Climate Change

Many inhabitants of the Maghreb have no other choice than to leave their homes, and start a new life abroad.

Global inequality has risen alarmingly in recent years. Together with the global climate crisis, this poses a serious threat to our entire society.

Climate change represents a unique opportunity for Europe’s green parties to “lead the way” by developing a sound strategy for “greening” Europe’s foreign and security policy – and in the process revamping this stagnant dimension of European integration.

Over the past decade, an ongoing reshuffle in the balance of global power has seen China change scale from regional to world actor, Russia reassert its ambition to be treated like a major player, and calls emerging for Europe to play a more active role in world politics.

By what laws of criminal justice does the Maldivian peasant claim redress for a home washed away into the Indian Ocean? To whom does the Brazilian smallholder farmer appeal when her crops fail to grow? A Review of Peter Christoff and Robyn Eckersley’s Globalization and the Environment.

Since enacting ambitious legislation in 2009, Scotland has been leading the way on climate change targets. But the campaign would never have been successful without the broad mobilisation of people across society, who came together to demand action. Now the activists are taking their story beyond Scottish borders, as efforts to build a European and global coalition gather momentum with Paris 2015 in sight.

It was not until the late 2000s that environmental migration and displacement stepped into climate change negotiations. Now that they have however, are the EU and UN doing enough to deal with this growing issue? In the run up to the Paris 2015 negotiations, Esmeralda Colombo explores the debate.

People’s awareness, understanding and perception on the climate change and the ecological crisis should not be disregarded in the global action for sustainability and social and environmental justice. Education for sustainability works on all of this: let’s not disregard education as driver of the global change.

While an excellent book, we need to look further than simply saying ‘social movements are the only answer’ if we are to develop effective movements that create change. The need for social movement mobilisation too easily becomes a slogan rather than a nuanced solution. We can both praise and look deeper than Klein’s ‘This Changes Everything’.

The new IPCC report on climate change marks the last word from the scientific community ahead of the very important COP21 meeting in Paris next year. Internationally things may be moving in the right direction, but the political will to fully embrace a divestment from fossil fuels to renewables isn’t quite there yet. Nonetheless, activists are working on it…