Green Ideas Archives - Green Forum Sweden

Young American Greens: Defending Land, Defending Life

Lydia — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 17:00:41 +0000

The environment is not a separate issue — it is the centre of everything. Ahead of World Environment Day on 5 June 2026, we asked our partner organisation in Latin America, Jóvenes Verdes de las Américas (JVA), to share what this day means for them and for the young green activists building a different kind of politics across the Americas:

Why is World Environment Day important, and what does it mean for JVA?

World Environment Day reminds us that nature is not a resource — it is the foundation of our existence. For JVA, this day means recognizing that the environment cuts across all of our rights: without healthy land, without clean water, without free territories, no young person can fully develop.

It is also a day to celebrate our pre-Hispanic roots and the wisdom of peoples who knew how to live in balance with their surroundings, while we denounce that so-called global “development” was built — and continues to be built — at the expense of natural resources, affecting the Global South above all. For JVA, the environment is also a matter of comprehensive security: when the environment is destroyed, it is young people and the most vulnerable communities who suffer first.

Why is it important for JVA to engage with environmental issues?

For decades, the dominant development model bet on extractive economics and set aside environmental stewardship, leaving an enormous debt to territories and communities. We, as young people, have decided that path does not represent us. We believe in a sustainable vision of development and the circular economy.

We engage because we understand that there can be no social justice without environmental justice — that both struggles are one and the same. JVA is committed to a different kind of development: one that is cross-cutting, that puts people and nature at the center, and that builds a future without destroying the present.

What role and opportunities do you believe young people should have in environmental action?

Young people are the driving force of sustainable development and we have taken politics into our own hands — and we are not letting go. Our role is not only to protest what is wrong, but to actively build what comes next: new political leadership grounded in social and environmental justice, where no one is left behind.

The Green Youth of the Americas have a historic opportunity to place on the public agenda a vision where the poorest and most vulnerable come first, where balance with the environment is not optional but the starting point. We are not the future — we are the present of this change.

What is the most important message JVA should share on this day?

The message is clear: the environment is not a separate issue — it is the center of everything. There is no social justice without environmental justice. There are no rights without territory. There is no future while the peoples of the Global South continue paying with their resources and their communities for the development of others.

The youth of the Americas say it with conviction: the model that destroys the land does not represent us, and we do not want to inherit it either. We come from roots that knew how to live in balance, and from that foundation we build the politics we deserve — one where the most vulnerable come first, where nature has rights, and where no young person is left behind.

Today we do not only celebrate Environment Day. We declare that defending the land is defending life, and that is our cause and our central struggle.

About Jóvenes Verdes de las Américas

Jóvenes Verdes de las Américas (JVA) is the continental youth wing of the Federación de Partidos Verdes de las Américas (FPVA), the American branch of the Global Greens network. A group of young people passionate about ecopolitics as a model of social transformation, JVA represents a generational shift towards new champions for social and environmental justice across North, Central, and South America. They have been a partner organisation of Green Forum since 2022.

Follow JVA’s work on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

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Were We Ever Inside the Amazon? What COP30 Reveals About Climate Politics

Lydia — Sun, 30 Nov 2025 10:51:49 +0000

A reflection on how financial logics continue to shape climate negotiations – often at the expense of ecological and social perspectives.

Belém, Brasil | 30 November 2025

COP30 has come to an end. Once again, we are told that progress has been made. This time, the summit took place in Belém, at the edge of the Amazon rainforest. Many hoped this would matter – that proximity to one of the world’s most vital ecosystems would influence the tone of negotiations. That it would remind us that climate policy is not only about targets and metrics, but about living systems and the people who depend on them. Yet an important question remains: were we ever truly inside the Amazon?

While the forest was geographically close, it was largely absent from how discussions were structured. As in previous COPs, negotiations unfolded in controlled spaces, shaped by technical and financial language. Ecosystems were described as “carbon stocks” and “services” – as rivers folded into the logic of financial flows. Even here, at the edge of the Amazon, nature was primarily approached through a market lens. Changing the location, it seems, does not change the underlying logic.

The Logic Predates the Crisis

COP30 suggests that the challenge runs deeper than geography – and deeper than the present moment. The overall approach to climate action remains shaped by long-standing economic and political frameworks whose roots stretch back further than climate policy itself. After the Second World War, there was a rare opportunity to build a global trading system that integrated social rights, development, and ecological belonging alongside economic efficiency. That opportunity, embodied in the proposed International Trade Organisation at the 1947 Havana Charter, was lost. What emerged instead was a framework that embedded social and ecological values within market rules, rather than the other way around. Climate governance today is the heir of that choice. The COPs did not create this logic; they inherited it – and cannot think outside it unless that underlying logic is rewritten. This becomes visible in the COP30 Action Agenda, where climate action is framed as something that should “function as an economy in its own right.” Decarbonisation is linked to competitiveness. Ecosystems are treated as investment opportunities. Adaptation is approached through risk management. Oceans and forests are integrated into market-based systems.

These approaches are not neutral. And when they dominate the conversation, they risk not merely crowding out other perspectives, but actively resisting them. At stake is a deeper incompatibility – market frameworks and ecological belonging do not simply need a better balance – they are operating according to fundamentally different logics.

The Voices That Didn’t Shape the Outcome

Some of the most telling moments at COP30 happened outside the formal negotiations. Informal discussions, even among Green actors, repeatedly returned to the same question: how many billions – or trillions – are needed. This reflects how deeply financial thinking has become embedded in climate policy, even among those who have traditionally challenged it. The contradictions surfaced in the formal spaces too. President Lula’s closing speech attempted to reconcile an uncompromising defence of the Amazon with the idea of financing that effort through oil revenues, including from drilling at the mouth of the Amazon River itself. It was a striking illustration of how difficult it has become to argue for the forest without simultaneously framing it as an economic opportunity.

Meanwhile, other voices struggled to gain equivalent influence. Civil society actors, youth representatives, and Indigenous voices consistently called for stronger community ownership, meaningful participation, and alternative ways of understanding climate action. While present, these perspectives were rarely reflected in the final direction of negotiations. This points to a deeper challenge. Climate solutions are not only technical or financial – they are social, cultural, and political. Evidence from both Europe and the Global South shows that transitions are more likely to succeed when they are grounded in local contexts, knowledge, and lived realities, and when those most affected are meaningfully included in decision-making. Research from the ILO, OECD, and EU funded projects consistently shows that climate and industrial transitions succeed when they are anchored in local memory, identity, and knowledge – and fail when they are not.

Rethinking What Counts as a Solution

A key question emerging from COP30 is not only how much we invest in climate action, but how we define what counts as a solution in the first place. Metrics, taxonomies, and risk frameworks play an important role in shaping decisions. But they also shape what becomes visible – and what remains invisible. When ecosystems are treated primarily as assets, this narrows the range of approaches considered viable. Other values – relationships to land, cultural meaning, long-term stewardship – become difficult to integrate into decision-making, not because they are unimportant, but because the dominant frameworks have no obvious place for them.

A forest is not a financial unit. It is a web of relationships – between people, memory, labour, and living systems – that cannot be captured by market abstractions alone. Transitions driven by technical or economic logic alone often struggle to deliver lasting results. More effective approaches tend to engage with these broader dimensions. This is not about rejecting economic tools, but about recognising their limits, and ensuring they do not define the full scope of what climate action can be.

Beyond the Forest at the Door

COP30 did not fall short simply due to a lack of ambition. In many ways, ambition was present. But it also revealed how deeply current approaches remain shaped by existing economic logics and how difficult it is to move beyond them, even when the forest is right outside the door. Addressing the climate crisis therefore requires more than scaling up existing solutions, and more than reforms alone. It requires broadening how we understand the problem itself, and being willing to rewrite the frameworks through which we interpret and govern the living world. This means taking seriously the role of local communities and Indigenous knowledge – not as a footnote to technical solutions – but as a foundation for them. It means acknowledging that climate transitions have social and political dimensions that no financial instrument alone can resolve. And it means creating genuine space in negotiating rooms, in funding decisions, in policy design for perspectives that go beyond market logic.

Forests are not just carbon sinks. They are living systems shaped by relationships between people, ecosystems, and histories. Recognising this does not mean abandoning practical tools or policy instruments. But it does mean grounding them in a broader understanding of what is at stake, and in the realities of the communities who depend on them. Inclusive, participatory processes are not just a matter of fairness – they are a matter of effectiveness. Perhaps the clearest expression of what is at stake came from Djatchy Ka’a, an Indigenous member of the Tupinambá people and founder of Ava Amazônia, whose voice underpins this article:

“COP30 did not fail for lack of ambition, but from an excess – a greedy excess – of a certain kind of ambition. We witnessed the industrialisation of nature behind closed doors. Negotiated climate became the highest expression of the inverted map imposed by our invaders, who built companies so large that one day they decided to call them ‘cities’, causing the extinction of what we know as freelands.”

Ultimately, addressing climate change is not only about managing emissions. It is also about how we understand our place within the natural world, and how that understanding shapes the actions we take.

This blog post is based on an article by Ludovic Garattini, PhD, originally published in The Conversation. Translated, shortened, and adapted by Lydia Watchefo and Ansgar Lemke. Image: Forest edge, Amazon region. Photo by Alexander Van Steenberge on Unsplash.

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‘New Green Narratives’ project seeks to transform climate communication

Lydia — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 16:11:26 +0000

Green Forum has launched the New Green Narratives (NGN) project, an ambitious research initiative to reimagine how climate change is communicated – and make it a winning political story

Stockholm, Sweden | 18 August 2025

While climate change is increasingly seen by the public as a pressing and immediate threat, parties often struggle to turn this awareness into political momentum. “We know people care about the climate, but the way we talk about it hasn’t always connected with their daily realities,” says Dr. Ludovic Garattini, NGN lead researcher. “This project is about changing that.”

Rather than relying on a top-down approach, NGN takes a bottom-up trajectory, starting with the stories people tell in their own words and worlds. The project combines a systematic literature review with qualitative fieldwork to understand how climate and environmental issues are perceived and discussed across cultures and contexts.

In November 2024, NGN piloted its first qualitative study at the United Nations COP 29 conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, conducting over 80 semi-structured interviews with participants from around the world. In May 2025, the team piloted four focus groups and additional interviews in Ukunda, Kenya, bringing in perspectives from indigenous and frontline communities. Preliminary findings were shared at a partner presentation in January 2025, and a research article on the European Green Deal was published in June in the European Network of Political Foundations (ENoP) journal.

“The aim is to weave together insights from civic society, academics, policymakers, and even industry representatives, from renewable energy to fossil fuels,” explains Dr. Garattini. “We want to build narratives that feel relevant, relatable, and motivating, without resorting to fear or division.”

The NGN team is building partnerships with political foundations, think tanks, youth movements, and academic institutions, including GroenLinks, Heinrich Böll Stiftung, and Cogito. Two research missions in 2024 and 2025 helped strengthen ties and promote scientific dialogue on environmental and socio-academic dimensions of climate trauma. By combining rigorous research with diverse perspectives, NGN aims to create political messages that connect climate action to immediate social, economic, and moral benefits, inspiring public trust, mobilising action, and making environmental leadership a winning story.

About New Green Narratives (NGN)

The New Green Narratives project is a research initiative by Green Forum launched in July 2024, aimed at rethinking how climate and environmental issues are communicated in political and public life. Combining a systematic literature review with qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews and focus groups across diverse communities, NGN takes a bottom-up approach, capturing climate narratives in people’s own words and contexts. By weaving together insights from civic society, indigenous and frontline communities, academics, policymakers, and industry representatives, NGN seeks to craft political messages that connect climate action to tangible social, economic, and moral benefits. The project is building international partnerships with political foundations, youth movements, think tanks, and academic institutions to ensure its findings are relevant, relatable, and actionable across cultures.

Stay updated on our website and social media for new findings, publications, and upcoming events from the New Green Narratives project.

https://www.enop.eu/publications/the-eu-amidst-global-shifts-navigating-the-path-to-democracy-in-unstable-times/

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YOUNG PEOPLE: The driving force of democracy

Therese — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 06:57:48 +0000

Today, 15th of September, we celebrate the International Day of Democracy, with the theme of “Empowering the next generation”, which focuses on the essential role that young people play in advancing democracy around the world. Democracy is not only a goal, but also a process that requires the full participation of all citizens, especially youth and other marginalized groups, to make it a reality for everyone, everywhere.

A political leadership program for young people

The Programme for Young Politicians in Africa (PYPA) empowers the next generation to be leaders of today, not only tomorrow. It equips its participants with the skills and knowledge they need to become effective democratic leaders and represent their constituencies well. We salute the achievements of young women and men who are active in the political space and who are making a difference in their communities.

On this International Day of Democracy, we invite you to learn more about the PYPA program and its curriculum at https://pypaprogram.org/. You can also check out the curriculum relating to youth at https://pypaprogram.org/publications/youth/. Join us in celebrating the power and potential of young people to shape our democratic future!

Happy Democracy Day!

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VIDEO: Young Female Councilor in Zambia Showing the Way

DMN Creative — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 09:19:48 +0000

They say politics is a dirty game. Well, in this documentary we beam the spotlight on young women who break the bias and are not afraid to get their hands dirty in order to develop their communities. We take a stroll with Zambia’s youngest female councilor in her ward as she shares her political journey with two of our fervent participants of our Young Women in Politics (YOWOP). The project is supported by the Swedish Institute and implemented jointly with the Center for Young Leaders in Africa.

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CLIMATE FINANCING AS GENDER EQUALITY CATALYST

DMN Creative — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 19:02:01 +0000

Relations between climate change and gender equality are more and more in the focus. A lot (but not nearly enough) has already been said about disproportional effects that climate change have on women, who constitute the majority of the population already affected by climate change or being under the direct threat. Worldwide, women have less access to opportunities such as change of job, to travel, own land, participate in legal/political/social processes and decision making, etc. All this lower women’s access and possibilities to equally (if at all) participate in local and global processes of fighting climate change.

I would like to believe that we do not have to open the debate why gender perspective should be taken into account when talking about climate change. If not for the all above mentioned, women account for about 50% of the population and we can’t ignore half of the target group.

However tireless efforts of the civil society, activists and politicians succeeded in bringing to light gender perspective in climate change discussions, education, and decision making. Hereby we will take a short look into climate financing and its gender perspectives.

First of all it has to be clear that making climate finance gender sensitive did not happen just like that. We should rather see it as big victory for outspoken climate feminists. Two basic perspectives on which this framework is based on are: true sustainability can not be achieved without gender perspective, and gender equality can not be achieved unless integrated at the very beginning of the process and in every aspect of the process.

Speaking about concrete funds[2], for example, already in 2011 Kyoto protocol Adaptation fund and Global Environmental Facility (GEF) had certain gender mainstreaming references. These were important steps but there was still a lot to be done. In 2014 for example only 18% of the projects under the GEF Climate mitigation work addressed gender.

The Green climate fund is the first multilateral fund to include gender equality in all layers of its work. For example gender equality as regards boards or staff is not only applicable to the fund’s own structure but to all stakeholders’ as well. All implementers of the project need to prove gender mainstreamed portfolio, proving that gender equality is not only a project requirement for one small part of their act, but organically embedded in the stakeholders’ principles of operation. This affects multinational banks, development funds, consulting agencies and other institutions that were of course not the biggest fans of #WomenOnBoards alike initiatives. Needless to say that when it came to final beneficiaries, projects needed to prove a sustainable contribution to gender equality and an improved position of women.

It is worth mentioning that climate funds’ gendered regulations work in favor for small to medium enterprises, as they are more likely to be owned by women or at least have better gender balance records then big multinational consortiums. Thus we see that gender regulations boost diversification of involved actors as well as make climate action more rooted to the local level.

Climate funds are contributing to gender equality a great deal. Though we need to safeguard achieved regulations and make them mandatory for other funds as well. Civil society, women organizations, etc. must be involved in monitoring and evaluation processes and ensure that work done through climate funds complement and amplify our struggles for women rights in other fields as well.

/Vesna Jusup

Works with member relations at the European Green Party secretariat

Former project leader at Cooperation and Development Network of Eastern Europe

[1] *This text was inspired and fueled by Liane Schalatek, Associate director at Heinrich Boell Foundation North America office, who tirelessly pushes for gender issues to be in the agenda of Climate discussions and close to the heart of the Climate financing

[2] Schalatek, Nakhooda: Gender and Climate Finance, Overseas development institute, 2016 https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/9321.pdf

The blog was originally published on Green Forum website on 5 December, 2016

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PARTNERSHIPS FOR A SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

DMN Creative — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 12:04:28 +0000

In order to understand the Green movement in Eastern Europe one must look at it from a wider perspective. The democratic systems in the region’s countries have been taking constant turns in the last couple of decades, and their governments have been gradually, but surely reducing public liberties. Continued use of nationalism and hatred are heating up an already turbulent political situation portrayed in corruption and non-transparent governing. Disappearing welfare states, strong patriarchal norms, corrupted political systems and media censorship are common issues affecting these countries. The accumulated effect of all of these makes engagement in Green politics either through the civil society or through a political party very difficult, and sometimes even dangerous.

Although some of the first Green parties in Europe date back to the ’70s, Green ideology in its wide understanding only began to take roots in Eastern Europe much later. Even though the term “Green” came to be used in a political sense, the “old” Green parties in reality did not stand for these values. Therefore the second generation of greens, apart from the fight with the governments and imposed traditional values, have been fighting to reclaim the term in their countries and associate it with its core values – environmental consciousness, democracy, social justice, gender equality, non-violence and solidarity.

However, the Green agenda has been taken up by youth initiatives throughout Eastern Europe – from Georgia to Croatia, from Albania to Belarus. Some of them are growing from scratch, while some are originating from the mother parties. As a regionally established network – CDN has become (with the support of Green Forum and FYEG) the reference point for Green politics in Eastern Europe. It is supporting the structural growth of new generations of Greens, while also aiming to bridge the gap between the regional division of East and West within the Green family.

It is not a surprise that the doors to national stakeholders in Eastern Europe open much easier for an international green organisation than for the local young greens. What this means in practice is that young greens trigger an action in their countries and the Network provides support for them, by establishing connections with green politicians, MEPs, local politicians and journalists from other (Eastern) European countries, therefore working on gaining the support of the entirety of Europe for the issue. A wide range of issues are crucial for these young activists and politicians, starting from climate change and de-growth to freedom of speech and propaganda, from gender equality and online security to sustainable cities and commons. The exchange and cooperation in these fields are crucial for showing to the public, the members and other political actors, that Green politics are far more than just environmental consciousness, by putting emphasis on solidarity and support.

/Katarina Pavlovic

Project coordinator of Cooperation and Development Network of Eastern Europe

For more info about CDN please visit CDN website

*The blog was originally published on Green Forum website on October 20, 2016

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THE ROLE OF STORYTELLERS IN DEVELOPMENT POLICY

DMN Creative — Tue, 19 Jul 2016 16:59:54 +0000

Generally the aid policy has been based on donor’s conditions and interest through decades. Though all evidence show that the domination of donor countries perspectives in aids policies is a huge obstacle that still has to be overcome in order to provide a solid foundation for sustainable development.

The Swedish newspaper, Götebors Posten, published an important debate written by a few researchers from Gothenburg University, Professor Fredrik Söderbaum et al, on June 29th 2016. In this debate they emphasized one of the major issues on aid policy within the framework of development policies:

“Policy framework fails to adequately take into account the poor people’s ability and power to themselves create the development they want for themselves, their families and their countries. Research on the driving forces behind development emphasizes people and their organizations and institutions – from trade unions to religious organizations and cooperatives to local history societies and diaspora groups – are the most important development resource and thus the main driving force for social change.”

This important issue has already been discussed internationally by many scholars during the last decades and are relevant to Sweden’s aid policy as well as other countries. Although the successful actions for change on this major issue have not yet been taken, there is further need to improve the next step of critical approach to the aid policy. Further critical approach on aid policy is needed to provide a profound and comprehensive knowledge on the power relations of the recipient countries. For instance one of the key issues regarding power relations in recipient countries are: whose voices are heard and whose voices are unheard in shaping in recipient countries? What are the diverse narratives or stories among the people?

The fact that there are greater socio-economic gaps and social injustice within the developing’s world compare to the rich world, should be taken into considerations by donors countries. Due to the great gap in socio-economic, social status and power relations in recipient countries, the voices being heard are often the strongest voices.

Thus, the constant question that should be asked in analysis framework and action planning should assume: whether or not the donors reach out to the civil society’s real representative? Have the donors reached all the storytellers and strengthen all the voices? How could the donors reach the divers storytellers in order to include different part of the civil society in problem analysis, needs assessment and action plan?

MANIJEH MEHDIYAR

*The blog was originally published on Green Forum website on July 19, 2016

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DIVEST NOW!

DMN Creative — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 14:44:43 +0000

Divestment is a process on the opposite side of investment. It implies withdrawal of stocks, bonds or investment funds from fossil fuel companies. At the same time divestment is a powerful political tool to point out core problems, to target perpetrators rather than users/victims and to point out necessary changes of the financial system.

Throughout history there have been several divestment campaigns that contributed to changes in sectors they had targeted. For ex. campaigns against military actions in Darfur, Tobacco industry, etc. Perhaps the most famous example was the Divestment campaign as regards the Apartheid system in South Africa.

Concerning Divestment from fossil fuels, the argumentation is built around 3 arguments:

Moral argument – To illustrate it, the best way would be to quote Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org: “If it’s wrong to wreck the climate then it’s wrong to profit from that wreckage”. To reach the Paris climate goals, up to 80 percent of fossil fuel reserves have to remain in the ground.
Democratic argument – is applicable to investment funds over which citizens should have ownership. Pensions funds, Universities, Local authorities and city/municipal governments, etc. These investments must be transparent and citizens must have a say in the way money is used. If we elect local governments on bases of their political programme we must ensure that their investments with public money are also following the same political line. Having said that, as so many elected politicians on different levels pledge their support and will to combat climate change, one could expect huge amounts of public funds to be divested from fossil fuel industries any time soon.
Financial argument – If a vast majority of fossil fuel reserves will not be used due to strict climate policies, fossil fuel companies (and their shares) will lose value dramatically. Therefore, foresighted investors are already backing out of fossil fuel investments, not (only) for moral reasons, but because of the financial risk these investments are bearing.

Divestment is not only about stopping or slowing down damaging processes. The potential of divestment lies in the fact that financial means remain at our disposal to invest them in sustainable activities/industries. Investing in a development of renewable energy will never be easier than in times when we divest public and private money from fossil fuel industries.

The real power of divestment is in the fact that it delegitimizes the fossil fuel industry and that it expands a notion of political participation to finances and raise the demand for full transparency and accountability of the ones we elect to govern.

At the end, it is important to mention the campaign Divestment from Fossil fuels. It is clear that the world energy supply cannot continue on its fossil basis and that complexity of climate change needs to be tackled through different means. One thing we can do is to demand, among others, our municipalities, our banks, our universities, our pension fund, our churches, and our insurances to divest from fossil fuels. Divest now!

/Vesna Jusup

Works with member relations at the European Green Party secretariat

Former project leader at Cooperation and Development Network of Eastern Europe

http://fpif.org/divestment_ending_the_genocide_in_darfur/

https://www.nsra-adnf.ca/cms/file/files/NSRA%20MLT%20Divestment%20Fact%20Sheet%20Dec14%20final2.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disinvestment_from_South_Africa

https://europeangreens.eu/fossilfree2016

The blog was originally published on Green Forum website on 15 June, 2016

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CLIMATE CHANGE RESILIENCE STRATEGIES A TOOL TOWARDS ACHIEVING SDGS

DMN Creative — Tue, 24 May 2016 15:18:18 +0000

Every country needs to review its progress towards achieving sustainable developments goals by assessing challenges facing its policies in combatting climate change. There is a need for continued technical support, close monitoring of the implementation of all commitments, adequate resource mobilization and mainstreaming of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), their targets and indicators within the strategy.

We have seen global demands over the past years for a paradigm shift to more sustainable patterns of development that will ensure that the economic progress that countries would continue to make in the coming years will no longer compromise unduly environmental sustainability and would adhere to the principles of equity, the 2012 Rio+20 Summit’s outcome document, “The Future We Want”, recognised “green economy” as an important avenue for sustainable and inclusive development as well as accelerated poverty eradication by promoting improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental deterioration and ecological risks.

Recent publications by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reconfirm the imperative for accelerated transformation to a green economy for achieving the various global agenda, notably the Sustainable Development Goals. Within the context of these debates, active discussions are ongoing on “inclusive green economy”, which highlights elements of a socio-ecological and economy-wide transformation firmly underpinned by principles of sustainability and energy saving technologies and processes.

They, thus, call for radical changes in production and consumption patterns, strong institutional and capacity building, wide spread introduction of energy saving technologies and accompanying economic, fiscal policy reforms and legislative changes that are specifically geared towards safeguarding the above principles of sustainability, environmental protection and social equity. We need to promote greener development, transformation processes and climate resilience.

The rationale for all this is derived from the increasingly apparent adverse effects of climate change on human lives, livelihoods, social capital and physical infrastructure as well as over reliance on non-renewable fossil fuels, such as petroleum and coal.

There is by now incontrovertible scientific evidence that the effects of climate change being progressively experienced today in all parts of the world are caused by rising and volatile temperatures from an accumulation of Green House Gases, dominated by carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere. Several scientific studies indicate that this process of releasing Green House Gases intensified with effect from the industrial revolution.

The argument is thus made that the releasing of Green House Gases into the atmosphere has principally been the responsibility of the advanced industrialized countries as well as the newly industrialized ones. This notwithstanding, there is no doubt that the responsibility for effectively responding to the increasingly devastating effects of climate change lies with all the nations around the world.

This responsibility should be discharged through reduction of carbon footprints, adaptation and mitigation of risks of damage to crops, homes and other property, infrastructure, loss of livestock, wildlife and other biodiversity and above all, to human lives. This means systematically incorporating climate change considerations into all development and transformation strategies. It is also crucial that changes in our mind-sets, behaviors and cultural practices in consumption patterns and economic activities are urgently effected.

In this regard, we must endeavour to use resources efficiently in consumption and production and ensure that our production processes and other economic and lifestyle activities are low-carbon generating, meaning the release of the minimum possible greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

/ Frank Habineza

Honorary Doctorate in Democracy and Human Rights, Bethel collage, USA

President, Democratic Green Party of Rwanda

President African Greens Federation

*The blog was originally published on Green Forum website on May 24, 2016

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