Resources & Sustainable Development

Amitav Ghosh’s new book “The Great Derangement” examines climate change and climate policy from unusual perspectives. It is bound to get much international attention because it asks some fundamental new questions concerning the handling of climate change in literature and activist politics, and because it represents a well-known voice from Asia.

Globally, political leaders are lauding the acceptance of the global and legally binding Paris Agreement on Climate Change at COP21 as a historical moment. It achieves a goal long believed unattainable. However, judged against the enormity of the challenge and the needs and pressure from people on the ground demanding a global deal anchored in climate justice, the Paris Agreement can only be called a disappointment.

A quick overview of the world’s state of affairs with regard to energy shows that the global energy transition is now picking up speed, as Ralf Fücks points out.

Prominent Indian journalist Praful Bidwai has unexpectedly passed away. He was only 65 years old. With his death, India looses one of the most prominent critics of nuclear armament and nuclear energy generation.

Ralf Fücks’ new book “Green Growth, Smart Growth”, with a foreword by Anthony Giddens, outlines a way forward to the great transformation needed to decouple economic growth from resource consumption. Drawing on the German policy experience of tackling climate change, Ralf Fücks outlines a new approach to economic thinking, scientific and technological innovation and democratic proactive policymaking.

Healthy soils are crucial to human nutrition and the fight against hunger. But worldwide 24 billion tons of fertile soil is lost annually. Barbara Unmüßig calls attention to the growing threat to one of Earth’s most important resources.

The coming set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will seek to protect ecosystems, conserve resources, and lift millions of people out of poverty. But, though the SDGs will stand on solid legal ground, that ground must be developed further, argues Barbara Unmüßig, president of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung.

The northeatern state of Arunachal Pradesh, with its many hills and rivers, has been at the focus of the ambitious 50,000MW Initiative. In a manifold power struggle between the rural communities, the state and private investors, the project has however run aground

The monetizing of nature is considered to be a promising tool marking the economic relevance of environmental protection. But such an approach poses social, cultural and ecological threats  

The UN Climate Summit on September 23rd will once again fail in delivering concrete finance commitments. Social Movements called for a week of protests