3. December 2018

Shortly before the beginning of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 24) in the Polish city of Katowice, some colleagues from UfU’s Department of Environmental Law and Participation met with their international project partners BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany), CENSAT Agua Viva (Friends of the Earth Colombia), The Greens Movement of Georgia (Friends of the Earth Georgia) and Ecoaction (Ukraine) for the kick off of their joint project “Strengthen Civil Society for the implementation of national climate policy” in Berlin. In the project, that is funded by the International Climate Initiative, the partner organisations will work together to strengthen participation of civil society in climate policy in their countries.

At this year’s COP in Katowice, the international decision makers will agree on the regime for the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Furthermore, the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) of every country has to be revised and raised in terms of ambition to reach the common goal of keeping global warming well below 1.5°C. This is where the project comes into play: In the next three years, the international project partners will scrutinise the process of NDC revision and demand for a more ambitious climate policy. Moreover, they will use their close ties to civil society to claim for the integration of social aspects, climate justice, and local concerns into measures of climate protection and adaptation.

During the two days kick off event, the partners planned the most important project activities for the following three years in a productive and friendly atmosphere. Afterwards, they jointly took part in a Climate March in Berlin on December 1st. After these three intensive days in Berlin, some of the project partners travelled together to Katowice to take part in the COP.