News

November the 1^st is the deadline for the amendment or withdrawal of the Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) between the Netherlands and South Africa. The intention of the treaty was to expand and strengthen the economic relationship between the two countries, to promote the exchange of capital and technology and to strengthen the economic growth. The question is what will happen next;  Burghard Ilge of Both ENDS explains.

October 10th the fifth board meeting of the Green Climate Fund took place, this time in Paris. The Green Climate Fund is an international fund set up and commissioned by the United Nations in order to help developing countries combatting the negative effects of climate change. Possibly, developing countries are granted with an amount of $100 billion a year! Although the financial support is very promising, opinions differ widely on how that money should be spent. Therefore Anouk Franck and Annelieke Duma of Both ENDS attended, along with Titi Soentoro of the Indonesian organization Aksi! and Jorge Daneri of M'Bigua from Argentina, to make sure that the money gets where it is most needed.

It's October, time for the annual meeting of the World Bank in Washington DC in which the annual results and future plans will be presented to the outside world. It also gives NGOs from all over the world an oppotunity to talk with World Bank’s administrators and relevant staff on future policies. Pieter Jansen of Both ENDS travelled to Washington together with three representatives of local organisations in the South: Yu Chen of Green Watershed from China, Mayra Tenjo of ILSA from Colombia and Ram Wangkheirakpam of NEPA from India. Their main purpose is to highlight the importance of social- and environmental requirements that the investments of the World Bank should meet, the so-called 'safeguards'.

Minister Ploumen of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation is visiting Brazil on a trade mission for the second time this year. On the government website she says: ‘for Dutch companies there are a lot of trade opportunities in Brazil. Foreign trade also creates domestic jobs.’ The Netherlands is one of the top 5 export partners of Brazil. But who profits from this solid trade relation in Brazil? To make the minister and her travel companions aware of this question, Both ENDS sent her a letter.

Recently Both ENDS and agricultural and horticultural cooperative Agrifirm organised a field visit for members of the Dutch Soy Coalition. The group visited  two farmers in the province of Drenthe who have been participating in the first practice test to grow Soy in Netherlands. One of them is an organic poultry farmer and the other a conventional dairy farmer. Both use soy in animal feed on the farm. Tamara Mohr of Both ENDS was there and explains about this initiative.

Syngenta , global producer of seeds and agrochemicals, will become an ' observer ' within the UN Convention to Combat Desertification ( UNCCD ). This was decided last week during the annual meeting in Windhoek , Namibia and caused indignation among civil society groups. Groups that were present started a joint diplomatic protest. Our Both ENDS-colleague Nathalie van Haren took a leading role in this protest and was the spokeswoman towards the media. She explains what it was all about.

The Government of Ecuador offered a petition to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations on September 13th. In this petition, which was signed by Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Kyrgyzstan, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela, Peru, the African Group and the Arab Group, Ecuador stresses the need for binding international regulation for transnational corporations. This action is warmly welcomed and supported by more than 100 social movements and civil society organizations, representing hundreds of thousands of workers, farmers and members of indigenous communities. Both ENDS strongly supports this action and our colleague Lieke Ruijmschoot explains why.

Last June, President Obama called upon the national and international community to give no more public support to foreign coal. Shortly after this, the World Bank and the European Investment Bank EIB followed the example, setting stricter criteria for loans to energy companies, which will make it nuch more difficult, if not impossible for new coal plants to get financing from these banks. 

Just like last year, the Stockholm International Water Institute organises the World Water Week  which is starting this weekend. The overall theme of this year is cooperation between all stakeholders which are somehow involved with water. As this is one of the main themes in Both ENDS' work, of course we are present as well. Our colleagues Izabella Dias and Thirza Bronner  are organising a panel discussion in the Water Week and Izabella Dias tells us exactly what it is about:

Last week, the first tickets for the World Cup in Brazil went on sale. A total number of around 3.3 million tickets will be available, costing between $90 and $990 each. But who will benefit? Recent demonstrations in Brazil have revealed that the World Cup in 2014 is not all good news, as the majority of the Brazilians seemed to have believed for a long time. Our colleagues from CASA, a Brazilian small grants organisation focusing on environmental issues and sustainable development, are looking for practical ways to turn the tide and make a positive contribution.

We were very pleased that James Anaya, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, visited Panama to speak with the indigenous Ngäbe Buglé community and to take a close look at the developments around the Barro Blanco dam.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) will clean up its act regarding coal plants. In recent years, the bank invested around 2 billion euro’s in polluting power plants which emit huge amounts of CO2. The EIB, which had a total capital base of 242 billion at the end of 2012, is doing business in 150 countries outside Europe.