Both ENDS
Make women and gender equality a priority in climate policy, wrote Rebecca Heuvelmans (Women Engage for a Common Future), Marjon Melissen (ActionAid), Esin Erdogan (Simavi), Annelieke Douma (Both Ends) and Eva Lia Colombo (Wo=men Dutch Gender Platform) in Dutch newspaper Trouw. Sunday March 5, they'll join the Feminist March in Amsterdam.
The ADAPTS consortium - Both ENDS, ACACIA Water, IVM and our Southern partners - invite you to join our Political Cafe in Cafe Dudok in the Hague on Wednesday October 12th from 16.00-18.00 hr:
The debate centers around the question how to better integrate local actors in the development and implementation of adaptation policies. We see a gap between the many initiatives that support mainly central governments and their adaptation plans and what happens or should happen at the local or district level. These two arenas are insufficiently linked and the majority of funds is invested in the first option.
With panelists from the Dutch Parliament, the 'Water Resources Commission' in Ghana, the 'Center for Social Research and Development' in Vietnam, the United Nations Development Programme and the Global Water Partnership.
ADAPTS is a practical, bottom-up approach to integrate climate change and adaptation in the water sector. See also the adapts website
For more information on our Political Café, see our Invitation.
With an overwhelming majority - 643 votes in favour, 20 against and 9 abstentions - a new law, which forces European export credit agencies (ECAs) to be more transparent about the environmental and social effects of transactions supported by ECAs, has just been approved of in the European Parliament. As of next year, all ECAs will have to deliver a report about this to the European Commission and the European Parliament on a yearly basis.
Both ENDS is a member of the ECA-Watch network, which monitors ECAs and stimulates more transparent, sustainable and socially just ECA-supported transactions. Clearly we are very pleased with the current developments and we hope that this will be a first step towards greener and fairer investment policies in the EU.
The construction of a dam causing floods and displacing the local population; small farmers unable to compete with large-scale farms; workers forced to work under harsh conditions and for low wages. These are all examples of the impact activities by companies, governments and policy makers can have in the areas where the activities take place. How can companies, investors and governments be persuaded to change their policies? Based on 10 success factors, the Fair, Green & Global Alliance shares its experience in the booklet ‘The power of advocacy and influencing’.
Each year Both ENDS organises Political Cafés and expert meetings on development issues. Our work with Southern Civil Society Organisations often makes us aware of the negative effects of the policies of Multi Financial Institutions (MFIs), such as the World Bank and the IMF. The Political Cafés and expert meetings often focus on making these institutions more transparent. Working with our Southern partners we recently addressed the issue of the human right to water and sanitation, by holding a Political Café on this issue at the World Bank's headquarters in Washington DC.
Next week, the climate case brought against Royal Dutch Shell by Dutch environmental organisation Milieudefensie is due to start. Milieudefensie hopes to force the company to stop causing dangerous climate change and adopt a more sustainable course. Six Dutch organisations have decided to become co-plaintiffs in the case. They include ActionAid and Both ENDS, organisations that work outside the Netherlands on human rights, gender equality, environment and sustainable development. Though, at first glance, the case may not seem relevant to them, nothing is farther from the truth, as Nils Mollema of ActionAid and Niels Hazekamp of Both ENDS explain.
This week several Both ENDS colleagues visit Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal to meet Christine Teunissen and Luc Stultiens with partners from Mozambique, Indonesia and the Filippines to talk about the destructiveness of dredging worldwide and especially in projects with the aid of the Dutch government.
Read their plea
The Netherlands provides export credit insurances and guarantees worth 1.5 billion euros annually to Dutch companies active in the oil and gas sector abroad. This support amounts to one and a half times the annual amount that the Cabinet of Prime Minister Rutte mobilises for climate initiatives worldwide. The intended effects of Dutch international climate policy are more than offset by this fossil export support. That is the conclusion of a new report from Both ENDS which is published today.
Amsterdam, 23 September 2019 - The world's 5th largest pension fund, with assets of over €430 billion, Dutch ABP is continuing to invest in companies that are on a collision course with the Paris climate goals, such as coal and oil companies.