How the case of Eeklo fuels a more fundamental debate about energy transition What if the world is be an organic system and what if it would be simply impossible to burn enough fossil fuels to make it inhabitable? Or maybe more likely what if through cloud seeding, algae furtilisation in the oceans or putting…
Category: Green
City of one function
One of the ways we call functional cities is monotowns. They are part our history for a long long time, since the industrial revolution begun. Nowadays 20% of all Russians live and work in the monotowns. Some time ago monotowns as such were vital and beneficial for country’s economic system. But now, after the crisis,…
Youth Involvement in Urban Planning in Riga
Public space, is continuously overcrowded in urbanised cities, but in shrinking cities has been left to deteriorate by conjunction, privatization, bad urban planning and design and overall neglect. But, by neglecting the public space, we are neglecting the people in it. One of the most vulnerable groups in the society is youth, as they use…
Rebuffing the Mediterranean Gem
Malta, dubbed over the years as the Mediterranean Gem, has over the past few decades been tricked into the hands of the elite who seem to be playing Minecraft with our land. The very limited countryside and public open spaces are being lost to relentless development. Urban sprawl is gnawing away at our green lungs,…
My thoughts on UN COP22, Marrakech
Climate change has once again become the focus of global diplomacy last week as countries gathered in Marrakech, Morocco for the UN (United Nations) climate body’s (UNFCCC) 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP22). I was lucky enough to be chosen as a delegate to the Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG) AlterCOP22 climate camp. Attending…
Who Will Lead the Future?
On Wednesday the 9th of November, most of us woke up shocked and disappointed by the US election results. And of course, many of us feared the Paris Agreement and all global climate action is threatened. My guess is the climate will be fine, but other values might be at stake. The election of Donald…
Expectations for COP22
I am Mitja from Finland and also a part of the FYEG delegation to the climate negotiations of COP22 at Marrakech in Morocco. My expectations towards the negotiations are focused on action – what needs to be done to stop global warming? This year is heralded as the year of action yet during the first…
Growth driven society and the illusion of climate change mitigation
Sustainable development has been the focus of all the contemporary climate negotiations. All the environmental agreements and media releases mention the words “sustainable development”, however the COP22, as many other socio-political arenas, are rooted on the definition of economic growth as the route to development. Article 10.5 of the Paris Agreement set out that “Accelerating,…
COP22: The Newcomer
I’m new to COP, here’s a brief update on what it has been like so far. My name is Danika Formosa and I am the International Secretary of the Maltese Young Greens. I am part of the Federation of Young European Greens delegation attending the first session of the Conference of the Parties serving as…
Trump trumps climate – climate trumps Trump?
Actually, this should have been an article about expectations for this year’s UN Climate Talks after a few days of negotiations. It was prepared for the election of Hillary Clinton as 45th President of United States. But then Donald Trump was elected – a sexist, a racist, a homophobe. And when it comes to science:…