KA2 Environmental Rights Are Human Rights

22/04/2024

Happy Earth Day 2024: Today, on World Earth Day, also known as International Mother Earth Day, we celebrate a globally recognised event that aims to promote the sustainability of our planet and raise awareness for environmental protection.

Celebrated annually on April 22, this significant day engages around one billion people worldwide in activities that address the climate crisis and encourage behavioural change to preserve the environment.

03/04/2024

We are ready to cycle towards the future 🚲

Today, the EU adopted the European Declaration on Cycling that recognises cycling as a sustainable and affordable mode of transportation.

It contains clear commitments to boost cycling in the EU, including:

🔹 safe and coherent cycling networks in cities
🔸 better links with public transport
🔹 secure parking spaces and access to recharging points for e-bikes.

Join the bike side and contribute to a more sustainable EU!

15/03/2024

🌡️🌍 February 2024 was the world’s warmest on record.
This extends the run of monthly records to nine in a row.

We need to prepare for the consequences of climate change and adapt – in addition to cutting our greenhouse gas emissions.

The first ever EU Climate Risk Assessment, published this week by the European Environment Agency, identified 36 major climate risks for Europe across five clusters.

Yesterday, we proposed ways to build climate resilience, save lives, cut costs, and protect prosperity across the EU through:

🔸 Improved governance
🔹 Better tools for empowering risk owners
🔸 Harnessing structural policies
🔹 Financing climate resilience

By working together, governments, the private sector and civil society can get ahead of climate risks.

©️ Text and photo provided by European Commission

12/03/2024

Passionate about ? 🌍

Yes ⬇️

Curious to learn more about the EU 🇪🇺?

Yes! ⬇️

Want to gain valuable experience at the European Commission?

Yes!! ⬇️

Then apply for a before 15 March 2024 (10:00 a.m. CET) 👇
http://traineeships.ec.europa.eu

08/01/2024

Pollution 🏭💨: A major global challenge, impacting human rights across regions. Urban areas face air pollution from vehicles and industry, leading to public health crises. This pollution increases respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, affecting the right to health, especially for children, the elderly, and low-income communities, raising environmental justice and equal rights issues 🌆🌬️.

In rural areas, especially in developing countries, water pollution from agricultural runoff, industrial discharge, and poor waste management affects drinking water quality and food safety. This results in health hazards and violates rights to clean water and food, often impacting marginalized communities the most and increasing socio-economic disparities 🚜💧.

Image by Freepik 📷

08/01/2024

Deforestation 🌲🚫: A serious concern affecting global and local environments and human rights. Globally, it contributes to climate change and a staggering loss of biodiversity 🌎🦜.

In the Amazon, deforestation disrupts rainfall patterns and threatens indigenous rights, including traditional lifestyles, land rights, and cultural heritage 🌧️🏞️.

Deforestation leads to soil erosion, degrading land quality and agricultural productivity, affecting food security and livelihoods of rural communities 🚜🍲. It violates rights to a healthy environment, food, water, health, and cultural rights of indigenous peoples, underscoring the need for sustainable forest management and rights protection 🌍🛡️.

Image by Freepik 📷

08/01/2024

Climate Change 🌍🔥: A pressing global challenge with severe local impacts. In the Arctic, rapid ice melt disrupts indigenous lifestyles, affecting cultural, health, and livelihood rights ❄️🏠.

In the tropics, more frequent, intense hurricanes threaten life and housing, impacting security and housing rights 🌀🏘️. Urban areas face higher temperatures that worsen air quality, increasing health risks and affecting the right to health 🌆🌡️.

Vulnerable populations including children, the elderly, and economically disadvantaged are disproportionately affected, exacerbating inequality and undermining equality and non-discrimination rights 👶👴

08/01/2024

Inquiry-Based Learning 🔍: An essential approach effective for understanding environmental and human rights issues.

Principles: Focuses on knowledge acquisition through questioning, exploration, and investigation 🌟🔎. Promotes learner autonomy, encouraging active engagement in their learning process by formulating questions and conducting investigations 🙋‍♀️🔬. Shifts from conventional methods that view educators as primary information sources, empowering learners to be explorers and researchers 🛤️📚. Based on the constructivist idea that learners develop understanding by engaging in experiences and reflecting on them 🤔💡.

Image by Freepik 📷

08/01/2024

Debates 🗣️: A dynamic and challenging intellectual component of education, beneficial in environmental and human rights education.

Principles: Focuses on the organized exchange of arguments on specific topics 🔄🎙️. Provides a platform for presenting, defending, and questioning diverse perspectives 💬🤔. Rooted in rhetoric and critical thinking, participants must articulate their viewpoints and critically assess counterarguments 🧠🔍. Debates encourage deep engagement with the topic, requiring research, information integration, and anticipation of opposing views 📚🌍.

Image by Pixybay 📷

08/01/2024

Critical Pedagogy 🎓: An impactful method for addressing issues like environmental justice and human rights.

Principles: Promotes questioning and analytical examination of societal norms, structures, and power dynamics 🤔⚖️. Goes beyond mere knowledge transfer, encouraging understanding of the context in which information is generated and shared 📚🌍. It involves acknowledging how education can perpetuate societal disparities and biases, promoting a critical examination of norms and practices 🧐🔄. Based on the idea that education should empower and develop critical consciousness 👁️💡.

Image by Freepik 📷

19/12/2023

🌍 A coalition of NGOs raises concerns over the current state of the draft National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) within the European Union as the European Commission is due to present the “State of the Energy Union”. In a scathing assessment, the NGOs have highlighted several significant shortcomings, including a lack of alignment with the EU’s own energy and climate ambitions. 📢

🌱 While in some areas the energy and climate transition seems to be moving in the right direction, there is still much to be done for EU countries to align these efforts with the Paris Agreement’s goal. 🌿🌞🌎

Check the report below!

A coalition of NGOs raises concerns over the current state of the draft National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) within the European Union as the European Commission is due to […]

13/12/2023

"Social justice is climate justice. Climate change is a human rights issue as the climate crisis exacerbates inequalities," 🌍🌡️ said environmental human rights defender, multimedia journalist, and film director, Sophia Li. 🎥

Li is the co-founder and co-host of All of the Above, the first sustainability talk show. She also is the host of Meta’s podcast, Climate Talks 🎙️ and serves on the Board of Directors of environmental NGO Slow Factory 🏢, and is on the advisory board of Better Shelter. 🌿🏠

Li is part of a growing generation of human rights defenders working online and on the frontlines of environmental crises. Many of them advocate for climate justice at great risk to themselves. 🌱👩‍💻🌊

Since its adoption nearly 75 years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has inspired the climate justice movement and the push for the universal recognition of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.