Dear friends,
With summer in our step, we look back on an exciting and eventful month. From witnessing environmental education in action and working to create a world without nuclear weapons to educating policy-makers on effective responses to domestic violence and making the case for ‘community energy’ – this edition of our newsletter fills you in on our recent activities.
And please don’t forget: our work is only made possible through the generosity of you, our supporters. Help us to continue our work by supporting us with a donation!
With best wishes,
Jakob von Uexkull (Founder),
Alexandra Wandel (Director) and
Stefan Schurig (Member Management Board)
News
Fostering the next generation of environmental stewards: Learning the Maryland way
In Maryland, students learn in and about the environment. Click the image above to hear why they think this is important.The ability of young people to make informed decisions about their relationship to nature has profound implications for both the local and global environment and our collective wellbeing. In 2011, the US state of Maryland became the first jurisdiction in the world to make environmental literacy a high school graduation requirement. For this, it won the 2015 Silver Future Policy Award. In May, our Children’s Rights team undertook a ten day field trip across the state to witness environmental literacy in action. Read more
REN21 published the most comprehensive annual overview of the state of renewable energy – the Renewables 2016 Global Status Report. Local governments, communities and citizens are the real pioneers of the transition towards 100% renewable energy. We contributed a chapter on community energy, sharing the WFC experiences from across the world. But what does ‘community energy’ actually mean? Click below to find out. Read more
Global support and political will for nuclear disarmament
WFC Peace and Disarmament Coordinator Rob van Riet at the OEWG The Open Ended Working Group (OEWG) aims to address the concrete effective legal measures, legal provisions and norms necessary to create a world without nuclear weapons. On May 12, our Councillor Alyn Ware and Disarmament Coordinator Rob van Riet joined its latest meeting in Geneva. They were also part of a discussion with Michael Douglas and UN High-Level Rep Mr. Kim Won-soo on moving nuclear disarmament forward. Read more
Coordinated Community Response to Domestic Violence: A workshop in Minnesota 
The workshop participants in Duluth, Minnesota Recent data shows that at least 30% of women worldwide have suffered physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence. The “Coordinated Community Response (CCR) to Domestic Violence”, implemented in Minnesota (USA), has been successfully protecting women from domestic violence for more than 30 years. It won the 2014 Future Policy Award as the world’s best policy to address domestic violence. We recently visited Duluth to facilitate a workshop to spread the approach to other communities. Read more
Honorary Councillor and Founding President of the Seychelles, Sir James Mancham, in Hamburg
Our Honorary Councillor Sir James Mancham with Senior Project Manager Samia Kassid, Director Alexandra Wandel and Project Consultant Holger Güssefeld WFC Honorary Councillor and Founding President of the Seychelles Sir James Mancham visited our headquarters in Hamburg before heading off to several other European cities to participate in various peace-orientated forums. More on Sir James Mancham