The parliamentary elections in the Netherlands are over, and the dust has somewhat settled. No matter what government emerges from the process, one thing is clear: in the Netherlands the main focus is on the Netherlands. Foreign affairs were hardly mentioned during the elections and the same applies to the process of forming a new coalition. More alarmingly, some of the winners in the elections want to cut themselves off even further from the world around us.
This event will showcase the vital need to advance agroecology as a people, nature and livelihood-centred approach towards climate adaptation and mitigation. It will make the case for agroecology and climate action based on researched and carefully selected case studies on agroecology in Africa and how it is and can continue contributing to adaptation and mitigation of the impacts of climate change.
10 songs: that is the result of a 4 day long, 450 km boat trip through the Pantanal with 36 people. The project Pantanal Poética sought and found a new way to look at the Pantanal, a valuable but threatened nature reserve on the border of Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay.
After nearly two years of discussions, the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries have reached an agreement on reducing their support to some coal plants through their export credit agencies (ECAs). The agreement comes a day after the G20 has reiterated its willingness to reduce inefficient fossil fuel subsidies and only 12 days before the start of COP21, the climate change conference. The agreement, which takes effect in 2017, still allows the most efficient “ultra-supercritical” plants, and less efficient plants in the very poorest countries.
A Dutch economic trade mission is visiting Indonesia from the 21st to the 24th of November. Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who heads the mission, is accompanied by Minister Ploumen (Foreign Trade and Development), Minister Schultz van Haegen and State Secretary Dijksma (Infrastructure and Environment).
Investment treaties must be inclusive, sustainable and fair. That means that they must not put the interests of companies before those of people and their living environment.
On 7 December 2009 the overwhelming majority of the Hungarian Parliament voted to oppose the use of cyanide in gold mining. So doing, Hungary has set a new global environmental standard and can thus play a leading role in banning the use of cyanide in the European mining sector.
Shell is suing the Netherlands in yet another attempt to evade its responsibility for decades of gas extraction in Groningen. For years, gas production has triggered earthquakes, damaged over a hundred thousand homes, and left residents living in prolonged insecurity, still waiting for repairs, reinforcement, and justice.
The production of palm oil is often accompanied by deforestation, environmental destruction and land grabbing. Local communities and activists who stand up against these problems are often threatened. Now the RSPO has taken significant steps in recent months to tackle these issues.