Christiane Kliemann

22/10/202422/10/2024

EU Sustainable Finance Strategy: Proposals for Reform and Extension

By Sören Hilbrich and Kathrin Berensmann / Part of the European Development Policy Outlook Series

The EU has set itself the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% from 1990 levels by 2030 and becoming climate-neutral by 2050. Currently, financial markets are clearly not aligned with this goal as investments in environmentally harmful economic activities are still taking place at a large scale. For instance, according to a recent report of th e International Energy Agency, the global energy investments in fossil fuels still amounted to more than USD 1 trillion in 2023 and have even significantly increased since 2020 after a dip during the pandemic.

15/10/2024

Colonialism’s Blind Spot in Climate Change Solutions: Why Feminist Approaches Are Falling Short

By Bernadette P. Resurrección

Efforts to integrate gender equality into climate change solutions have gained momentum in recent years. However, despite this progress, many of these initiatives are missing a crucial element—colonialism. This glaring oversight leaves today’s climate policies struggling to deliver truly feminist, just, and transformative results.

08/10/202408/10/2024

EU Development Policy in the Security Trap

By Werner Raza / Part of the European Development Policy Outlook Series

The new EU Commission is forcing EU development policy under the yoke of its security strategy. By overestimating its global negotiating power, it risks not only to harm Europe’s long-term interests, but to exacerbate geopolitical tensions.

30/09/2024

Decolonising International Research Collaborations Requires us to go Beyond the “Ts and Cs Apply” Approach

By Eyob Balcha Gebremariam

In February 2024, I found myself at a pivotal moment in the academic landscape, attending a regional network launching event of “Africanist researchers” at one of the UK universities. The room was a microcosm of diverse academic, cultural, gender, and racial backgrounds, all converging with a common purpose to establish a network of researchers. The organisers set ambitious objectives, including partnering to co-develop research proposals, recruiting more African students to their respective regional universities, and providing capacity-building support for Africa-based partners. This was the backdrop against which I observed the dynamics of coloniality, power and privilege that underpin such collaborations.

17/09/2024

Finland’s Development Aid Plunges amid Far-Right Take-Over of Policy Agendas

By Eija Ranta and Martta Kaskinen / Part of the European Development Policy Outlook Series

The boost in popularity of the populist right-wing Finns party has meant a bumpy ride for Finland’s development affairs. With far-right extremists in the government, Finland’s development aid is plunging. In this blog post, we recall the historical peculiarities of Finland’s path from an aid recipient to becoming an international development donor and shed light on the contemporary challenges and controversies of Finland’s stance to development issues, demonstrating a drastic change to earlier commitments.