70 years ago, an agreement was signed in London to cancel Germany’s debt. It was agreed that this was necessary for Germany to be able to prosper. However, demands for debt cancellation for the Global South have been denied for decades. How did we get there and what are the pathways towards unconditional debt cancellations for the Global South? In this upcoming panel discussion we will discuss these questions together with Esteban Servat, Jason Hickel and Iolanda Fresnillo. The panel will be moderated by Clàudia Custodio. Join us on Wednesday May 3rd from 18:30-20:00 (CEST) either in person (Barcelona, UAB: Sala de Grados in the Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres) or online here.

First webinar of the series "It's raining green, Hallellujah?", in which we will take a critical look at the green transition. We will talk about the impacts of the EU's green and digital transition for the territories of the Global South and we will explore alternatives to the prevailing extractivist model. Resgistration link. Participants: Zo Randriamaro, ecofeminist activist and human rights defender with a broad and recognised expertise in gender issues and sociology of development. Sociologist by training and founder and coordinator of the Centre de Recherches et d’Appui pour les Alternatives de Développement – Océan Indien (CRAAD-OI), a pan-Africanist organisation based in Madagascar that supports communities affected by large-scale extractivist projects in the mining and agricultural sectors. Pablo Solón, Bolivian researcher and activist at the Solon Foundation. Expert on Amazonia, climate change, water, rights of nature and systemic alternatives. He was part of the government led by Evo Morales with different responsibilities from 2006 to 2011. From 2009 to 2011 he was ambassador of the Plurinational State of Bolivia to the United Nations. Maurice Carney, executive director at Friends of Congo. He has worked with Congolese society for 25 years in its strategy for peace, justice and human dignity. For decades, Maurice Carneu has made the case for dignity and the inclusion of Congolese society in civil society in its efforts to achieve peace, democracy, food sovereignty and climate justice. He is a consultant for political leaders in the US, Canada, Latin America, Africa and the UN, as well as for other NGOs and foundations. Mariana Walter, Political Ecologist and Ecological Economist, member of the direction and coordination group of the Environmental Justice Atlas. Visiting postdoctoral researcher at Pompeu Fabra University. Her research addresses resource extraction conflicts in Latin America and the Americas. Moderation by Alfons Pérez from ODG. This webinar series are part of the project: PLEASE NOTE: Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the Debt Observatory in Globalisation only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Second webinar of the series "It's raining green, Hallellujah?", in which we will take a critical look at the green transition. We will talk about hydrogen, the central role it is given in the energy transition and the impacts its production will have for territories in the Global south. Participants: Marina Gros Breto. Graduate in biotechnology, she has been monitoring public policy and climate governance since 2018. She is currently the coordinador of the gas campaign at Ecologistas en Acción, activist and member of its energy and climate area. Natalia Lueje Seeger. Bachelor of Arts at the University of Chile and Master in Sustainable Development of Environments and Territories by the UAHC. She has more than 12 years of experience in various areas of social and environmental sustainability, with a focus on working with communities, political ecology and more recently, on just energy transition. She is territorial coordinator of the NGO Sustentarse and collaborates with the Chango People's Council of the Antofagasta Region (Chile). Marcelo Silva Miranda, regional leader of pueblo chango, in Antofagasta region, Chile. Moderated by Josep Nualart, energy researcher at the Debt Observatory in Globalization REGISTER HERE This webinar series are part of the project: PLEASE NOTE: Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the Debt Observatory in Globalisation only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them

Third webinar of the series “It’s raining green, Hallellujah?“, in which we will take a critical look at the green transition. We will talk about how important are care and feminisms for the transition. Participants: Tuscany Bell, Policy Coordinator for Social Services and Youth of the European Public Service Union (EPSU). Flora Partenio, argentinian researcher and activist, member of DAWN, a feminist network in the Global South. Blanca Bayas, researcher and project manager at the Observatory on Debt in Globalisation (ODG), specialised in public services, and author of the report “PERTE: How public investments undermines ecofeminsit transition“. Lissette Fernández, care worker and member of Sindillar/Sindihogar, independent union of domestic and care workers in Barcelona. Moderated by Júlia Martí, public services researcher at the Debt Observatory in Globalization. sign up here This webinar series are part of the project: PLEASE NOTE: Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the Debt Observatory in Globalisation only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them

Under the European Climate Act, the EU has committed to the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, with renewable hydrogen playing a key role in achieving this goal.     The gas and fossil fuel industry has been heavily involved in shaping European energy, industry and climate policies, pushing hydrogen as the 'new solution' for decarbonising Europe. A powerful, strong and structured lobby, it is in pole position to access European Recovery Plan and European Green Deal funding to modify existing pipelines and equip them to transport hydrogen. But what is behind the hydrogen chimera?  Is the green hydrogen supply chain sustainable?    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTMiOe4rBA4&t=2s In the first of this webinar series, we will present the technical limits of this 'new solution', with an overview of the public funding sources that will flow directly to fossil companies to feed the hydrogen bubble. We will try to show how hydrogen is currently only an alibi for maintaining a society that revolves around the use of methane.  Speakers:  Prof. Leonardo Setti, Universita di Bologna: Why large-scale green hydrogen is not sustainable  Filippo Taglieri, Researcher and energy and infrastructure campaigner, ReCommon: Green hydrogen in the Italian Resilience and Recovery plan  Bruna Cañada, Researcher, Observatori del Deute en la Globalització (ODG): Green hydrogen in the Spanish Recovery, Transformation and Resilience plan     Moderator: Eva Pastorelli, CEE Bankwatch Network  This webinar is organized in collaboration with Observatori del Deute en la Globalització within the “Citizens’ Observatory for Green Deal Financing” project, financed by European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), and it’s the first in a series that will continue over the coming months.  Participation is free of charge. Please register here to participate.  Italian, English and Spanish simultaneous translation will be provided. 

Together with the Network "Gas No es Solución" (Gas is no Solution), of which we are members, we are organizing an international conference about H2Med with institutional representatives and local activists. Agenda: 10h-10:15h Registration 10:15h-10:30h Welcome 10:30h-12h Round table 1: What do the institutions think about H2Med? 12:00-12:30h Break 12:30-14h Round table 2: Impacts of H2Med on the different territories through which it passes 14h-15:30h Lunch 16h-18h Strategic day: what are we doing as a movement in the face of this mega-infrastructure? Sign up  

In this second webinar of the series about hydrogen, we will look at the hydrogen routes running through the Mediterranean area, discovering why these projects are not green at all, as they exemplify a model that perpetuates the promotion of mega-infrastructures built through public-private partnerships that lead to serious environmental and social impacts, even outside European borders.  Speakers:  Elena Gerebizza, Researcher and energy and infrastructure campaigner, ReCommon: The SoutH2 Corridor. Will it be built and with what implications?  Rita Prates, Project officer, Zero: H2Med: the impacts of the Celza project in Portugal  Josep Nualart Corpas, Researcher on energy and climate at Observatori del Deute en la Globalització (ODG): A priority country for hydrogen exports to Europe: what consequences for Chile?  Moderator: Eva Pastorelli, CEE Bankwatch Network  Italian, English and Spanish simultaneous translation will be provided.    sIgn up This webinar is organized by ReCommon and Observatori del Deute en la Globalització within the “Citizens’ Observatory for Green Deal Financing” project, financed by European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), and it’s the second of a series that will continue over the coming months.    Watch the video about the Melita Pipeline produced by Recommon:    

Between 2014 and 2020, the hydrogen industry had access to over €1 billion in public funds for its projects thanks to the public-private research partnership between the European Commission and the lobby group Hydrogen Europe. This partnership has been key in creating the hydrogen hype, as well as ensuring more public funds flow to Hydrogen Europe members in the years to come. It is no coincidence that the Commission’s European Hydrogen Strategy, is worryingly similar to Hydrogen Europe’s demands, including goals and investments needed for hydrogen both inside and outside the EU, which industry costs at €430 billion by 2030. In the third and final  webinar of our series, we’ll look at how the EU, blinded by the hydrogen industry (which very often coincides with the fossil gas industry), is ensuring regulatory and financial support to Hydrogen projects including access to new and existing EU funding streams, fostering the resource grabbing outside the EU and promoting a wave of neo-colonial extractivism.  Speakers:  Frank Vanaerschot, Director at Counter Balance: Hydrogen in the Global Gateway and in the new EIB energy investment policy  Tobias Kalt, Political ecologist, University of Hamburg: Between green extractivism and energy justice: competing strategies in South Africa’s hydrogen transition  Natalia Lueje, Territorial coordinator, Sustentarse: The role of EU in Chile's hydrogen promotion  Moderator: Eva Pastorelli, CEE Bankwatch Network  This webinar is organized by ReCommon and Observatori del Deute en la Globalització within the “Citizens’ Observatory for Green Deal Financing” project, financed by European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA).  Participation is free of charge. Please register here to participate. Italian, English and Spanish simultaneous translation will be provided. 

Presentation of The Rare-Earth Elements Impacts and Conflicts Map Monday November 20, 17.30-19 CET: international Webinar, to present the featured map and some of its case studies, and dig deeper into the key challenges and impacts associated with the extraction of Rare Earth Elements. REGISTRATION HERE.  Speakers:  Mariana Walter, Researcher, Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA): Phd. (Environmental Justice Atlas/Institute of Environmental Science and Technologies, Autonomous University of Barcelona) Alfons Pérez, researcher, Observatori del Deute en la Globalització (ODG) Volahery Andriamanantenasoa, CRAAD-OI, Madagascar Lee Tan, Aid Watch, Australia Moderator: John Pfeffer, Institute for Policy Studies Spanish and French simultaneous translation will be provided.

The planet is likely to surpass the 1.5C global warming threshold. At the same time, Bloomberg New Energy Finance has recently stated that “the outlook for energy transition (looks) extremely bright.” What’s going wrong? This webinar will expose the business models of “green” multinationals, alongside the private market model that underpins them. Join us, and find out how these companies are wrecking the climate and preventing policy makers, social movements and communities from building real solutions: public power systems that can democratically decarbonise society. 21 November 2023 , 15:00 - 16:00 CET Sign up for a far-reaching discussion about critical Energy Transition analyses and social movement developments. More information

What lies behind the reform of the European Union's fiscal framework? Spain closed the EU presidency with an agreement of the Council of Economic and Finance Ministers: the reform of EU fiscal rules. This agreement could again entail cuts, although investments in the green and digital transition and in security and defence policies could be favoured. Is this the European Union we want? To address the implications of the reform of the EU fiscal framework in the context of the approaching elections, we will meet in the fourth session of the ODG debates with our colleague Nicola Scherer and Pere Ortega (Centre Delàs). Monday 5th february at 18h in La Fede