Turning rights into reality
The community energy movement has recently received an important boost. New EU legislation on renewable energy gives communities and individuals the right to generate, store, consume and sell their own energy.
These community energy rights could be transformational for the fossil-free energy system we need to build. But these rights must now be laid down in national laws, to take effect.
Exxon-Mobil's tactics of deliberately spreading false information on climate change have been exposed today in a public hearing in the European Parliament.
But the company’s refusal to attend the hearing has led a growing number of Members of the European Parliament to back calls to strip Exxon-Mobil lobbyists of their parliamentary access badges.
Myriam Douo, transparency campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe said:
The EU has decided to drop out of UN negotiations on a binding treaty to make multinational corporations accountable for human rights abuses committed overseas, according to leaked documents seen by Friends of the Earth Europe.
Three years ago, Honduran activist and community leader Berta Cáceres was brutally murdered. Every year, around 200 environmental defenders are killed or assaulted around the world - crimes that are often linked to multinational companies violating human rights. Only a binding agreement on a global basis could put an end to this horrendous injustice.
Environmental organisations have appealed to the European Commission to step in and halt the illegal destruction of a key nature site in Poland.
The Polish government has overruled protests from local governments, communities and environment groups and started construction of a canal between the spectacular Vistula Lagoon and the Baltic Sea.
Over 1.7 million people have supported a campaign to make farming more nature-friendly in the Southern German state of Bavaria.
18% of the eligible citizens of Bavaria have signed a mass petition demanding bee-friendly farming – the biggest petition in the history of the Bavarian state - although the support of only 10% of the population is needed for such a petition to be legally recognised by the state government.
Ahead of crucial debates on the financing of the Bern Convention, European NGOs have addressed a letter to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe urging it to ensure the financing and proper functioning of the Bern Convention – the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats.
This Wednesday, 13th February, Members of the European Parliament will vote on a controversial investment deal between the EU and Singapore. This treaty is very similar to the investment chapters of CETA, the unpopular trade deal between the EU and Canada which outraged people all over Europe in 2015 and 2016.
By Stanka Becheva, food and farming campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe
Our efforts have paid off: The European School of Sustainability has been recognised by the Global Education Network Europe (GENE) as one of the 20 most outstanding projects for inclusion in 2018!