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By end September 2015 most countries will submit their climate contributions (INDCs) for the new climate agreement to be adopted in Paris this December. The EU has already announced its contribution of at least 40 percent emission reduction by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. In India, the preparations for the INDC have been finalized, too. What is expected of the Indian INDC? What would be equitable?

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This report describes the planning and licensing process for extra high voltage transmission lines under EU and national law regulatory framework. It is shown that the TEN-E Regulation 347/2013 introduces binding priorities (PCI, Projects of Common Interest) into national planning processes, shifting participation requirements to the EU level. The comparison between the German and the UK system of planning and permitting displays the different approaches: while the regulatory system is much more refined in Germany, granting much access and public participation, the participatory approach in the UK is more open, and access to justice is easier.

This study conducted by Germanwatch and the Wuppertal Institute explores how the social pillar of sustainability at the local level could be met in low-carbon energy projects. For this purpose, it evaluates the livelihood dimension of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technology based on a case study conducted on the 160 MW pilot CSP plant Noor I in Ouarzazate, Morocco.

A new wave of climate leadership is coming from the African continent. On 5 June, Morocco became the third African nation, following Ethiopia and Gabon, to submit its climate action commitment (or Intended Nationally Determined Contribution - INDC). With its timely submission, the host of the upcoming UN climate summit in 2016 also is the first Arab country to put forward its plan to transition its economy from fossil fuels to renewable energy. This is an important step towards the new global climate agreement, due to be signed in Paris this December.

The G7 summit took place on 7 and 8 June 2015 at Schloß Elmau in Bavaria. Amongst other important global issues, international climate policy was discussed. The G7 decisions on this topic pave the way to a successful climate summit in December in Paris, where a new global climate agreement is to be adopted by the international community. Germanwatch analyses the most important paragraphs of the G7 Summit Declaration.

At the G7 summit in Elmau on 7 and 8 June 2015, the most important and affluent industrial nations will discuss how to facilitate the adoption of a new global climate change treaty. This white paper illuminates key background issues in the run up to the summit. It also identifies three signals that must be sent by the summit to underscore the commitment of industrial nations to preventing catastrophic climate change.

Simply because utility-scale renewable energy (RE) projects substitute for fossil fuel plants does not per se imply that they will result in sustainable, equitable or even pro-poor development outcomes in the environments in which they are embedded and on the people they serve...

From April 9–10 2014, the 25th meeting of the Adaptation Fund Board (AFB), the operating body of the Adaptation Fund established under the Kyoto Protocol, was held in Bonn, Germany. Two days prior to the meeting, the members of the two committees of the board, the Ethics and Finance Committee (EFC) and the Project and Programme Review Committee (PPRC) met for their 16th meeting respectively, to prepare specific recommendations for the AFB, along the mandate that has been assigned to them.

This handbook by Germanwatch highlights new approaches that have been tested by the partners of the European BESTGRID project. Within BESTGRID, Transmission system operators from Belgium, the UK, Italy and Germany have closely cooperated with national and regional non-governmental organisations. Germanwatch has been following the jointly developed good-practice approaches to early and transparent power grid planning and has compiled its findings in this handbook.