Human activities are among the main causes of increasing global temperatures, warming of the oceans, dramatic weather fluctuations – all of which are leading to a general change of the Earth’s climate. The Paris Climate Pact (2015) was an important step towards the climate-neutral planet, yet several political, industrial and societal challenges need to be overcome in order to reduce the climate footprint in the EU’s eastern neighbourhood. Moreover, the economic recovery from the current pandemic must not come at the expense of our environmental goals. How alive is the Green Agenda, especially in the time of COVID-19? How can young people contribute to a sustainable recovery and a reduction in the climate footprint?
Climate actions can be pathways for young people to galvanise national and local agendas for changing behaviours and policies, and to ensure sustainable development of the Eastern Partnership region. Thus, young people want to be part of the public dialogue on the environment, expressing a vivid motivation to eliminate pollution, and enhance the level of clean energy and sustainable mobility – all to transform the impact of economics and damaging social behaviour patterns on the environment. What is the role of the European Green Deal for EaP and Russia? How can young people contribute to the dialogue with their authorities? How can the European Green Deal be implemented in the eastern neighbourhood, while ensuring the vision of young people?
The aim of the Virtual Café session is to discuss the current state of play in selected areas with experts in thematic groups (energy, pollution and mobility). This session will help participants to understand the current challenges in the respective areas as well as to learn what is already in place to solve the existing shortcomings. This session will build the ground for young people to elaborate further policy recommendations.
This thematic session will focus on the future of renewable energy as part of the European Green Deal. It will focus on current policies, its shortcomings and potential actions and steps that need to be introduced in the EaP countries, giving a special attention to youth vision.
The thematic session will focus on the major priorities and challenges of the current situation and policies in the environmental sector in the EaP countries. The contribution of the EU4Environment Regional Action to promote a greener and circular economy as part of European Green Deal will be presented. Potential actions and opportunities for youth participation and involvement will be addressed together with the group.
The transport sector in the EaP countries is still experiencing unsustainable growth. The EaP countries governments should give more institutional support and tax incentives for electric, hybrid vehicles and non-motorised transport development and increase market penetration green transport modes. This thematic session will dwell more into the current needs of the mobility sector in light of the societal changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A “Big Fish” session is an online public discussion with international stakeholders, which aims to facilitate direct dialogue between the participants of the conference and policy-makers. During this session participants will present the results of discussions of the virtual Café session and have an opportunity to ask their questions to the policy-makers.
Head of Unit, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus & Eastern Partnership, Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, European Commission
During this session, participants will continue developing their project ideas and transform them into project proposals. The aim of the session is to prepare final proposals, which will be pitched to the Selection Committee on Day 3.
A pitch is a short presentation/speech, aiming to persuade the audience to select a project. Participants will be given 3 minutes to describe briefly the aim of the project, its main targeted audience, and how the project will contribute to solving environmental issues and help to increase awareness among the population. Moreover, projects will have to show how they are interlinked with educational activities and/or educational curricula.
