken economies concerned that such regulations would impede investment and trade...

Germany has drawn a lot of attention for the Energiewende - the aim to switch to a renewable energy economy, phase out nuclear power and leave fossil fuels behind. But what exactly is the German energy transition: How does it works and what challenges lay ahead? Check out this new website..