Green Transition

Long perceived and portrayed as a party unlike the others, Ecolo has succeeded in becoming one of French-speaking Belgium’s four ‘big’ parties in just 30 years. But today, many struggle to grasp what distinguishes the Green party since so many others have adopted the theme of sustainable development. A review of ‘Ecolo, Democracy as a Project’ by Benoit Lechat.

The EU Fifth Project is creating a network of community-based movements as part of a broader transition, starting at the local level and gaining international momentum, with the aim of building a sustainable future.

An interview with Ralf Fücks, Director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

The coming upheaval in our ways of living and working will require us to live an ecological lifestyle based on new forms of democratic participation that enable us to collectively and comprehensively reshape our social and physical environment.

Are political parties still capable of integrating the long term into their strategic reflections?

Modern representative democracy is not conducive to handling environmental challenges. Ecology requires new political institutions capable of tackling long-term concerns.

The specificity of ‘democratic radicality’ is by no means a bulwark for the Greens against developments or rationales that run counter to this ‘democratic requirement.’

One of the primary conclusions of the past five years is that the days of “easy politics” are gone, we have moved to an era of “hard politics.”

Nearly 30,000 people took to the streets of Berlin on January 18, 2014 to protest the industrialisation of farming and the E.U.-U.S Free Trade Agreement currently under negotiation. In addition to making their demands heard, the organisers gave a voice and a face to Agrarwende, a citizen movement that is gaining steam in Germany and that calls for a rethinking of agriculture.

Greece ranks 15th globally in the number of tourist visitors each year, making the industry a major part of its economy. However for all the benefits the industry brings, poor management and planning threatens the beautiful landscape on which it is based. Recently passed laws look set to make this situation even worse, but WWF is proposing alternatives that can protect Greece’s tourist industry and its environment.