Category: Uncategorized
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Green and values-based Connectivity between Europe and Asia
Connectivity is one of the focal points of the new EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. The term is also central to the Connecting Europe and Asia Strategy and the EU-Japan Partnership on Sustainable Connectivity, while talks have begun with India on a connectivity-focused partnership. When calling for the establishment of a Global Connectivity…
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Safeguarding critical infrastructure – a condition of Europe’s strategic autonomy in space
Europe is a major actor in outer space, possessing 12% of the satellite fleet. As the largest Earth observation service worldwide delivering high-level data information, Copernicus contributes to the emergence of a digital and green Europe: monitoring of climate systems, marine and terrestrial analysis for conservation and precision farming, security of trade routes. In an…
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Neighbourhood instability – a call for majority voting in EU foreign policy
Ever since her nomination, Ursula von der Leyen has highlighted strategic autonomy and enhanced leadership as her top foreign policy aspirations. On a stage where power politics are undermining multilateralism and the rule of law, High Representative Josep Borrell suggests that the EU can only achieve this by learning the ‘language of power’. Two crises…
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Surveillance or Sustainability? A look into the use of Facial recognition for waste treatment in China
A new waste plan In July 2019, the Shanghai municipality introduced strict legislation making recycling mandatory for its 33 million inhabitants. Going against this system may result in fines. But how can such compliance be monitored? The Vanke Foundation, a Chinese urban services provider, concluded in a Shanghai survey that only a quarter of respondents…
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Lake Turkana wind farm – Kenya on a green road to 2022
President Kenyatta cuts the ribbon On 19th July, Kenya began full operation of its Lake Turkana wind farm in the arid Marsabit county, 545 kilometres north of Nairobi. Construction began in 2014, and since 2017 the plant had been operating at 64% of its capacity. 365 turbines and total power output of 310 megawatts make…
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Condor Cliff and La Barrancosa: the dangerous dams of Patagonia
A unique glacier As one embarks on the boardwalk hike facing the Perito Moreno glacier, the usual tranquility of Patagonian wind and birds is all to be heard. However, the stunned spectators are soon welcomed with a thundering crash, none other than entire boulders of ice falling from the glacier into the water, reverberating miles…
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BRIC breaker – failing to satisfy international commitments in the Amazon
Economic and environmental balance in Brazil Effects of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, by A. Penner. With a population numbered at just 415 by the Instituto Socio Ambietal, the Aparai and Wayana tribes have lived along the East Paru river in Brazil for over one hundred years. Isolated from the urban centres of the State…
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Land of White Gold – a look inside Latin America’s lithium triangle
Revolution in the 21st century Salinas Grandes in the Jujuy province of Argentina, by Kevin Jones South of San Pedro de Atacama lies the largest salt flat in Chile. Stretching over 100 kilometres of what is commonly called the dryest place on Earth, the Salar de Atacama has become one of the country’s main tourist…
VALUE IN NATURE 