All posts filed under: Uncategorized

70 NGOs call for sustainable and socially just EU bioeconomy strategy

70 NGOs call for sustainable and socially just EU bioeconomy strategy Bremen, Brussels – 12. March 2024 Download the position paper as a PDF here! With the impending revision of the EU Bioeconomy Strategy on the horizon, 70 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have jointly issued a position paper today, advocating for a bioeconomy that upholds both ecological sustainability and social equity. The undersigned organizations emphasize that the focus of the bioeconomy strategy must fundamentally shift for this purpose. The current waste economy must be stopped. They assert that large-scale biomass imports from the Global South are not a viable solution. Moreover, the NGOs assert that waste and residues alone will not suffice to meet the future economy’s raw material requirements. In addition to these points, the NGOs call for genuine participation of citizens and civil society, urging for tangible resources to support their involvement, not just on paper. The initiative to release this statement was coordinated by the Bioeconomy Action Forum, with active involvement from denkhausbremen, FERN, and ELF, all committed to promoting a responsible bioeconomy. …

Rituraj Phukan: Indigenous communities are at the front line of climate change

Rituraj Phukan in conversation with denkhausbremen on the way indigenous people are affected by climate change and how their cultures and management practices can help to restore and preserve degraded natural lands. Rituraj Phukan is an environmental activist and writer based in Assam (India) and the founder and president of the Indigenous People’s Climate Justice Forum. denkhausbremen: When you think about climate justice, what are the first thoughts coming to your mind? Rituraj Phukan: Well, first I would say that by default, climate justice is crucial to social justice. Indigenous people and the poorest of the poor are some of the worst affected by climate change and they don’t have the means to do anything about it. They have contributed very little to the accumulation of greenhouse gases. To make sure they have the resources to live a humane life – I think that defines the aspect of climate justice. For indigenous communities this is also very much connected to the way they live. I belong to the Tai-Ahom community in Assam in the Eastern …

Consequences of the Ukraine war for the bioeconomy

Consequences of the Ukraine war for world food supply: German government must rethink bioeconomy Download position paper as PDF here! The Ukraine war is causing immeasurable suffering: Civilians are being displaced or even killed. The fighting soldiers also suffer trauma, torture and death under the cruelty of war. Beyond this horror, the war once again exposes failures of the world food system and further increases the chronic global crisis of hunger. Most affected are states and people in the Global South who have lost food sovereignty. For the world‘s 828 million hungry, it becomes evident once again that global supply chains are not designed to feed them. These developments clearly show how hunger is further exacerbated when agricultural commodities are made scarce and expensive by nervous markets. An industrialized countries’ shift from a fossil-based economy to a bioeconomy would result in similar negative effects, if the industrial agricultural system and our resource overconsumption remain unchanged. Wealthy countries as well as transnational corporations would buy all they can to keep their „green“ economy going. The German …

Study on the bioeconomy in neighboring European countries

What is actually going on in the bioeconomy debate at EU level and in our neighboring European countries? And how do our colleagues from the environmental and development associations assess the respective national discussions on the bioeconomy? This is the subject of the short study “Shaping Bioeconomy Strategies in Europe: The Role of Civil Society”. In it, author Wolfgang Kuhlmann, commissioned by the Bioeconomy Action Forum, describes the main European policy processes and highlights the debate in Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Italy, France and the Netherlands. The focus here is particularly on the role of civil society. Even if the paper does not claim to be exhaustive, it does show one thing: Looking beyond the German horizon provides fresh impetus. Click here to download Summary of the Study The EU Bioeconomy Strategy stresses the role of bio-based products as alter- natives to fossil-fuel counterparts, and their importance in developing a sustain- able economy based on renewable materials in Europe. It encourages member states to develop national bioeconomy strategies or equivalent policies that enhance the cooperation between …

The 1.5-Degree Pledge for Society

Within this project, we support the development of guidelines for an environmentally sustainable and socially just future from the perspective of people on low incomes. What does a socially just transformation toward a greener world actually look like? The shift toward this transformation risks exacerbating existing social inequalities. While the 1.5-degree pledge sets clear targets for climate policy, as of yet there are no guidelines in place to give direction for the social aspects behind society’s transformation. To bridge the gap, the charitable organization denkhausbremen has launched the project “The 1.5-Degree Pledge for Society” to develop impact-focused, measurable guidelines for finding answers to the social questions posed by climate change. With support from the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the project turns the spotlight on the voice of the lived reality of people on low incomes, debating the issues they face in a future congress and discussing them with decision-makers. The aim is to raise awareness of the social aspects of climate change among politicians and ecological actors, including environmental associations and authorities.  

Alternative Bioeconomy Summit

Far more than 100 experts from civil society, ministries, federal agencies and academia had dialed in to the Alternative Bioeconomy Summit on February 23, when Silvia Bender, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), opened the event with her keynote address: “How much bioeconomy can our globe cope?” is exactly the right question, she believes. In addition, Bender warned not to repeat the mistakes of the so-called energy transition in the bioeconomy and, above all, to ensure that fewer primary raw materials are used in the future. It is about saving resources and not about ‘business as usual’! This provided the framework for this online summit. “How should a future bioeconomy be organised within planetary boundaries?” was accordingly also the key question for the high-level panels and working groups. For the future it is crucial not to get lost in abstract debates. The bioeconomy must be regulated with concrete and effective instruments. Panelists (from top left to bottom right): – Silvia Bender, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Food and …

Bioeconomy Visuals

The Bioeconomy Action Forum has created campaigning materials on bioeconomy, in cooperation with the agency construktiv. The four animations and graphics address key points of the bioeconomy debate and are available to civil society organizations for further use – feel free to reach out to the denkhausbremen crew. Animation “It’s me, your planet” Graphic “Bio Greenwashing” Animation “Extinction of species” Graphic “Exploitation”  

Metamorphosis of destructive logging companies

By Michael Gerhardt The German version of this post can be found here. This article was published as well on The Ecologist , World Rainforest Movement Bulletin , Redd Monitor, World Nutrition and Robin Wood Blog . It sounds like a fairy tale. Multinational companies destroy forests and trample on human rights. Then, international environmental organisations come into play and transform the culprits into responsible companies within just a few months. Multinational palm oil, pulp and paper companies such as Wilmar, Golden Agri, APRIL (Asia Pacific Resources International Limited) or APP (Asia Pulp and Paper) have already completed the magic metamorphosis from destroyers to protectors of the Indonesian rainforest. All of these companies now sport a “zero deforestation policy”. Similar promises have also been made by consumer goods giants like Nestle, Unilever, Mars, L’Oreal, Procter & Gamble and Colgate-Palmolive, who require palm oil as a raw material for their products. Greenpeace, WWF and Co. appear to have success in what Indonesian environmental groups have been struggling to achieve for years, that is persuading notorious rainforest …

“Paper Saving – Packaging in Focus” Conference

Jan. 22 to 23, 2019 in Bremen, Germany denkhausbremen and the Environmental Paper Network (EPN) invite you to attend the “Paper Saving – Packaging in Focus” Conference from January 22-23, 2019 in Bremen, Germany. Paper packaging is the main driver of the persistently high paper consumption in Germany and around the world. The majority is used to support the booming online retail sector. In 2017, almost half of German paper consumption was for packaging (9.9 million tonnes). The paper that provides this packaging has negative impacts on sustainability and social justice, including forest loss, climate change, and human rights abuses. To discuss this issue, denkhausbremen and the Environmental Paper Network (EPN) have organised the “Paper Saving – Packaging in Focus” Conference to bring together leaders from NGOs, manufacturers, and retailers. The participants will work out solutions and strategies for the responsible use of paper packaging. 1. Dialogue with the Industry Tuesday January 22, 2019, 11.30am – 5.30pm House of Science, Sandstraße 4/5, 28195 Bremen Daniel Müsgens: Paper packaging – trends and developments Olaf Dechow: Sustainable …

Forests under pressure: why the bioeconomy threatens our ecosystems

By Peter Gerhardt The fossil era is coming to an end. Mankind will increasingly have to rely on renewable raw materials. The term bioeconomy has become established for this economy fed by biological resources. Forests get under pressure: their wood is considered to play a decisive role in the supply of raw materials for the bio-based future. Yet, the forest ecosystems are already being exhausted by the global demand for wood for fuel, construction material, electricity production or pulp for paper production. The natural limits of our planet are progressively entering the core of the political debate: Climate change is moving millions of people around the globe. With regard to the global climate, Brazil’s burning rainforests have long since ceased to be a national issue; they are also an issue for the global community. Even the dwindling biodiversity has arrived in the mainstream and the »Save the bees!« referendum is mobilizing 1.8 million voters in the state of Bavaria. At the same time, large parts of the population are propelled by unrestrained market forces, leading …