In honour of International Women’s Day, Katie Hodgetts reflects on the female environmental activists that have inspired and empowered her, contemplating not only their work, but their role in joining the dots between gender inequality, the environment and wider systemic failings.
Today, the UN Human Rights Council discussed the report by the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) [1] regarding a binding treaty on business and human rights. Civil society organisations and countries, including the EU, supported the presentation and called for the continuation of the process. This means the 4th session of the IGWG will take place in October, as scheduled.
Naturvernforbundet/Friends of the Earth Norway joined an international coalition of environmental and human rights groups today for a new campaign to end the dumping of hazardous mine waste, known as tailings, into oceans, rivers and lakes. The practice smothers seabed floors and coral reefs, threatens fisheries, and harms human and wildlife health.
The European Court of Justice ruled today that controversial Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clauses in the Netherlands-Slovakia bilateral investment treaty are not compatible with EU law, raising fundamental questions about the legality of other EU trade deals which include the measure. [1]
A tougher ban on three neonicotinoid pesticides is urgently needed, Friends of the Earth Europe said, after a major new report published today confirmed comprehensive evidence of the threat these chemicals pose to Europe's bees.
The European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) much-awaited assessment of the highly controversial pesticides reviews the scientific evidence since the ban was introduced in 2013. The evidence shows that outdoor uses of neonicotinoid pesticides represent a risk to wild bees and honeybees.
New polling shows citizens are against the planned merger of agribusiness giants Bayer and Monsanto, with a majority (54%) thinking it is "very" or "fairly important" that the European Commission blocks it – more than three times the number who think it would be unimportant [1].
The YouGov survey results from Germany, France, Spain, Denmark and the UK also shows that the merger gives 47% of EU citizens "serious" or "very serious" concerns, while just 11% think the merger offers any potential.
What happens when a town strikes gas? 30 years after Shell and ExxonMobil opened up Europe's biggest gas field for drilling, the residents of Groningen are finding out – regular earthquakes are destroying people's homes, leaving them too dangerous to live in and too expensive to fix. Meanwhile, while north-west Europe continues to burn fossil gas, the low-lying region sits perilously close to the sea level.
Members of the EU Parliament’s energy committee have supported reform of energy markets to restrict subsidies for dirty fossil fuel power plants, but failed to reject new gas infrastructure, in two important votes on climate and energy today.
European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen confirmed he had a lobby meeting with ex-Commission President Barroso who represented investment bank Goldman Sachs International. ALTER-EU (the Alliance for Lobby Transparency and Ethics Regulation, of which Friends of the Earth Europe is a member) asked the European Commission to re-assess Barroso's job.
Desislava Stoyanova, from Za Zemiata/Friends of the Earth Bulgaria, on how the Bulgarian people are refusing to submit to their government's plans to decimate some of the country's most pristine protected areas. Read the original post on Bankwatch here.
For almost two months now, Bulgarians from across the country and abroad have taken to the streets to defend the country's natural mountainscape against new developments.