Civil Society Climate Policy

Environmental organizations have an important task in the implementation of the Paris Agreement on the national and local level: In their role as advocate of nature and future generations, they often demand more ambitious climate protection. Their expert knowledge makes them predestined for critically accompany the development and implementation of their country’s climate plans.

Particularly their rooting in civil society helps them to also include social aspects, local particularities and aspects of equity into climate mitigation and adaptation measures.

In many countries, the climate-related civil society has only limited resources to accompany climate policies from national and subnational government successfully.

In a previous project successfully completed in cooperation with Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz (BUND, Friends of the Earth Germany) Germany, the aforementioned challenges have jointly been defined with organizations from the Friends of the Earth network, but also entry points to strengthen civil society’s work on climate policies have been identified.

Within the project, the developed options for action will now be implemented with partner organizations in Georgia, Colombia and Ukraine. While BUND strengthens in close cooperation with the partner organizations their climate-political profiles and activities, UfU gives scientific support to the project, e.g. by taking a closer look to questions related to civil society participation in climate policies. As a result, a study on the Status Quo and Good Practices of civil society participation was published, in which for each partner country, measures leading to the improvement of civil society participation in climate protection strategies were defined.

Besides climate-related activities, also an increased networking between the climate-related civil society in the focus countries and the dissemination of knowledge about supporting civil society participation in climate policies that has been gained in the project are important objectives.

Publications:

Kovac, Sarah; Donges, Larissa (2021): Building civic space for people-centered climate action? Opportunities and limitations of civil society participation in climate policy-making in nine countries. UfU Paper #01/2021. Independent Institute for Environmental Issues. Berlin. (PDF)

Donges, L.; Kurdadze, M. (2021): The Voice of Civil Society Organisations in Georgia’s Climate Policy. In: Participation of Civil Society in Georgia’s Climate Policy, Caucasus Analytical Digest, No. 124, 11/2021: 6-11, doi: 10.3929/ethz-b-000511715 (PDF)

Donges, L.; Kovac, S.; Sperfeld, F. (2021): Ambitionierte Klimapolitik von unten – Möglichkeiten und Hürden zivilgesellschaftlicher Beteiligung an der Ausarbeitung von Klimazielen und ihrer Umsetzung. Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen: Analysen zu Demokratie und Zivilgesellschaft, 34 (3): 518-530, doi.org/10.1515/fjsb-2021-0054

Donges, L.,  Stolpe, F., Sperfeld, F., Kovac, S. (2020): Civic space for participation in climate policies in Colombia, Georgia and Ukraine. Independent Institute for Environmental Issues. Berlin. ISBN 978-3-935563-42-0

Donges, L.,  Stolpe, F., Sperfeld, F., Kovac, S. (2020): Civic space for participation in climate policies in Colombia, Georgia and Ukraine – The example of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Independent Institute for Environmental Issues. Berlin. (PDF)

Donges, L. & Aleksyeyeva, Y. (2020): Chancen und Grenzen der Beteiligung der Zivilgesellschaft an der nationalen Klimapolitik in der Ukraine. In: Ukraine Analysen 233, doi: 10.31205/UA.233.01. S. 19-23. ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Policy Paper 2020: Online Participation in Climate Policy – A guide to engaging stakeholders digitally

Policy Paper 2019: Civil Society Engagement for Ambitious NDCs – Opportunities and challenges of civil society involvement in the update and implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions

UfU Paper 01/2019. Sarah Kovac, Franziska Sperfeld, Severin Ettl, Fabian Stolpe (2019): Between climate justice and the implementation of NDCs