Aktuelles (EntscheidungsträgerInnen)

The current geopolitical context is pushing the Weimar Triangle of France, Germany, and Poland to prioritise defence and security. NGOs, think tanks, and businesses argue that a ‘Green Weimar Triangle’ could not only safeguard achieving the EU climate goals but also address critical issues of economic competitiveness and cohesion.

The EU’s ability to enact ambitious climate policies relies on effective leadership and demonstrated commitment from influential Member States. Representatives from leading think tanks, environmental NGOs, businesses, and scientific institutions in France, Germany, and Poland, are calling for the establishment of a 'Green Weimar Triangle' to renew trilateral climate dialogue among the three countries.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) makes legal history with its landmark rulings on three climate litigation cases. The court made clear that climate change poses a major threat to human rights as protected by the Human Rights Convention. Every state is responsible for safeguarding the lives of its citizens from the climate crisis. A precedent that has an impact on all EU member states, including Germany. An analysis by Roda Verheyen and Gerd Winter.

Deforestation was one of the crucial issues at COP28 in Dubai. The negotiation outcome underscored its importance for the first time with a goal of ending global deforestation by 2030. Notwithstanding, deforestation continues. What exactly was decided at COP28? And where is more action needed?

On 6 February, the European Commission will propose climate targets for 2040. The current Commission can thereby frame the climate policy of the upcoming years ahead of the EU elections in June. The 2040 targets will be a guiding light for the new Commission and shape the EU's worldwide perception. In this policy brief, Germanwatch is therefore calling for 'An Ambitious EU Climate Target for 2040'.

Scorching heat, heavy rainfalls, raging wildfires, deadly floods, and devastating storms – the manifestations of extreme weather events have become a common phenomenon around the globe. In this blog post we give an overview of the extreme weather events occurring in 2023 and show why it is imperative that nations, communities, and individuals take concerted action to mitigate the root causes of climate change, adapt to its impacts, and work towards a more sustainable and resilient future.

As countries transition to low-carbon and climate-resilient economies, finance flows will need to shift to support these transitions, in line with the third long-term goal of the Paris Agreement, Article 2.1c. South Africa was the first country to sign a Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP). In this context, South Africa developed a Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET IP) laying out a series of policies and regulations the country would implement to achieve its just energy transition. This paper offers an analysis of these policies and regulations, using existing Article 2.1c approaches.

The first Africa Climate Summit in September 2023 marked a milestone in global climate politics. African countries made clear that they want to actively shape the global climate debate to seize the opportunities of the green transformation and shake the perception of being mere victims of the climate crisis. In this briefing, we highlight the three main topics of the Summit – finance, renewable energy, and resilience – and offer recommendations for German climate foreign policy with regard to African countries in 2024 as the German government is revising its Africa Policy Guidelines.

Published annually since 2005, the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) is an independent monitoring tool for tracking the climate protection performance of 63 countries and the EU. It aims to enhance transparency in international climate politics and enables comparison of climate protection efforts and progress made by individual countries.

Germanwatch is an association that supports the implementation of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda and related global goals on the basis of democracy and human rights. As such, it does not wish to remain silent on the terror and war taking place in the Middle East, which is, after all, not so far away from where the UN’s climate summit is taking place.