Over one million people and 100 environmental NGOs across Europe are calling on the European Union to restart its economy by launching the biggest green investment plan the world has ever seen, financed by the bloc's increased budget and recovery instrument. Tomorrow, MEPs will decide what they want in the EU's Recovery Fund and seven-year budget ahead of the European Commission's much awaited proposal next week.
A draft global plan to halt the collapse of nature will not protect vulnerable communities or stop the Earth's sixth mass extinction, claims Friends of the Earth. The call comes as governments meet in Rome for the first time today to work on a "Paris-style" United Nations agreement that will eventually be agreed in October. [1]
Local citizens celebrate, NGOs call on EU Commission to launch infringement procedure
The Bulgarian government on Wednesday (January 15) withdrew its application for EU funds to build a motorway through Kresna gorge – a protected nature area – in a significant victory for the local communities and irreplaceable nature in the area.
In only her second week in office, new European Commission President von der Leyen has today set out a major environmental package to set the EU on a new environmental and climate path.
System change: Europe’s environmental and climate warning signals are flashing red according to a comprehensive ‘State of the Environment’ survey published by the European Environment Agency (EEA).
A European Citizens' Initiative launches today to phase out synthetic pesticides by 2035, support farmers, and save bees and nature. If it gathers one million signatures by September 2020, the EU Commission and Parliament must consider turning the campaign's demands into law.
90 organisations from 17 EU countries are jointly launching the campaign, with the support of organic farming associations.
Friends of the Earth Switzerland and Norway today handed in 100,000 signatures to the Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse at their headquarters in Zurich, demanding they stop financing a disastrous mining project in Norway.
Credit Suisse is facilitating financing for three companies that are dumping – or plan to dump – more than 810 million tonnes of toxic mining waste in a beautiful Norwegian fjord, as well as waters off the coast of Papua New Guinea and Turkey.
*UPDATE*
On 31 October 2019, Hnuti Duha / Friends of the Earth Czechia celebrated after the Czech Parliament signed off on a few important legal reforms to the Czech forest law that will help create more living forests. The changes should ensure that more dead wood is left on the forest floor, and stocks of deer and other forest animals for hunting are reduced. These reforms should help improve the natural restoration of Czechia's dying forests. But the fight for resilient forests is not over and other changes now need to be made.
by Jagoda Munić, director of Friends of the Earth Europe
“I want you to act as if our house is on fire”, climate activist Greta Thunberg told politicians at the World Economic Forum in January this year, seeking to motivate them to urgently put a stop to runaway climate change.
Environmental groups challenge European Commission to take legal action against Bulgarian government over depletion of key wildlife site Kresna Gorge
Lawyers and environmental groups have today challenged the European Commission to take legal action against the Bulgarian government over a shocking depletion of wildlife in a key EU-protected nature site, Kresna Gorge.