Both ENDS

New Zealand signed a trade deal with the EU promising to uphold the Paris Agreement and not to weaken environmental protections to attract trade. Since then, it has reopened offshore oil and gas exploration, cut its methane target, and passed a law closing the courts to climate claims, even though its own officials advised against it.

That's why Both ENDS is filing a complaint with the European Commission through the Single Entry Point. We're asking one thing: that New Zealand keep the commitments it signed.

This is the first climate complaint under an EU trade agreement, and it will test whether sustainability promises in trade deals actually mean anything. 🌏

Read our public case summary to see what happened, what the agreement says, and how the process works 👇

Both ENDS is at the climate march in Amsterdam today, marching as one block with eight+ organisations under the banner Feminists for Climate Justice. Still at home? Get up and join us. Make your voice heard!

Big news from our partner Rutu Foundation for Intercultural Multilingual Education: they've just won the 2026 UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize!

The prize recognises their Language Friendly School programme, which helps schools welcome and value children's home languages alongside the language of instruction. Today, the programme reaches around 70 schools in 12 countries and has supported more than 32,000 students.

Why does this matter? Because for many children, being able to learn in their own language is about preserving their identity, culture and belonging.

Both ENDS has worked alongside Rutu Foundation for years, including through the Indigenous-Led Education (ILED) Network, which we helped set up together back in 2020 to support Indigenous communities in passing on their languages, knowledge and cultures to the next generation.

Huge congratulations to Rutu Foundation and everyone behind the Language Friendly School programme! 🥳

Read more about the award and our partnership on our website: https://www.bothends.org/en/Whats-new/News/Rutu-Foundation-receives-UNESCO-Literacy-Prize-for-multilingual-education/

Photo: Award ceremony for the 2026 UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize, held in San Juan Chamula, Chiapas, Mexico, as part of the 60th anniversary global celebration of International Literacy Day (8 September 2026). One of the participants is dressed in traditional Chamula (Tzotzil) attire, including the woolen tunic characteristic of the region. © UNESCO/Carlos Alberto Olvera Zurita

A historic step towards justice in Brazil.

For the first time, a Brazilian federal court has criminally convicted a mining company - Samarco - and three of its former managers over the 2015 Fundão dam collapse in Mariana, one of the worst environmental disasters in the country's history. The disaster killed 19 people, destroyed the village of Bento Rodrigues, and sent toxic mining waste down the entire Rio Doce basin.

Our partner Instituto Cordilheira , who represented affected communities as assistant prosecutors throughout the case, calls it a breakthrough after years of impunity. Both ENDS has supported their work since 2021.

"We know this is only a first step," said Mônica dos Santos, who lost her home in the disaster. "If we have to go to Brasília, or to another country, wherever this fight for justice takes us, we will go."

Read more: https://www.bothends.org/en/Whats-new/News/Unprecedented-criminal-conviction-in-the-Mariana-disaster-case-breaks-mining-industrys-cycle-of-impunity/

At in Mongolia Both ENDS colleague Tamara Mohr discussed the People’s Plan for Community-Based Tidal River Management (TRM) during a panel with and .

For decades, communities in southwest Bangladesh have shown that the delta knows how to heal itself, when natural tidal processes are restored, rivers can recover, land can rise and livelihoods can become more resilient. The challenge is not only what solution we choose, but who gets to decide how it is implemented.

As Tamara Mohr said during the panel: “Scaling does not just mean copy and paste, it means keeping communities in the center.”

If we truly believe in locally led adaptation, we need to put our money where our words are: invest in ecosystems and in the communities leading the solutions.

Next week, governments will gather in Mongolia for United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification to discuss land restoration. GAGGA will be represented through Both ENDS alongside partners showing what effective, locally led implementation already looks like.

Across our network, women-led and community-based organisations are restoring ecosystems, protecting biodiversity, strengthening land rights and building climate resilience. They work across these issues together because communities don’t experience climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation separately.

At UNCCD, we're spotlighting that work, starting with our partners at the Global Pastoralists Gathering. This is the beginning of a broader conversation that we'll carry into COP17 on Biological Diversity and COP31 later this year.

Stay connected.