Both ENDS
From the 16th till the 22nd of March Istanbul is the stage for the fifth World Water Forum. The World Water Forum is the main water-related event in the world, aimed at putting water firmly on the international agenda. A stepping stone towards global collaboration on water problems, the Forum offers the water community and policy-and-decision-makers from all over the world the unique opportunity to come together to achieve water security. Both ENDS is present at the Forum and participates on three levels.
Janet Awimbo, a Kenyan ecologist, presented the first copy of the booklet 'Imagining sustainability' to HRH Prince Willem-Alexander yesterday. In the booklet, which is a co-production of Both ENDS and Cordaid, are seven interviews with thinkers from the southern hemisphere. They all envision a green and fair economy in the future. Awimbo and the Prince of Orange met at the Rio aan de Maas event in Rotterdam. At the event, Both ENDS also organised a workshop where Janet Awimbo, Paul Wolvekamp (Both ENDS) and Maarten Hajer (Bureau for Environmental planning) spoke with each other and with the audience.
With pain in our hearts we say farewell to Irene Dankelman. She was pioneer in the field of gender and environment and one of the founders of Both ENDS.
100+ NGOs launch #Together4Forests urging EU action
Fires raging in the Amazon are started deliberately to make way for large-scale industrial agriculture – and EU market demand for commodities produced on former-forest land is adding fuel to the fires. Globally, the EU is responsible for over 10% of forest destruction through its consumption of commodities like meat, dairy, soy for animal feed, palm oil, coffee and cacao.
In October 2022, the Dutch government published a policy to implement the COP26 statement in which it promised to stop public finance for fossil fuel projects abroad by the end of 2022 . The proposed policy, unfortunately, has quite some 'loopholes' that make it possible for the Dutch government to keep supporting large fossil projects abroad for at least another year. These projects often run for years and will have a negative impact on the countries where they take place for decades to come.
The currently negotiated Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the US and the EU (TTIP) is higly controversial and has ignited the public debate about the costs and benefits of globalisation to society at large. In the Netherlands, concerns are raised on transparency, the growing power of big companies and the consequences for the environment. But how should we view TTIP in the bigger picture around global free trade, the relation between the North and the South and the geopolitical dynamics behind free trade agreements? Yash Tandon addresses this and related subjects in his new book 'Trade is War – The West’s War Against the World', which he will present on the 3rd of June in Amsterdam.
