Great overview on the state of EU climate policy 👇
Tl;dr: "Despite the shifting political landscape, the EU has demonstrated its ability to act. But: major concessions on review clauses, flexibilities & conditions have increased policy uncertainty - posing new risks to policy instruments"

How the persecution of sparrows killed 2m people The birds were almost wiped out during China’s Great Leap Forward

The researchers estimate that Mao‘s „anti-sparrow campaign by itself accounted for nearly 20% of the fall in crop production during the famine. They reckon that loss, amplified by the effects of the redistribution system, killed about 2m people directly.“ 👇
www.economist.com/science-and-...

The sudden demise of Indian vultures killed thousands of people Without “nature’s sanitation service” pathogens spread into the water supply

"The authors estimated that, between 2000 and 2005, the loss of vultures caused 500,000 additional human deaths."

"nature's sanitation service" was killed by a drug used for cattle, leading to more water pollution & infectious diseases from scavengers 👇
www.economist.com/graphic-deta...

To add two examples beyond the UK's assessment that are not climate-related, but where the loss in a single species had huge consequences, consider the two examples of vultures in #India and sparrows in #China: 3/5

Whereas the mechanisms linking nature to, first, human & livelihood security and ultimately to regional and global stability are often indirect and building up over a longer timespan, and are often hard to unequivocally attribute to one single cause, that does not make them less consequential 2/5

As #MSC2026 kicks off, worth revisiting this assessment 👇

"Cascading risks of ecosystem degradation are likely to include geopolitical instability, economic insecurity, conflict, migration and increased inter-state competition for resources"

Nature loss undermines security far beyond the UK 1/5

Jeffrey Epstein’s ghost is haunting the grand old men of capitalism The taint of the disgraced financier will endure

Though someone needs to tell Schumpeter who writes about 1980s Wallstreet elites that "meritocracy made them powerful" ...

www.economist.com/business/202...

The @economist.com realigns politically with Nina Simone (the United Snakes of America) 👇

Which organization can we credit with this administration's creative efforts to nudge middle powers to strengthen the EU, the European pillar of NATO, the UN and sundry regional free trade agreements? Is this an MI6 plot??

Landespolitik: Wahl von Sven Schulze zum Ministerpräsidenten von Sachsen-Anhalt (9:40 Uhr) und Verteidigung (10:25 Uhr) des Ministerpräsidenten im Landtag. Landtag Magdeburg, ab 9:30 Uhr

Immer eine gute Übersicht! Und selbst die Verschreiber passen ;-)

Rule of Law: High-level Open Debate

US opposes mentioning rule of law in the #UNSC:

" #Somalia circulated a draft presidential statement on the rule of law on 17 January. ... the draft was withdrawn on 22 January. It appears that the #US indicated that it was opposed to the text" 👇
www.securitycouncilreport.org/whatsinblue/...

"Even before ICE cut its training schedule to just 47 days last year — a length, remember absurdly chosen to honor Donald Trump as the 47th president — ICE’s “1801” deportation officers were among the least educated and least trained federal law enforcement in the country" 👇

NEW | Wind and solar generated more power than fossil fuels in the EU for the FIRST time ever.

🌪️ and ☀️ made up a RECORD 30% of 🇪🇺 electricity, up from 20% just five years ago.

https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/european-electricity-review-2026/

A milestone we didn't want to see - Russia has made one trillion euros on fossil fuel exports since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. All the more reason to shift away from dependence on dirty energy and to strengthen sanctions on Russia.

"Trump’s express revisionism is more dangerous than his predecessor’s familiar hypocrisy. For all the double standards, the core tenets of the post-World War II legal order need U.S. buy-in": a peek at what spheres-of-influence politics entails across various fragile contexts 👇

"edited for length and clarity" 👇 & very well so, from the headline to the conclusion that what’s troubling "is not just that the President has used force in clear violation of domestic law and international law but that it’s clear he couldn’t care less about the fact that he’s breaking these rules"

This piece by @attackerman.bsky.social on both past & contemporary censorship is very much worth your time, whether in 2025 or next year

"A lot of people who are worried about democracy in America want to relax the constraints on military subordination. [...] [but] the military can’t save us from the civilians we elect"
Very interesting points from @kschake.bsky.social on civ-mil relations 👇, and it comes w/ some silver lining...

"The empowerment of Smotrich, an energetic settler leader and a proponent of annexation, as both finance minister and de facto West Bank governor has allowed him to advance far-reaching institutional changes. ... To have any real [...] impact, foreign governments will have to be much bolder." 👇

On the weaponization of energy and information👇

"The EU and its Member States should counter Russian energy-related disinformation with a dedicated, coordinated approach. ...
Member States should break decisively with Russian fossil exports and communicate this shift through a positive narrative"

Since everyone is asking for "data-driven analysis", @data.ft.com went all in 😉 👇

'Total devastation': Hurricane Melissa leaves trail of destruction, flooding in Jamaica The most intense Atlantic hurricane of 2025 made landfall near New Hope, Jamaica, on Tuesday, followed by a second landfall in Cuba early on Wednesday as the monstrous storm sliced across the Caribbea...

"the preliminary damage and economic loss estimate for the hurricane is $48 to 52 billion" in #Jamaica

On a nominal GDP of some 20 billion.

www.accuweather.com/en/hurricane...

This is about long-term sea leve lrise, but "highly likely", "committed" & "more than 3m" are all grim news 👇

As per the summary: "Immediate and sustained climate change mitigation (decarbonization) offers the best hope of delaying this ice loss" &avoiding initiating sth similar in East Antarctica

The Weathering Risk Peace Pillar session at #BCSC2025 is HAPPENING NOW.

Session info: berlin-climate-security-conference.de/en/weatherin...

📹 WATCH LIVE:
adelph.it/BCSC25Livestream

Opening the #BCSC2025 panel "Bridging the Gap: Innovative climate finance for fragile states", Almut Wieland-Karimi emphasizes that the countries least responsible for climate change are the most vulnerable & receive the least money.
We need to make finance fit the context, not the other way around

UP NEXT at #BCSC2025

Don’t miss our next plenary session - “Bridging the gap: Innovative climate finance for fragile states”, feat. speakers from @greenclimate.fund & more.

Session info - berlin-climate-security-conference.de/en/bridging-...

📹 WATCH LIVE:
adelph.it/BCSC25Livestream

German @diplo.de State Secretary von Geyr kicks off #BCSC2025, underlining that climate change negatively affects all three core German interests: security, freedom, and prosperity - meaning that the Climate, Peace and Security nexus will become more important & Germany will invest in addressing it

📣 Germany's close to reversing its opposition to mass surveillance & private message scanning, & backing the Chat Control bill. This could end private comms-& Signal-in the EU.

Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.

UN data shows surge in civilian deaths in conflict globally, highlights pervasive discrimination GENEVA  - Civilian deaths in conflict surged 40% globally in 2024, according to new data released by the UN Human Rights Office. The findings also reveal widespread and compounding discrimination and ...

Today, the annual #UNSC debate on #WPS takes place, against a backdrop of violence against children & women in armed conflicts surging. It quadrupled btw 2023-2024 compared w/ 2021-2022, with 80% of child deaths & 70% of women's deaths recorded in #Gaza alone 👇
www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...