By 2020, the EU wants a larger percentage of fuel used for transportation to consist of renewable sources, such as biofuel. Many European countries have therefore made the blending of biofuels in diesel and gasoline mandatory. A large proportion of this biofuel is now palm oil.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has announced a worrying change in their policy on transparency. One of the changes would result in EU citizens no longer being able to access internal EIB documents, even if they are of public interest. Several campaigners, including Both ENDS’ Pieter Jansen, have therefore urged the the Dutch Minister of Finance Jeroen Dijsselbloem to speak out against these plans on the next board meeting on September 16th.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) disbursed an additional EUR 40 million for the Bujagali dam in Uganda while complaints from the local communities are still waiting for a response. The dam is controversial because of its tremendous social and environmental impact. "By neglecting its own complaint mechanism, the EIB proves that its policy is nothing more than a green washing machine", several civil society organisations state.
Following the Raw Material Week in November 2023 and the provisional agreement on the Critical Raw Material Regulation, Wetlands International Europe together with Both ENDS and the EU Raw Materials Coalition have organised a session seeking an open discussion on the environmental and human rights impacts of raw materials extraction, in and around vulnerable areas.
From April 19 to May 5 a delegation of four Indigenous Lenca activists from Honduras will be visiting five European countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Finland, Germany and Spain) to engage with Members of Parliament, policy makers and NGOs, discuss with financiers, join national protests at financiers and talk to media and the general public about the repression and impunity in their country. The main goal of the delegation’s visit is to stop the involvement of these countries in the Agua Zarca projects and other projects impacting the indigenous Lenca people in Honduras.On March 2, 2016, Berta Cáceres, the internationally-renowned Honduran human rights and environment defender and Lenca indigenous leader, was murdered, after leading for several years the struggle against a hydroelectric project along the Gualcarque River, also known as the Agua Zarca Project.
This event will present The Transformative Water Pact (TWP), an innovative framework for water governance that has been developed by environmental justice experts from around the world. The TWP will serve as a starting point for dialogue between representatives of the government of Colombia, academia, regional and international NGOs in relation to Colombia's current ambitions in multi-scalar water governance.