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Climate Emergency

Sep 01 2020
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Achieving zero carbon trade, investment and industry (London)

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Context:

The Green European Foundation, in cooperation with Green House Think Tank is organising the online conference as part of the Climate Emergency Economy project.  This work forms part of a wider project led by the GEF involving Green House in the UK, Scientific Bureau of Groenlinks in the Netherlands and Green Foundation Ireland.

This online conference follows successful events last year on Climate Jobs and a Just Transition and Climate Emergency – Raising Ambition.

About the Event:

Under the title “Achieving zero carbon trade, investment and industry” the Conference will focus on What needs to change for trade, investment and industry to meet the challenge of the climate emergency and exist within planetary boundaries?

A new report from the Green European Foundation and Green House Think Tank introduces a new toolkit to aid policy makers and campaigners to rethink trade.

The “Trade and Investment Requirements for Zero Carbon” Report is now available for download. (Technical Annex – Methodology)

What obstacles are blocking decarbonisation? What policies will enable the changes we need?

With speakers from the Netherlands and Ireland, a political panel discussion, break-out sessions and chances for networking, please join us to explore what a climate emergency economy could look like.

Speakers:

  • Natalie Bennett (Green Peer)
  • Saskia Bricmont (Belgian MEP and Member of the Committee on International Trade)
  • Anna Cavazzini (German MEP and Member of the Committee on International Trade)
  • Peter Sims (Green House Think Tank)
  • Jonathan Essex (Green House Think Tank)
  • Evert Nieuwenhuis (GroenLinks)
  • Tommy Simpson (Green Foundation Ireland)
  • Davie Philip (Cultivate)
  • Ellie Chowns (England and Wales Green Party)
  • Jean Blaylock (Global Justice Now)

Programme:

14:00 – Welcome & introduction

14:05 – Session 1a | Chair – Natalie Bennett

  • Trade story highlights
  • Introduction of the Blockers & Enablers toolkit
  • Group discussion

14:30 – Session 1b | Chair – Natalie Bennett

Decarbonising Industry – The Netherlands

  • Presentation
  • Pairs discussion

Re-localisation / Shortening the Supply Chain – Ireland

  • Presentation
  • Pairs discussion

14:50 – Session 1c | Chair – Natalie Bennett

Group discussion – Q&A from the audience

15:15 – Short break

15:30 – Session 2 | Chair – Natalie Bennett

Panelists:

  • Ellie Chowns, England and Wales Green Party International Spokesperson
  • Jean Blaylock, Campaigns and Policy Manager, Global Justice Now
  • Saskia Bricmont (Belgian MEP and Member of the Committee on International Trade)
  • Anna Cavazzini (German MEP and Member of the Committee on International Trade)

16:30 – End of event

 

 

Practicalities:

This event will kick off new work on trade, infrastructure and industry – and we’d love to have you there.

Time: BST (British Summer Time)

Registrations are now open

 

Acknowledgements:

This event is organised by the Green European Foundation with the support of Green House and with the financial support of the European parliament to the Green European Foundation.

 

Oct 29 2019
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Climate Emergency Seminar (Barcelona)

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About the Event

This seminar will tackle the issue of the climate emergency to stimulate a more lively public debate on the subject in Southern Europe. Throughout the day, representatives from academia, politics, and civil society will look at the different aspects of the climate emergency with a specific focus on the EU level as well as the situation in Spain and Catalonia.

Programme

10:10 WELCOME AND PRESENTATION OF THE DAY
Ernest Urtasun – MEP Green Group/EFA European Parliament
Susanne Rieger – Co-President Green European Foundation

10:20 PANEL: CLIMATE CHALLENGES, SPANISH AND CATALAN PERSPECTIVE
David Cid – Member of the Catalan Parliament, group Catalunya En Comú-Podem
Janet Sanz – 2nd Vice mayor of Barcelona for Environment, Urbanism, Infrastructures and Mobility
Koro López de Uralde – Climate activist
Andreu Escrivá – Environmentalist, adviser in Sustainability

11:45 COFFEE BREAK

12:15 PANEL II: CLIMATE CHALLENGES, EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE
Ernest Urtasun – MEP Green Group/EFA European Parliament
Oriol Costa – Professor of International Relations at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Mar García – Secretary General of the European Green Party

13:45 CLOSING OF THE PLENARY AND PRESENTATION OF THE PRACTICAL WORKSHOPS IN THE AFTERNOON

14:00-16:00 LUNCH

16:00 PARALLEL WORKSHOPS

Energetical Challenges in Research and Development
Lourdes Berdié – Speaker of Network of Energetical Sovereignty

Food and Climate Change
Marta López Cifuentes – University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) (Austria)

Mobility and Health
Pau Noy – President of the Foundation for Sustainable and Safe Mobility

Practicalities

The seminar will take place in English and Spanish, with simultaneous interpretation available.

Attendance at this seminar is free, but registration is required.
Please register your interest in attending by contacting fundacio@noushoritzons.cat

Details of this event are to be confirmed. Please check back later for more information. 

Sep 30 2019
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Green Academy Winter Seminar – Degrowth Kaleidoscope: Real-Existing Utopia(s) (Plitvička Jezera)

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About the Event

The Green European Foundation, in cooperation with the Institute for Political Ecology, the Open Society Initiative for Europe and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung – Prague office, is organising the 3rd edition of the Green Academy Winter Seminar.

The seminar will focus on the ongoing debates around the Green New Deal and degrowth concepts and practices in the context of the climate emergency. Deeper avenues to be explored will look at the theoretical, political and practical level and identify convergencies and conflicts. The seminar will allow for exchanges to develop strategies for concrete change and policies.

Participants will be introduced to “degrowth doughnut” visualisations, underlining the cultural excesses and shortfalls in a democratic construction of a degrowth transition.

A “kaleidoscopic” perspective of the movement and various interconnections and differences will explore specific sectors where degrowth can make a fundamental difference, while also considering the significance of the emerging Green New Deal policies on both sides of the Atlantic.

Demands for a socially just and planned transition need to be articulated precisely in order to head off reactionary responses to the climate emergency. And this we shall redesign as we go, for the further Europeans slide into climate chaos without establishing a convivial sociality, the more likely we are to contend with authoritarian and inegalitarian powers to which emergency conditions often give rise.

The politics of this historical dynamic – the actors, alliances, institutions and social processes creating degrowth transitions is the subject of lively debate in Europe and beyond, shaping up right before our eyes. Given the fact that in 2020 Croatia will take over the EU Presidency, we will aim to explore ways how our thinking and actions can become turning points for Europe to be able to take another course.

Programme

FRIDAY 8th OF NOVEMBER

15:00 DEPARTURE FROM ZAGREB (ORGANISED BUS TRANSPORT – PARKING NEXT TO MAIN TRAIN STATION (ACCROSS IMPORTANE CENTRE ENTRANCE)

17:15 ARRIVAL TO HOTEL – CHECK-IN AND REGISTRATION

18:00 WELCOME NOTE AND INTRODUCTION

Vedran Horvat, IPE Zagreb, Head/Board of Directors, GEF

Nino Lejava, HBS, Head of Prague office

Jagoda Munić, FoEE, Director, Bruxelles/GA program council

Danijela Dolenec, Faculty of Political Sciences, Associate Professor,Zagreb/GA program council

Presentation of working groups: Clara Dellaire-Fortier, Nikolina Rajković, Andro Rilović, Ajda Pistotnik

EVENING CONVERSATION: ”DEGROWTH MOVEMENT, THOUGHT AND ACTION IN THE MIDST OF CLIMATE COLLAPS”

Evening conversation with Vincent Liegey, Cargonomia, Hungary/France

20:00 DINNER

SATURDAY 9TH OF NOVEMBER

09:00 MORNING LECTURE – Tiziano Distefano

”Social cohesion in the ecological transition”

10:00 MORNING PANEL

GREEN NEW DEAL AND DEGROWTH – REAL-EXISTING UTOPIAS IN ACTION

With: Sean Sweney (TUED), Pawel Wargan (DiEM25), Marija Bartl (UA), Jagoda Munić (FoEE)

Moderated by: Danijela Dolenec and Vedran Horvat

11:30 COFFEE BREAK

11:30 WORKING GROUPS 1

  1. LABOR, DEMOCRACY AND DEGROWTH (Clara Dallaire-Fortier & Nina Rajković with Dario Farcy, Sean Sweney and Marija Bartl)
  2. DEGROWTH AND DEBT (Ajda Pistotnik with Mark Perreira and Tilman Hartley)
  3. DEGROWTH (&) MUNICIPALISM (Andro Rilović with Eugen Vuković, Eleanor Finley, Vincent Liegey)

13:30 LUNCH BREAK & WALK

17:30 WORKING GROUPS 2

  1. LABOR, DEMOCRACY AND DEGROWTH (Clara Dallaire Fortier & Nina Rajković with Dario Farcy, Sean Sweney and Marija Bartl)
  2. DEGROWTH AND DEBT (Ajda Pistotnik with Mark Perreira and Tilman Hartley)
  3. DEGROWTH (&) MUNICIPALISM (Andro Rilović with Eugen Vuković, Eleanor Finley, Vincent Liegey)

19:30 DINNER

21:00 DONUTS AND WINE EVENING TALK ON SUSTAINABILITY ON EUROPEAN (SEMI)PERIPHERY –

  • Mladen Domazet
  • Clara Dallaire-Forter
  • Jenny Ufer
  • Branko Ančić

SUNDAY 10TH NOVEMBER

09:00 MORNING LECTURE

Petr Jiehlička, Open University, UK

Degrowth lessons from the European East: self-provisioning, sharing and the resilient food system

10:00 WORKING GROUPS 3

  1. LABOR, DEMOCRACY AND DEGROWTH (Clara Dallaire Fortier & Nina Rajković with Dario Farcy, Sean Sweney and Marija Bartl)
  2. DEGROWTH AND DEBT (Ajda Pistotnik with Mark Perreira and Tilman Hartley)
  3. DEGROWTH (&) MUNICIPALISM (Andro Rilović with Eugen Vuković, Eleanor Finley, Vincent Liegey)

11:30 BREAK

12:00 REPORTS FROM WORKING GROUPS

12:30 Post-growth awakening for EU: positioning degrowth agenda and international cooperation on climate action within the context of EU Croatian Presidency

Moderation: Dražen Šimleša

13:15 Closing

13:30 Lunch

14:30 Departure to Zagreb

17:00 estimated arrival

This event is a cooperation between the Institute for Political Ecology, the Green European Foundation, the Open Society Initiative for Europe and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Prague office, with the financial support of the European Parliament to the Green European Foundation.

Sep 17 2019
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Ecopolis 2019: Generation Hope (Brussels)

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Event Background

The past year has seen the remarkable rising worldwide of young people calling for action on the climate emergency: all across the world, the younger generations are bringing the debates on climate to the political forefront.

Ecopolis 2019 will focus on this inspiring “‘#GenerationHope”, exploring how we can ensure a sustainable future on our planet.

About the Event

Ecopolis is an annual conference held in Brussels and the perfect place to connect and discuss with others who are passionate about a sustainable future!

The ecological challenges we face are transnational and so Ecopolis is appropriately diverse, international and interactive to stimulate productive discussions.

Ecopolis will bring together Belgian and international authors and experts to debate on the transition to a socio-ecologically sound society. The conference will encompass inspiring books, documentaries and discussion sessions between academics, writers and civil-society thinkers on ecology, economy and society.

Speakers:

More speakers to be confirmed soon!

Anissa Boujdaini – Flore De Pauw – Mariyam Safi – Joke Hermsen – Christian Felber – Sofie Bloemen – Elvis Peeters – Arno Kempynck – Maeve Cohen ∙ Stijn Warmenhoven – Walter Lotens – Thomas de Groot – Christian Schwarzer – Arno Kempynck

For speaker profiles, please the Ecopolis website. 

Programme

10:30 – DOORS OPEN

11:00 – The Citizen Movement, the Government and Future Generations

Lecture performance by Dutch dramatists Anoek Nuyens and Rebekka De Wit.

11:30 – Can We Turn the Tide?

Discussion panel on the climate crisis, featuring Dutch writer Joke Hermsen, alongside climate activists from across Europe.

13:00 – Why Should We Still Study?

Discussion panel exploring the interplay between the climate crisis and education, featuring Post-Crash Economics Society founder Maeve Cohen, Austrian “Economy for the Common Good” movement founder Christian Felber, and UN Youth Representative on sustainable development Flore De Pauw.

14:30 – How to Unite Countries Torn Apart?

We will delve into the fragmentations evident in European societies and the challenges this poses to tackling the climate crisis with this panel discussion, featuring writer Elvis Peeters, and climate activists Stijn Warmenhoven and Mariyam Safi.

16:00 – Intermezzo:

Spoken word performance by Anissa Boujdaini

16:15 – Global Warming and the Male Meltdown – the interplay of misogyny, right-wing populism and climate denial

Debate discussing ecofeminism and the connections between anti-feminist movements and climate skepticism, featuring Sherilyn MacGregor (University of Manchester), Benedikte Zitouni (Université Saint-Louis), Leen Schelfhout (Extinction Rebellion) and Youna Marette (Manifeste de la Génération Climat), moderation by Bieke Purnelle.

18:00 – END

For the full programme description and list of speakers, please visit the Ecopolis website. 

Practicalities

Language

Simultaneous interpretation into Dutch, English and French will be available.

Directions to the venue

  • By foot – 15 min. walking distance for Brussel-Noord station.
  • By bike – bike parking in front of the venue; Villo-station at Square Saincetlette (across the canal)
  • Metro –  Stop at Ijzer/Yser (lines 2 and 6)
  • Tram – Line 51.
  • Bus –  Line 47 (MIVB) or lines 129, 190, 212, 213, 214, 230, 231, 232, 233, 235, 240, 241, 242, 243, 246, 250, 251, 260 and 355.

Tickets

Tickets can be purcahsed from the venue Kaaitheater website

Tickets cost 7 euro in presale and 10 euro at the door.

Further details of this event are to be confirmed, please check back later for more information.

The official website of the event can be found here.