By Jagoda Munic, director, Friends of the Earth Europe
Our world has changed overnight. Coronavirus has forced us to join together, to be in solidarity, and to organise unprecedented urgent action. The pandemic has brought the world to a standstill, unleashed extraordinary responses from governments, and confined many of us to the four walls of our homes.
The European Commission's new Circular Economy action plan, launched today as part of its European Green Deal, contains a patchwork of some positive initiatives on how we produce, consume and dispose of resources and products but will likely fail to prevent runaway resource overconsumption, according to Friends of the Earth Europe.
The European Commission today publishes a new climate law that Friends of the Earth Europe says does not represent emergency action for the climate crisis.
Friends of the Earth England Wales & Northern Ireland has won a historic legal battle to protect the climate from Heathrow expansion and push the British government to act in accordance with the climate emergency. This ruling is an absolutely ground-breaking result for climate justice.
Will Rundle, head of legal at Friends of the Earth England Wales & Northern Ireland, said:
A draft global plan to halt the collapse of nature will not protect vulnerable communities or stop the Earth's sixth mass extinction, claims Friends of the Earth. The call comes as governments meet in Rome for the first time today to work on a "Paris-style" United Nations agreement that will eventually be agreed in October. [1]
According to a European Commission study on human rights due diligence published today, voluntary measures have not succeeded in protecting workers, communities, and the environment from systematic human rights violations linked to the global supply chains of European businesses and financial institutions.
Europe's farmers face a "dystopian future" if the EU fails to regulate digital technologies used in agriculture, claims Friends of the Earth Europe in a new report.
20,000 protest against mayor – and win over City Assembly
While Croatian seaside pearl Rijeka boasts of the title “European Capital of Culture 2020“, Zagreb is known as the "EU's capital of trash".
A quarter of MEPs today voted in favour of a resolution to reject the EU's proposed list of priority energy infrastructure, including 55 fossil gas projects, though this was insufficient to veto the list. 169 MEPs voted in favour of a rejection of the 4th PCI list, 443 against, with 36 abstentions.
Europe’s energy system is deeply wasteful - our energy consumption is too high, and we're not improving.
Inefficient buildings losing heat from all sides. Cheap untaxed flights over short distances. Ad billboards flashing images into the night sky. Our economies consume tremendous amounts of energy - preventing the switch to 100% renewable energy.