Europe’s future depends on its youth. Promoting youth participation is fundamental in the EU policy. Especially for environmental issues, the participation of young people in decision making is extremely important, as decisions taken now on matters such as climate change, the depletion of resources, and the loss of biodiversity will have long-term consequences that will affect the future generations. Young people will have to live longer with the consequences of current decisions, and have special concerns and responsibilities in relation to the environment.[1]

The STEP project addresses young people across Europe to increase their participation in decision-making procedures and collaborating with others, in order to bring about awareness and positive responses to environmentally-related issues. One way of doing so is by engaging young people in online dialogues on the step.green platform. The first dialogue launched at a European level focused on the topic of UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which define the main topics and priorities that the world should focus on until 2030 (you can find out more about the SDGs here).

The STEP team asked the participants in the dialogue to prioritise the SDGs, choosing the 5 that they consider as most important for them. Based on the results, a report was prepared to be sent to UN and EU representatives, as well as disseminated with other international organisations. Below you can find a great infographic with the same results - check it out and spread it around!

[1] http://step4youth.eu/