An article on the first part of Practical Actions European speaker tour on climate change written by Nicholas Milton.

How does planting trees become a political gesture? Biologist and political activist Wangari Maathai of Kenya received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for promoting sustainable development, democracy and peace, primarily through the Green Belt Movement she founded in 1977 with the goal of planting trees throughout Kenya. On a trip to sacred Tumutumu Hill this past summer, Daniela Vrbová from Czech Radio 6 found that Wangari Maathai’s legacy continues to have an influence on the lives of Kenyans even a year after her death.

On 2 May 2012 the European Commission met to discuss the European biofuel policy, more specifically the problematic issue of high carbon emissions connected to indirect land use change (ILUC). More than 100 NGOs from all over the world, including Glopolis, signed an open letter to the European commissioners calling for the EU to put measures into place to avert the negative impacts biofuel policies have on climate change.

European policies in support of biofuels have unfortunate consequences – western firms are taking over land in Africa to cultivate crops such as jatropha, essentially destroying local agriculture in the process. “These firms are creating a very poor impression of western countries in the eyes of Africans. People are alarmed over what could happen next,” says Francis Namu Njoka, a Kenyan biofuel and biomass expert.

Poverty refers not only to one’s economic situation, but also to other factors that influence life. Especially in the past years the term “energy poverty” has become more common.

In recent years African countries have enjoyed interest from abroad, thanks in part to a great amount of available land apparently ideal for cultivating crops for providing food security and for the production of biofuels.