What's So Hot About Climate Change: Road to Paris ..
What's So Hot About Climate Change: Road to Paris Forum
Start date: Aug 1, 2015,
End date: Jul 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
Young environmentalists (16-18yrs) are invited to come to Dublin for a 3 day seminar in Dublin where they will work towards making a submission to local and national policy makers in advance of the COP 21 convention (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Conference of the Parties 21), taking place in Paris France 30th Nov-11th Dec 2015.
Participants will leave the What’s So Hot About Climate Change: Road to Paris Forum with an outline for a Local Action Project Plan to support them to act on climate change locally and support them to engage local Policy makers, MPs and MEPs/equivalent in their own countries.
The need for this project arose from the work and development of ECO UNESCO's own Youth for Sustainable development group, a Youth group who work toward action on sustainable development issues, and who have undertaken personal and career based development as part of YSD, and are now peer mentors for newcomers to the group. This group identified youth participation in climate change policy as a key area of concern and interest for them.
The objectives of the project are to give young people an opportunity to engage in meaningful and structured dialogue with policy makers and enforcers on the issue of climate change; to provide young environmentalists the space and opportunity to exchange knowledge and ideas on climate change and taking action in their own countries and in a European context; and empower young people to take action on climate change at a local level.
Stage 1 will incorporate consultations with the young people of ECO UNESCO's own groups and clubs, and the young people of interested partner organisations. These consultations will focus on the key climate change issues young people would like to address and who are the main policy makers involved. At this stage groups from partner organisations are asked to begin a video diary to record their progress. ECO UNESCO will engage its own Youth Advisory Committee and the Core Project Team (comprised of one member of each of the six partner groups) to advise on the learning methodologies, structure and topics of the 3 day seminar in Dublin.
Continued online communication with partner organisations throughout the planning phase via the Core Project team will ensure their integral role in shaping the 3 day seminar in Dublin.
Stage 2 will comprise a 3 day seminar in Dublin, Ireland. This meeting will focus on round-table discussions, interactive learning workshops and creating a local action project plan to empower and enable young people to engage constructively with policy makers in their countries of origin on the topic of climate change, and also in preparation for the COP 21 meeting in early December 2015. Discussion and activities will encompass reflective learning, education for sustainable development methodologies, the role of Policy and will engage policy makers. The methods used within the workshops are learner-centred, participatory and interactive ensuring the learner is engaged in experiential learning and based on best practice ESD/DE. Action experience is an important part of the experiential learning cycle. The cycle involves abstract generalisation, applying/ experimentation, concrete experience and reflection.
Stage 3 will support participants to continue to enact change by committing to their action plans in their own communities. Their progress can be documented in any number of ways; media, photographs, videos, blogs, tweets, which can be submitted for promotion through ECO UNESCO's website/Twitter. Participants will be able to present their work on local action projects to policy makers of their choice in their own countries in order to have their voices heard in the run up to COP 21.
Participants will also be able to submit their Local Action Projects and any further action they took to promote their issue to the ECO UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards in February 2016. Evaluation and final report will also take place in Stage 3 and will include all partner organisations.
Who can participate: Each partner is invited to send 5 participants aged 16- 18yrs of age and 1 youth leader/worker. (total of 5 partner groups). ECO UNESCO will engage forty young people form across its range of ECO UNESCO clubs and groups.
When and Where: Preparatory work will be done by partner organisations with their own groups in their own countries - The seminar will last three days and will be held in Dublin over 26th-28th October 2015 - commitment and progress of the local action plans will be done in the group's own communities. The duration of this project is one year.
Get Access to the 1st Network for European Cooperation
Log In