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The European Union has set itself the target to become climate neutral by 2050. Rail could play a key role in the future transport system because it is clean, safe and reliable, and it could become a symbol for the European Green Deal. A strengthened European rail system could (1) better connect people and businesses in Europe, (2) reduce transport emissions by creating alternative options to road transport and aviation, and (3) give a green boost to the European economy post-Covid-19.

For months, there has been an intensive and controversial debate in Germany on a Human Rights Due Diligence Regulation (so called supply chain law). Recently, a new proposal has been under discussion - a law for a supply chain register. Now that the debate on the supply chain register is public and this proposal has also been submitted to EU Justice Commissioner Reynders, Germanwatch, Greenpeace and INKOTA hereby publicly present their central points of criticism of the supply chain register.

The European Commission is focusing on hydrogen from renewable electricity, to accelerate the decarbonization of the various sectors and to achieve climate neutrality in 2050. What does this mean for the future of energy imports from Russia, currently the largest supplier of natural gas to the European Union? A chance, the authors of this background article find, and elaborate on challenges and first steps on how to leverage this opportunity.

Against the background of the social, economic and political COVID-19 effects on India, all business-as-usual scenarios for economic development and emission trends of Indian and resilient society building are outdated. There is both the possibility of an accelerated structural change to renewable energy, away from fossil fuels and combustion engines and the danger of a massive rebound effect for the emissions path. The same width of possibilities exists between society-wide resilience building and intensified inequality.
The question of what India's recovery strategy - and international support - will look like will create central path dependencies. Especially now, in the new challenge of the Corona crisis, India needs reliable and strong partners such as Germany and the EU to enter into more sustainable pathway through the recovery packages. Strategies for green and resilient recovery and NDC implementation and increase go hand in hand.

Published annually since 2005, the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) is an independent monitoring tool for tracking the climate protection performance of 57 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.

Five years ago, legal history in terms of climate protection was written: Thanks to the courageous filing of a civil lawsuit against RWE, Europe's largest CO2 emitter, by the Peruvian mountain guide and farmer Saúl Luciano Lliuya in November 2015. To celebrate this important milestone, Saúl Luciano Lliuya, his lawyer and his supporters*, came together to look back on the past five years, take stock and venture a look into the future. Watch the video of the event.

Am 24. November 2015 zog Saúl Luciano Lliuya aus der peruanischen Andenstadt Huaraz für den Schutz seines Lebensraumes vor ein deutsches Gericht. Er reichte seine Klage ein, um einen der größten Emittenten für die Folgen seiner klimaschädlichen Wirtschaftsweise haftbar zu machen. Mit dem Fall Huaraz wurde juristisches Neuland betreten. Inzwischen ist es eine weltweit wahrgenommene Musterklage, die es in die Beweisaufnahme geschafft hat und eine Signalwirkung wie keine andere Klage entfaltet.

The G20 countries are responsible for around 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Last year, energy-related CO2 emissions in the G20 fell slightly for the first time, by 0.1% after a rise of 1.9% in 2018, without an economic crisis as a trigger. The key to these initial successes is the continuing boom in renewable energies.

African countries have considerable and largely untapped potential in renewable energies. They have the potential to leapfrog to smart, participatory, distributed energy systems of the future without locking themselves into stranded fossil fuel assets and overly centralised energy systems. Thus, African countries can show the way to the future through bold plans and on-the-ground implementation.

Rail is already one of the cleanest transport modes. A renaissance of a truly European rail network could not only make a major contribution to achieving the European Union’s climate targets but could also make Europeans feel and live European integration in daily life. Yet, decades of political focus on road and air travel as well as nationalist thinking have led to a patchwork of national rail systems, which are sometimes in very poor shape. Cross-border rail transport is the sore spot of the European transport system. This policy paper presents eight measures to start off the European rail renaissance.