Environmental lawsuit at EU level - Third digital Aarhus Workshop
18th September 2020
Invitation to the third digital Aarhus Workshop
The Department of Environmental Law & Participation invites you to a series of events on challenges of implementing the Aarhus Convention at the European level.
Series of Events 2020/2021
Challenges of Implementing the Aarhus Convention at the European Level (EU-AarKo)
When: Spring 2020 to Autumn 2021
Where: Berlin, Lisbon and Ljubljana
As part of the project “European Implementation of the Aarhus Convention in the Digital Age (EU-AarKo)”, the Independent Institute for Environmental Issues (UfU) e.V. provides during the EU Council Presidency of the four Member States Croatia, Germany, Portugal and Slovenia an open space for the European civil society, experts and practitioners in the field of environmental law to exchange their views and adopt a clear position on the lack of effective access to European courts (communication ACCC/C/2008/32 to Compliance Committee of the Aarhus Convention).
A total of five events will take place in Germany, Portugal and Slovenia. On 11 May 2020 and 30 June 2020 interested participants from Germany and Belgium took part in the first two digital workshop discussions. The next English virtual workshop will take place in November 2020. In spring 2021, another workshop may take place in Lisbon, Portugal. Before a final event in Berlin rounds off the series of events at the end of the year 2021, UfU is planning a fifth workshop in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in autumn 2021.
Third Aarhus Workshop
When: 17th November 2020, 2 pm -5 pm (CET)
How: Zoom Meeting
We would like to invite you to our third digital Aarhus Workshop, which will be held as a Zoom meeting on 17th November 2020, from 2pm to 5 pm (CET). We would particularly like to discuss with you how effective access to justice on the European Union level could look like. Among other issues, we will exchange opinions on the draft amendment to the Aarhus Regulation, which is to be published by then. The objective of the workshop is to develop a joint position paper.
The event is free of charge. Please register by sending a short e-mail with the subject heading “Yes, third workshop talk” to (larissa.donges@ufu.de) if you would like to participate. All interested participants will receive the detailed programme and registration information via e-mail.
If you have any questions regarding the topics of the workshop, please contact our dear colleague Franziska Sperfeld.
You will find more information about the Aarhus Convention and the Aarhus Workshops here.
Energy Saving at Schools in Europe - EURONET 50/50 MAX
04 May 2016
EURONET 50/50 MAX aimed at mobilizing energy savings in public buildings through the implementation of the 50/50 methodology in 500 schools and nearly 50 other public buildings from 13 EU countries. Based on our experience in energy saving projects in Germany, UfU developed a 9-step methodology to increase the energy awareness of the building users and to involve them actively in energy–saving actions. Achieved financial savings are to be shared equally between the building users and the local authority which covers the energy bills.
EURONET 50/50 MAX was a continuation of the very successful EURONET 50/50 project which tested the implementation of the 50/50 methodology in over 50 European schools and won the European Sustainable Energy Award 2013! Thanks to EURONET 50/50 MAX, the 50/50 network now spreads across Europe involving new schools and other public buildings.
EURONET 50/50 MAX started in April 2013 and lasted three years. The project was supported by the European Commission through the Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) programme.
For further information check the project website: www.euronet50-50max.eu
The final guide of the project including information on the methodology and numerous practical examples from all over Europe is available in English as file and as printed brochure: almuth.tharan@ufu.de
Humboldt Fellows at UfU
14 April 2016
The Fellowship of Lawyer Lekha Sridhar from India ended in March 2016. At a ceremony at the Ministry for Environment, Nature Protection, Construction and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) the Minister Barbara Hendricks thanked the fellows for their terrific work. She also expressed her hopes that the cooperation of the fellows with German organizations on climate protection issues will continue.
Lekha Sridhar held an “International Climate Protection Fellowship” of the Humboldt Foundation and analysed the role of cooperatives in the German Energiewende at the Independent Institute for Environmental Issues. Which impulses her research results could bring for India she summarized in an UfU-Paper: Citizen Energy and Public Participation in Germany’s Energiewende: Lessons for developing countries.
Since March 2016 Thi Binh Minh Hoang from Vietnam is the new Fellow in the “International Climate Protection”- line of the Humboldt Foundation at UfU and is researching potentials of energy plants on contaminated soils.
UfU supports energy saving in Ukrainian schools
02 April 2016
Invited by the Association “Energy Efficient Cities of Ukraine” (EECU), UfU supported the project “School of Energy” by sharing its rich experience in running energy saving projects in German schools in a three day workshop in Lviv, by providing project material and by helping to create a box with technical tools.
“School of Energy” has started in January 2016 and will last until October 2016. In total, 25 selected schools all over Ukraine take part. At the workshop in February, teachers and energy experts were trained by educators from the Ukrainian NGO Svit Osvit and from UfU. The main focus of UfU was to prepare the so called pupils’ energy audits together with the energy experts, who will travel to the schools and run the audits together with the kids. First, UfU introduced the energy experts to working with pupils and the tasks and materials for the energy audits were developed. Finally the teachers and energy experts visited Nadiya School in the outskirts of Lviv to make a test run of the energy audit and to visit a master class with experiments on renewable energies run by pupils of this school
In the meantime, the first pupils’ energy audits did already take place in different cities in Ukraine and they all worked well.
The project “Schools of Energy” is implemented by „Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH“ on behalf of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety. And UfU is always happy to share its experience in energy saving and climate protection projects at schools with partners from other countries.