Youth is one of critical groups to whom it is crucial to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goals. This is why YEE has developed its advocacy strategy towards COP27, while preparing for its representation at the UN Climate Change Conference.
This Policy Brief is structured as follows:
The first section will introduce COP27 and highlight its global and regional relevance;
The second section explains YEE’s main objectives and lays down a set of overarching themes, which essentially make up the backbone of YEE’s Youth policy position related to the climate crisis.
The third section of this Policy Brief focuses on the key topics of COP27, including YEE’s research topics, and explores existing challenges and recommendations to most effectively address them under the scope of UN climate change negotiations and from a youth-based viewpoint.
Lastly, there is a set of conclusions ultimately representing YEE’s key messages in the context of COP27 youth-led advocacy.
How do we manage environmental harm? All parts of society have an environmental impact, be it on our climate or biodiversity. Footprint compensation is one of the main policy tools used to mitigate this harm but it is also at the core of a heated debate. Let’s look into it!
What is footprint compensation, and how is it different for climate and biodiversity?
The first step in addressing the issue of environmental harm is figuring out how to measure it. The concept of footprints was developed by scholars Wackernagel and Rees in the 1990s to do just that. Footprint, particularly the carbon footprint, is a term we hear very often and has become incredibly popular in the media as it provides a quantifiable understanding of ecological harm.
The ecological footprint measures the use of land and other environmental resources needed for a given action, and therefore its impact.
Within the wider ‘footprint family’, you have more specific calculations such as the climate (or carbon) footprint and biodiversity footprint. The carbon footprint is measured in metric tonnes of C02 and the biodiversity footprint is measured in global hectares, relative to the pressure exerted on land and ecosystems (although there is more than one way to measure this, given how many factors are involved in biodiversity harm).
Once we’ve measured our problem, one would hope we would want to do something about it – to compensate for the damage we have done. That’s where offsetting comes in!
This whole approach to minimising harm is an application of the “polluter pays” principle – those who made the mess should be the ones to clean it up.
A little history – the evolution of the notion of footprints and compensation
While these concepts are fairly widely discussed and used nowadays, they are the product of a lot of policy deliberation. The second half of the 20th century, especially in the US, favoured market mechanisms rather than command-and-control policies to deal with environmental issues. Policies such as offsetting utilise these market mechanisms: you pay for your actions.
In this political climate, George Bush Senior, during his political campaign, attempted to promote the idea that economics and environmental issues could work together and use the same type of thinking. In the specific context of protecting wetlands, he promoted the term No Net Loss: the idea that “damages resulting from human activities need to be balanced by at least equivalent gains.” It brought together the idea that economic development, when paired with a compensation project or payment, would see no overall detriment to our environment.
One of the first applications of this principle occurred in 1988 when Applied Energy Services built a coal-fired power plant in Connecticut that would produce 14.1 million tons of carbon over the project’s 40-year lifespan. Through consulting with the World Resources Institute, they funded a forestry project in Guatemala. This was well-received at the time and opened the door to the idea of offsetting in practice.
This notion of offsetting and trading your negative actions for an alternative positive action has grown and spawned other ideas such as carbon credits and emissions trading. In 1995, the Kyoto Protocol brought about the notion of international emissions trading – a system which allows countries that have emissions units to “spare” (or rather emissions that they are permitted to but have not used) can be sold to countries that are over their targets. Also known as credits, it’s an application of the idea of bargaining and compensation. The world’s first international emissions trading system occurred in 2005 with the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.
Comparing footprint compensation limitations for Climate vs. Biodiversity
Now that we have a little background on the definitions and history behind the idea of footprint offsetting we can look at them a little more critically:
Climate compensation, the carbon footprint & limitations
Carbon compensation is an extremely debated topic and it is often chalked up to a form of greenwashing. First of all, simply the means of measuring climate harm through the carbon footprint has a tricky history. A term developed by scientists but popularised infamously by British Petroleum in a very successful campaign which essentially placed the responsibility for carbon emissions on the consumer rather than the producer (them).
The carbon footprint asks difficult questions about responsibility but so does the idea of offsetting, which has often been called a method to “burn now, pay later”. It is a policy approach which doesn’t compel actors to reduce how much carbon dioxide they emit by giving them an “easy way out”.
Nonetheless, this is now a huge market. There is a mandatory carbon market through policies such as the European Emissions Trading System and a voluntary one, in which companies and individuals choose to buy carbon offsets. Both of these markets together were valued at over 262 Billion US Dollars in 2021.
It will never be enough to reach carbon neutrality globally – and often the projects used to “offset” carbon don’t even directly aim at carbon sequestration but generally fund environmental projects.
Biodiversity footprint compensation & limitations
Biodiversity offsetting has its own set of specific limitations and issues. Firstly measuring biodiversity harm is difficult and there are different forms of damage: destroying or polluting a habitat, or harming a given species etc. And in some cases, the damage is too great – for example, the disappearance of an endangered species.
Moreover, damage to one habitat or ecosystem can’t be compensated by improvement to another ecosystem – it’s sort of like apologising for your child’s broken bone by curing their siblings’ flu. It does overall good for your family but it doesn’t fix the original issue.
So how can we go beyond just seeing their limitations?
The Mitigation Hierarchy
A useful tool for thinking about offsetting’s role in environmental mitigation is the mitigation hierarchy which allows us to view offsets as a “last resort”. It allows us to think about managing environmental harm in various steps:
First step: avoidance
In planning a project or action, first start by seeing how you can avoid creating negative impacts.
Second step: minimise and reduce
How can you reduce the intensity, scope, duration (and more) of the impacts of your action?
Third step: rehabilitation
In the case of biodiversity harm, the next step is rehabilitation: try to rehabilitate ecosystems and habitats that were degraded by your actions.
Fourth step: offset
Use offset or compensation measures, off-site to try to reduce the residual impact of your project.
Source: The Biodiversity Consultancy
It is also worth saying that projects considered as an offset can’t be developed in isolation – these projects require collaboration & local knowledge to be effective. Moreover, they should utilise the value of additionality: the offsets must deliver environmental gains beyond those that would be achieved by ongoing or planned activities that are not part of the offset. And that of permanence – they must persist for at least as long as the adverse biodiversity/climate impacts from the original project.
Finally, “like-for-like” or equivalence needs to be taken into consideration: for biodiversity offsetting, projects should de facto protect or help the same species/habitat or ecosystem that was harmed.
Discussing “Acceptable” Implications/Applications of the footprint…There are clearly many constraints and it has to be done very carefully to be done well.
But one of the key arguments for it being an “acceptable” practice rather than simply greenwashing and giving the green light for companies to produce or destroy more is that it still provides some good, rather than all bad.
Overall, offsetting policies are a balancing act & one that keeps us at our current rate: we are simply trying to make sure things don’t get worse. It doesn’t actually make the global situation better. What that does mean is that we stay on the same trajectory, which so far is going downhill – emissions keep rising and our species’ precarity keeps increasing. We need to go above and beyond just counterbalancing harm.
Going forward with this policy method, we need to make sure to see offsets as a last resort within the mitigation hierarchy – we must avoid perpetuating displacement behaviour, where we simply shift the problem and the responsibility rather than addressing the original cause of the damage.
It is simply one tool of many for understanding and mitigating environmental harm.
Overall, the debate remains – we can see offsets as “better than nothing” or “greenwashing”, and to be honest, I would position myself on the side of “better than nothing”.
Want to learn more? Here are some places to start:
Facilitation booklet, a guide for your EUTeens4Green application
EUTeens4Green, co-funded by the European Union, launched a call for applications on 22 September 2022. This call is open for anybody who resides in one of the Just Transition regions and proposes a project that will contribute to advancing the green transition in their regions.
This booklet will guide you through the application process and answer the most common questions, such as:
What is EUTeens4Green
How does the application process work?
What can I spend the grant on?
If you need more help with your application, you can contact your local facilitator or join one of our webinars (every Wednesday and Saturaday at 18.00 CEST).
You will have new roads, but nobody to drive on them.
Meet Piotr Czerniejewski, a Polish Youth and Climate Activist who is actively involved in the Just Transition process of his local area and has been promoting the inclusion of young people.
The roots of Piotr’s activism
Piotr Czerniejewski is from the city of Konin, which is located in an area in the centre-west of Poland. He began his activism in 2015, when he was elected to the municipal youth council. After completing his work in the municipal youth council four years later, the party “Wiosna” was founded, which he joined, in addition to the youth party “Przedwiośnie”. He also joined the Youth Climate Strike.
“In 2019 I became involved in the Just Transition process. I began attending meetings in my hometown as a representative of the youth climate strike. I started paying attention to the issues of young people. The main thing that was talked about at these meetings was the needs of miners, energy issues and infrastructure issues. The aspect of youth was neglected. Basically, with my presence, decision-makers have come to understand that the needs of young people need to be included in Just Transition plans.”
Piotr has organized numerous campaigns, both within the city youth council and more broadly as an activist. These included talent contests and climate lessons in Konin schools, as well as local cleanups. In 2021, he founded the association “Młodzi Lokalsi” (Young Locals), because there was no organisation that could bring together all the young people who actually wanted to do something from Konin and the surrounding area. The organisation has been active since August 2021. At the moment, it has 25 members, and as Piotr says, it may not be a very large number, but for the rather small city of Konin, this really is a lot of people.
“We have given lessons about the climate in schools, we organize youth concerts. There is such a problem that a lot of young people leave the city because there are no events aimed at them. We did concerts as well as charity events. We collected gifts for children from an orphanage for Christmas. We will be giving lessons on climate and also an Oxford debate tournament for schools in the autumn. As an association, we do different types of activities from educational to more entertaining and cultural. Anyone can come with their idea and do actions for whatever they feel like.”
Being a young activist, however, comes with many obstacles. Among them is the resistance of all decision-makers that Piotr has experienced first-hand from the onset of his activism.
“I’ve been talking about exactly the same thing for seven years now, I’ve been talking about concrete solutions that should be implemented in the region so that young people don’t leave our city. If someone listens to my speeches, I keep repeating myself, but I have to repeat myself, because the same issues have to be addressed all the time.”
Another obstacle is the disagreement of people with his work and activism, although Piotr told us that he learned how not to take negative comments to heart and instead focus on the more positive ones.
“When I see articles in the local media, like after the climate strike there are comments like: Well, you’re probably charging your phone on electricity, which is from coal and so on – I’ve just learned not to worry about those comments. I enjoy the fact that there are people who wish me well and write good comments.”
Money, naturally, is also an obstacle. There is not enough support for Piotr’s activities, because municipal grants are launched at the beginning of a year and one has to apply at the beginning of the year, because after that the money is gone. There is also no funding for climate lessons in schools. Hence, Piotr does all of his work related to these things without any funding at all.
The Just Transition in mining regions in Poland
When Piotr began his activism, the needs of young people were not taken care of and at an early meeting in 2019 of stakeholder groups, miners and local government officials, Piotr was the only young person who showed up.
“I was listening to these solutions, what they are proposing and there were only solutions related to energy and infrastructure. There were no social ones, let alone youth ones. I stood up at the meeting and said through the microphone: you’re going to have new roads on which there will be no one to drive, because everyone will leave.”
That was a sentence that shocked the people in this room. Since then, Piotr has often repeated those words, because they sum up the direction in which the region will develop if things do not change. After said meeting, there were a lot of working group meetings related to the Just Transition process, and there Piotr tried to talk about investments in people rather than infrastructure. So far, there have been four working groups: a working group on social issues, the environment, infrastructure, and energy. Piotr came up with the idea that there should be a youth group to focus more on developing demands, because once again he found himself as the only young person in the room and, as he points out, he is not omniscient and could not speak on behalf of all young people about what they really think is best. The body that is leading this process, the Regional Development Agency, agreed to set up such a working group.
“We got together a group of people from schools and from the local university for a workshop that was held in October 2020 and at that workshop we came up with 23 ideas for youth solutions that we felt should be in a Just Transition. Then there was a moment where there was a consultation of this plan and we tried to push as many solutions as possible into this plan. In fact, some of it was successful. We managed to work out the support of young people into the labour market, the issues of additional education classes. Not all of it that we wanted, but at least some of it.”
The group was also successful in introducing solutions that are not strictly youth-oriented, but also affect young people, such as the development of public transport. It is mainly young people who commute to school or to work by bus. There were also quite a few solutions that this group cared about that were not youth-oriented at all, and in fact, most of them were implemented. They brought up the issue of business incubation, or the issue of water restoration, or reclamation of post-mining areas. Furthermore, a solution related to financing youth initiatives, i.e., a kind of youth grant, has also successfully been passed.
“Our role now is to ensure that the solutions that were important to us and were not included should be implemented in other fields, on other programmes. We need to pay attention to how they will be implemented and when they will be implemented, whether it will be what we thought, or whether again the decision-makers will say that they will implement it in their way, which will be a completely different way, and then monitoring if these solutions are implemented. Monitoring whether the solutions are actually delivering the results we have identified, or whether something more is needed.”
There are many challenges ahead for Piotr with this action plan. First and foremost, he wants to develop his association so that it can raise more funds for its activities. He also certainly wants to focus on informing the locals about what is happening in the region. The reason for this is that a lot of people, including young people, don’t know what a Just Transition is, where the region is going and what direction it’s all going in.
And although it involves effort, Piotr stresses: “I just like what I do and nobody really pays me for the things I do. For activism or political action. If someone is doing something they don’t enjoy, then they might put it off. And I’m motivated to pin things down until the end.”
Emilia is a 17 years-old activist and climate educator from Poland. In the following article, she talks about her experience with teaching kids about the climate crisis and why she thinks that politicians stand in the way of change.
My name is Emilia, I am 17 years old, and I live in a rural area of Poland, near the city of Toruń. I hope to be a doctor one day, but now my passion is climate education.
Emilia at her first protest
I first learned about climate strikes when I was 14. I went to my first strike near our city council with my friend. Nobody else showed up, so we were the only ones there. Somebody called the security staff on us – we were absolutely oblivious to the rules you need to follow to be legally allowed to strike. But we did not leave. Instead, we climbed on a statue and sat there with our posters. People passing by saw us, started taking pictures and talked to us. It was such an amazing experience that I decided to be a climate activist.
Emilia at the Ministry of Education
Then I joined our local Fridays for Future chapter, but it was not very active, so we needed to organise strikes with my friends. Last year, I joined a FFF’s international project concerning climate education. Since then, I have been teaching classes about the climate. I and my colleagues have also been meeting with the Polish Ministry of climate and the Ministry of education. We try to convince them that we need climate education in Polish schools. It looks promising.
I believe that people are willing to change.
However, there are a lot of barriers to change. The biggest obstacle is not the law but the politicians who are unwilling to change anything. Like when I met the Polish president Andrzej Duda at one of his rallies in 2020. I went there with a banner saying simply: And what about the climate? He noticed and went over to talk to me. I tried to explain to him the severity of the climate crisis, but he said people are not willing to change. I do not believe that. Everybody wants to live a healthy life. If they were explained how serious the situation is, they would be willing to make changes. This is just a politician’s excuse.
Not only influencing politicians to do something is a struggle. Also the complete lack of information among the general public.
We need to teach these things at school. I had just one lesson about climate change last year during geography. The only takeaway from the lesson was that scientists are unsure if climate change is happening. It is ridiculous to teach that at school.
The climate crisis is not just about the environment.
Still, I do not believe that the climate crisis is only about the environment. Social issues are connected with it. We try to cooperate with a local LGBTQI+ centre and organisations that focus on women’s rights in my local area. Whenever we have a strike, we invite them to give a speech, because we are in this together. This is one fight.
Seeing that what I am doing has an impact on people is what really keeps me going. It is just beautiful to see kids as young as 6 years old
Emilia Rygielska at a climate protest
be eager to make a difference in the world. I would like to think that they also tell their parents what they learn in our classes, and their parents to their friends, and then more people find out about the dangers of the climate crisis and maybe join us. I would like to see more older people joining in the fight.
The climate crisis is everybody’s problem.
I think the older generation does not fight for it because they are unaware. I have heard people saying that the climate crisis is not real. Other people say it is real, but it does not affect them, because they are 50 years old. Although, there have been some elderly people at the climate strikes, which is always so nice to see.
A group of people my parents’ age in my local area fights against cutting down a local forest to make space for industrial buildings. They took action because it would have a direct impact on their lives. So, I think the indifference is just a matter of older people thinking that the climate crisis is not their problem. Because my generation already knows that it is our problem.
Start now. You will find people along the way.
Most of us found out about the climate crisis through social media, and we felt like it directly concerns us. That is the reason why we fight for change. There are always things we can change, regardless of where we live. Even if we are alone at first, we find people along the way.
Activists uplift each other. When I look back, I am really amazed by what we achieved in one year. So, start now! Just make sure to know the laws not to get in trouble, because if you are in trouble you cannot do anything.
There are always things we can change, regardless of where we live. Even if we are alone at first, we find people along the way.
Social media on environmental issues can sometimes be the only source of knowledge for young Poles. Ola Czajkowska, a 26-year-old resident of Warsaw, has taken matters into her own hands. Professionally involved in marketing, and thanks to her maternity leave she has developed social media channels where she shows simple solutions to inspire other Poles to take action in their own lives.
Ola Czajkowska, a 26-year-old activist
Ola first came across the concept of zero waste approximately four years ago. And since then, she has been trying to implement eco solutions in her life. Since last year, she has been active on social media, including TikTok. Running social media on this topic allowed her to grow personally, to learn new things – by preparing content, she learns something new all the time.
“What touched me the most is that we are inundated with plastic from everywhere. It’s in the oceans, it’s on pavements, it’s in the stomachs of animals that people eat, and it’s even been detected in human blood! Everything in the shops is packaged in plastic. I realised that not using plastic isn’t that hard at all and I can do it here and now. And that’s how it started.”
Ola’s activism particularly focuses on zero waste, environmental protection and vegetarianism. As she points out, these three topics come hand in hand. Zero waste is a way of living without waste, with respect for the environment – we don’t generate rubbish, we use what we have, we make sure that the products we already have are recycled.
Ola Czajkowska at a strike
So is reducing meat consumption, because meat production is one of the main drivers of climate change. Ola is trying to tell people that it all comes together, like one big package: there are no isolated solutions to singular problems – they are all interconnected and can thus be tackled holistically.
Ola also mentioned that being vegan doesn’t have to be difficult, especially as we have more and more vegan restaurants and animal product substitutes in the shops.
“Many people say that being eco is expensive. Because they just imagine that if you are vegan you have to eat only vegan meat alternatives. That if you want to be eco, you have to buy metal straws, an expensive water bottle or ‘eco’ cleaning products. I also show these solutions, because they can make life easier in some situations. But at the same time, I want to encourage us to use the simple ways that our mothers or grandmothers remember. A nutritious vegan dinner can be made from legumes or porridge, and cleaning products can be made from products we find at home – baking soda or vinegar, for example.”
One of the channels on which Ola is actively involved is TikTok. In Poland, environmental education is at a very low level, in schools kids are hardly taught about climate change, its influences and how it can be prevented. Ola thus wanted to start reaching out on TikTok to precisely these younger people: school-age kids, and to teach them about ecology in a simple, accessible way.
And indeed, Ola sees that she has encouraged many young people to make eco changes in their lives, as well as encouraging other people to adopt eco-friendly habits.
“I started my first blog in 2004, when I was in primary school. Now blogs are more like portals than diaries. But also, a lot of people have moved away from blogging and moved to social media platforms, where you can run everything from your smartphone. I’m happy about the popularity of social media, because you can easily reach a huge amount of people, including with such environmental or scientific messages.”
Ola thinks her goal is a good future of the planet. Unfortunately, many people ignore climate change and our planet is in a worse and worse state. She would like everyone to take steps towards caring for the planet. It could be cutting down on meat consumption, it could be picking up litter while walking or getting involved as a volunteer in an environmental organisation – small steps that can have large impact.
“I would like to be able to enjoy what’s around me in these 30 years, to have a peaceful life and not have to fight for drinking water or food for my family. I hope that in the next few years I will still have the resources to act as much as I do now, or even more!”
Ola Czajkowska at Pride parade
One of the biggest challenges she faces as an activist in Poland is certainly that society needs to change its attitude towards ecology. People need to be educated, to make eco changes in their lives, and at the same time fight for systemic changes to happen, for them to vote in elections for parties that advocate fighting climate change as a priority and for politicians to finally make some decisions involving those issues.
In addition to her environmental activism, Ola has also been a proud ally of LGBTQ+ people in Poland for years. As she points out, just talking about it, declaring herself an ally, adding her pronouns in her bio profile – this is already part of that activism, once again highlighting how small steps can add up to make a big difference.
Despite the environmental themes of her channels, Ola tries to share initiatives in support of LGBTQ+ like petitions or donations. She also actively participates in pride parades every year.
Ola believes that what we can do here and now is to give up eating meat, not using a car as a main means of transportation, as well as reducing fast fashion and introducing real packaging recycling everywhere. These are things that we don’t have to wait for to be implemented systemically, and we can contribute as individuals – by going vegan, not buying new clothes, recycling or buying products without packaging.
“I encourage you to make at least one small eco change in your life. And then, in small steps, it will go from there! And don’t be discouraged if you slip up!”
During the past year, we have talked a lot about the three pillars of the Aarhus Convention: the rights of public participation, access to information and access to justice in environmental matters. We have written handbooks and articles; as well as organized workshops to raise awareness and build capacity among young people on these procedural rights that usually remain in the shadows.
As the Aarhus Convention is a key instrument within the UNECE region and beyond to promote, protect and fulfil the right to actively participate in environmental decision-making, YEE is constantly at the frontline in ensuring that decisions take into consideration the interests of youth. This also consists of attending the Aarhus-related processes, composed mainly of the Meeting of the Parties (MoP) and the Working Group of the Parties (WGP). Attending these meetings is crucial to influence decision-making, raise awareness and advocate for our interests.
In October, we attended the MoP, where our advocacy coordinator Pegah and project lead Laura delivered statements raising the need for youth organizations to receive more funding and denouncing the European
Union’s failure to comply with the Aarhus Convention. Read more about this in our handbook.
From 22 to 24 June, Clara Botto, Environmental Governance Liaison Officer, and I also participated in the WGP and exMoP, where we strengthened our role there and youth participation more broadly.
For months before, the YEE Environmental Law team had followed the preparation behind, in coordination with other NGOs (in particular with the European Environmental Bureau) which are part of the ECO Forum network (the name under which NGOs were sitting in the room).
The 26th WGP
From the 22 to the first half of the 23 June we attended the 26th WGP, which this year included two thematic sessions on access to information and on promoting the application of the principles of the
Convention in international forums. In coordination with other NGOs, we managed to secure a keynote statement on the thematic session on access to information (item 3a in the agenda).
The discussion focused on the means for advancing public access to environment-related product information: for example, the role of digitalization; the threat of greenwashing claims and the role of product passports were largely discussed by representatives of states. On behalf of YEE and Eco Forum, we stressed the universal character of the right to access information, the promotion of which has to be carried on also among the youngest generations. As a matter of fact, accessing environmental-related information is also an essential precondition for exercising the right to live in a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
We then recognized that means such as product passports can substantially help young people in accessing product information; as well as strongly reduce the risk of them being subject to greenwashing, making them particularly receptive to green claims. Representatives from states shared the good practices implemented at the national level.
We also delivered a statement on the Capacity Building and Awareness Raising item (4c in the agenda). Here, Clara stressed the role of youth organizations in building capacity and raising awareness, but also the need to secure more funding for them, YEE being the only youth-led organization present at the meeting. She also underlined the urgent need to promote education on sustainable development matters for contrasting the current and future climate crises.
The ExMoP3
Right after the WGP, thus from the second half of the 23 to the 24 June, we attended the third extraordinary session of the Meeting of the Parties (ExMoP3), which was something historical. Generally, extraordinary sessions of the MoP are held if there is some urgent matter to be discussed or a big decision to be taken. During this one, a Round Table on Environmental Defenders was held, during which environmental defenders, Parties to the Aarhus Convention and NGOs engaged in a discussion on the main trends, challenges and good practices with regard to the protection of environmental defenders in the region and beyond.
The discussion was followed by the appointment of the first special rapporteur on environmental defenders in the world: Mr Michel Forst was appointed with unanimity by the parties. The Special Rapporteur’s task is to “protect any person experiencing or at imminent threat of penalization, persecution, or harassment for seeking to exercise their rights under the Aarhus Convention”.
The urgency to build a strong framework of protection was exacerbated by the fact that right when we were having the meetings, Brazilian indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Philips were found dead after weeks of search in the Brazilian Amazon forest: they were killed some weeks before while they were denouncing illegal fishing, mining, logging and drug-trafficking activities in the forest. Clara raised the issue in the room with a statement, paying homage to their families. We from YEE recognize that the parties have to take joint action to immediately stop these facts.
After Mr Forst’s election, we also had a meeting with him together with the other NGOs from ECO Forum to discuss the priorities for his mandate. We raised the particular vulnerability of young environmental defenders in the UNECE region.
As a way forward, we will continue pressing for securing funding for youth organizations as a priority for ensuring that youth representatives can participate in these meetings and ensure their position is respected. Additionally, programs of awareness raising and capacity building have to be put in place to inform young people of their rights and opportunities to participate and enforce the rights of the Convention, according to us.
Within YEE, if on the one side for the upcoming year we will continue to follow the first line of the Aarhus-related processes; on the other we will strengthen capacity-building and awareness-raising activities through explainers and interactive workshops.
One of the main hurdles we face is that the principles protected from the Aarhus Convention, being mostly procedural in nature, are sometimes disregarded and detached from the youth-inclusion rationale. However, especially at this moment in history, with the UN recognition of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, we cannot conceive of procedural rights as detached from the substantial ones: being in the frontline is necessary to ensure intergenerational justice, human rights and environmental protection
Trends in Climate litigation
Climate change is one of the most fundamental problems of humanity and international climate negotiations and lawsuits against governments and companies for their climate policies are taking place more frequently than ever. But are we able to follow them? As knowledge is power, our environmental law team is hosting a series of 4 workshops during June and July to empower young people to become more involved in the international and European climate regime and provide them with the knowledge needed and bring them in contact with experts working on the field. The workshops will cover topics of fundamental international environmental law, public participation & environmental impact assessment as well as different angles of climate litigation and its current developments. Certificates will be given to the participants who attend 75% of the workshops (minimum 3 out of 4).
What you can expect
We aim to build capacity on the basic knowledge of international environmental law and include young people with no legal background in the climate movement. Through our 3rd workshop, we aim to provide a better understanding of public climate litigation having as guest speaker Filippo Fantozzi, Legal Associate in the Climate Litigation Network of Urgenda. Urgenda is one of the most widely discussed climate litigation cases against States. Through this workshop, participants will learn more about climate lawsuits against public actors from an expert, who is involved in one of the most influential cases of the climate litigation movement.
The 3rd workshop is going to take place online on the 4th of July at 16.30.
Practical information
When?4th of July at 16.30 CET
Where? Online, from your home via Zoom – the link will be communicated upon registration
How? Register your interest by 1st July [12 noon CET].
Underprotected & Underrepresented – Youth & Ocean issues in Europe
Author: Anna Marino
One of the first lessons I learned when I first approached the field of ocean advocacy at YEE (and joined the Youth4Ocean Forum), is that you do not need to live by the ocean to be (and feel) connected to it and to do something to protect it. When you grow up in a coastal town as I did, you take that feeling for granted. Some of those principles that are now embedded in the concept and practice of “Ocean Literacy”, were already standard ideas in my daily life. It’s as simple as that. Later on, I realised that the opposite can be true as well: when it comes to polluting and exploiting the ocean, humans are historically convinced that it could be treated as an inexhaustible resource.
Anna at EMD & the EU4Ocean Ocean Literacy Summit
On the contrary, the ocean is more and more under pressure on multiple levels, with devastating feedback effects on the environment and climate. Without the ocean (yes, there is only one big ocean on this Earth), the environment and climate as we know them today would cease to exist: the ocean is the Planet’s main climate regulator, constitutes over 95% of the biosphere and ensures subsistence to more than 3 billion people.
But how do we communicate the importance of the living ocean in everyone’s life, to choose more sustainable behaviour, while supporting system change? This is where ocean literacy enters the scene and what I wish to talk about on this World Ocean Day, by telling you more about my experience at the EU4Ocean Ocean Literacy Summit!
The EU4Ocean Coalition
Ocean literacy is what brings the EU4Ocean Coalition together. We are three communities (the EU4Ocean Platform, the Youth4Ocean Forum and the Network of European Blue Schools) working towards one important goal: spreading ocean literacy around all of Europe, connecting people to the ocean, and driving action to protect the ocean. What I think is truly inspiring about the Coalition is that it brings together people of all ocean-related fields and ages, to collaborate on the creation of meaningful ocean literacy tools and actions. From educators, youth workers and students, to advocacy experts, marine biologists and scientists, artists, and explorers… everyone contributes to this big wave in their own way.
My experience at EMD & the EU4Ocean Ocean Literacy Summit
I consider the EU4Ocean Ocean Literacy Summit in Ravenna as an eye-opening experience in which I discovered some of the incredible work and achievements that people, organisations, and communities have realised under this project in the past 2.5 years – a little “universe” of meaningful ocean actions that sometimes do not always reach the wider public. The EU4Ocean Summit was hosted by the European Commission’s (DG MARE) annual conference, European Maritime Day (EMD), in Ravenna. EMD is the annual occasion for EU maritime stakeholders to come together to network, touch base on the state of EU maritime affairs, and find ways to cooperate and move forward. The second day of this conference was entirely dedicated to the EU4Ocean Summit, to discuss ocean literacy in the context of three thematic areas (Ocean and Climate, Food from the Ocean, and Healthy and Clean Oceans), and to celebrate the winning projects of the Ocean in action! Awards, and look at the future of this Coalition by bringing all its communities together in an in-person event for the first time.
I absolutely loved being part of one of this event’s workshops
Youth and Capacity building for Ocean Literacy – Connecting generations through storytelling. This workshop was an attempt to bring different generations together in a youth-led session, this hybrid workshop showcased storytelling as a powerful ocean literacy tool. Participants were directly involved in the delivery of storytelling by exchanging personal stories about the living ocean and their connection with the ocean, based on the storytelling method to convey a powerful message that could leverage on the listener’s emotional connection to the ocean. As a co-moderator of this workshop (and Youth4Ocean Forum member), I can confirm that we had a lot of fun preparing the event as well as carrying it out! Participants were very active and were positively surprised by how much they could share and connect with other people (of every age) in the room. If you dream of becoming a storytelling expert, or you’d just like to know more, the recording is now available on the EMD website!
We also had the youth dialogue with Commissioner Sinkevicius
Anna meeting Commissioner Sinkevicius.
It’s 9 am in the morning, a perfect time for a coffee break with Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevicius! During this youth dialogue, several members of the Youth4Ocean Forum shared their stories and introduced their ocean literacy projects, and invited the Commissioner to share his own personal ocean story, too. I appreciated how the Commissioner put an accent to the role that young people have and should be granted in international environmental decision-making, highlighting the importance for young ocean advocates like us to participate in all environmental processes, as they are all relevant for the ocean and thus they are important for the positive change we wish to see in ocean affairs. Achieving substantial results to protect biodiversity at COP15, he underlined, is a major priority. Although we ran short of time soon and the Commissioner was called to participate in the morning plenary session, he shared with us the hope to find other occasions for dialogue and exchange, only next time, in a roundtable rather than on stage with a small group of youth representatives.
The EU4Ocean booth
This was in my opinion the most creative, entertaining and educational space in the venue. Between informal talks with experts from different ocean-related fields, quizzes and games for children, exchanges with schools, the possibility to make a pledge for the ocean or to just sit back and relax while listening to the EU4Ocean podcast “If Oceans Could Speak”, I saw ocean literacy in action in multiple, innovative forms and got the chance to share my passion for the ocean with so many people of different age, professional fields and walks of life, bringing me to the important message that you do not need to be an ocean professional or know everything about the ocean, to be (and feel) connected to the ocean. Each and every one of us, at any time, can do something that helps the ocean!
Experience in the field
And in case you were wondering if we actually went to the sea… the answer is YES! I was lucky enough to be involved in immersive experience at Marina di Ravenna, with a beach cleanup with Youth4Ocean friends, local high school students and teachers from the Network of European Blue Schools, plasticfree, and researchers from the National Research Council (CNR) , followed by a visit at the CESTHA centre. There, I found out that they are the biggest sea turtle rescue centre in Italy, hosting nearly 50 lovely guests who are currently recovering from their injuries to later be released into the sea! Seeing how much love, research, and innovation go into these activities was really insightful and is an experience I wish every young ocean and environmental advocate could have.
My final message to young people
To discuss all forms of expressions of and notions on ocean literacy, I would need to write an entire book (until then, many resources are actually available online: you can start by discovering the 7 Ocean Literacy principles here!), but with this article that I tried to simply describe my experience of EU4Ocean and convey this important message: ocean literacy is key to communicate the importance of the ocean, spread knowledge about the living ocean, and drive action to protect our ocean, paving the way to more sustainable societies, economies, for a healthy and protected ocean future.
The ocean is as important as it is seriously underprotected and largely unexplored (did you know that more than 80% of our ocean is unmapped, unobserved, and unexplored… meaning that we explored and mapped the Moon’s surface MORE than we explored the ocean?!). And while ocean biodiversity quickly degrades and the consequences of ocean pollution reach irreversible points – in the face of inadequate international protection – youth voices are still widely underrepresented.
What can we do, then?
Let’s raise our voices for the Ocean in the run-up to the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon! The Youth4Ocean Forum and YEE representatives will be there to advocate for stronger and more extensive protection of ocean life through international governance, spreading ocean literacy, and to push world leaders towards more meaningful engagement of youth in ocean-related decision-making, such as under the future High Seas Treaty. If you have a message you would like us to bring to UNOC, send me an email at anna@yeenet.eu …and don’t forget to follow YEE on social media to connect with us in Lisbon!
Make a pledge for the ocean by joining the #MakeEUBlue campaign! Launched in 2021 and joined also by EU Commissioner on Environment, Ocean and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevicius, the #MakeEUBlue campaign is open to everyone: individuals, organisations, business and institutions, can make their pledge for the ocean, because “Every action – even the smallest one – brings change to our ocean”.
Participate in local ocean literacy and conservation actions!
”Environmental degradation, climate change and unsustainable development constitute some of the most pressing and serious threats to the ability of present and future generationsto enjoy human rights” (Res.48/13 on the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment).
Following our December article on the recognition of the right to a healthy environment by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), this article explores the importance of protecting children and youth rights as rights-holders and stakeholders in the context of environmental-related disasters. Furthermore, we recall the urgency of mainstreaming youth participation in environmental decision-making as necessary to implement such protection.
Children and youth rights to live in a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment: human rights framework
The impacts of the climate crisis on children’s rights
Global institutional concerns about the impacts of climate change and environmental-related disasters on the most vulnerable groups were the basis of the adoption of Resolution 48/13 (UNHRC, October 2021) which recognizes the right to a healthy environment. Among these, several studies and reports from the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) have highlighted the disproportionate impacts of climate change on children. By stating that “climate change is a child rights crisis”, UNICEF estimated that nearly half of the world’s children (one billion) live in countries that are at an ‘extremely high-risk’ from the impacts of climate change. This is of utmost danger for the life of present and future generations, as climate change negatively affects children’s physiological and emotional development, health and well-being. Indeed, among others, children are much more exposed to water-borne diseases (such as malaria, dengue and cholera) and suffer more from food and water scarcity than adults due to physiological characteristics. Moreover, it has been estimated that approximately 600,000 children under the age of 5 die every year because of air pollution, UNICEF reported in 2019.
Therefore, it is commonly acknowledged that several children’s (and youth) rights are compromised by environmental degradation and climate disasters, among which:
the right to life,
the right to play,
the right to culture,
the right to meaningful and informed participation,
indigenous peoples’ rights,
the right to development.
Many of these rights form the basic framework of international protection of children, yet they are also extremely affected by climate change and environmental disasters, as recognized by the UN in the Resolutions (below).
International human rights instruments for the protection of children and youth
Generally, the main instruments for the protection of the rights of the child, the “basics” of the protection of children at the UN level, which at the same time appear threatened by climate change, are the following:
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, protecting, among others, children’s best interest (art.3); their right to survive (art.6); their right to express their views on matters that affect them (art.12); their freedom of expression (art.13); and their right to the best possible health and healthcare (art.24).
UNHRC resolutions linking the rights of children to the environment and climate change
In addition, the UNHRC has issued a number of resolutions interlinking the rights of children and youth with climate change and environmental harm. Resolutions, although not binding, are a formal expression of the opinion or the will of UN organs. In practice, they provoke debates among states, civil society, and intergovernmental organizations (the UNHRC, “A Practical Guide”). They are useful instruments for youth advocacy since they mainstream discussion and open up more possibilities for youth groups to make their voice heard in multi-stakeholder discussions and events.
The resolutions relevant for the discussion linking children and youth rights with the environment are:
The Joint Commitment expresses awareness from UN institutions that, in relation to environmental action, children and youth have “the right to freedom of expression, access to information, education, freedom of association and peaceful assembly, to be heard, to be consulted on issues affecting them, to have their views given due weight, and to have access to an effective remedy, including through child- and youth-friendly and sensitive mechanisms”.
The Commitment acknowledges the need to empower children and young people to enable the enjoyment of the right to live in a healthy environment. It contains commitments to:
Support states’ legislative frameworks in soundly recognising the right to a safe, healthy environment;
Uphold, respect, protect and fulfill all human rights, including the rights of children and youth with respect to the environment and climate justice;
Partner systematically and meaningfully with children and youth groups at local, national, regional, and global levels;
Promote children- and youth-inclusive research, data collection, analysis, and accountability that can form the basis of sound decision-making.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned objectives, however, the human rights law framework cannot work alone: the interlink with international environmental law is necessary, considering the environmental-related causes of human rights violations.
Protecting children and youth rights within environmental law fora: the need for systemic youth participation
As the threat to the enjoyment of children and youth rights regarding the climate crisis requires sudden action, engaging young people in the discussion is one of the first steps to take to ensure that climate policies and laws do not undermine our future.
Where do we stand now?
Globally, children and youth are not only right-holders but main stakeholders in environmental decision-making. Among others, they are identified as one of the nine major groups of civil society in Agenda 21, with the right and responsibility to participate in sustainable development. Nonetheless, they still encounter barriers and multiple forms of discrimination when it comes to participation in environmental public affairs: most of the time the voice of youth is taken into consideration on an irregular basis and the outcomes of discussions remain intangible.
Even though better youth participation and access to information alone do not solve the problem of systemic political disregard for the health and future of children and youth, they have to be enhanced on a regular basis as they strengthen the implementation of human rights protection.
Currently, the international environmental law framework recognizes the importance of engaging children and youth within, for example, art.6 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Art.6 calls on governments to implement educational and training programmes on climate change to educate, empower and engage all stakeholders (which should include youth). Moreover, the Lima Ministerial Declaration on Education and Awareness-raising reaffirmed that youth is one of the key stakeholders to participate and access information and knowledge supporting climate policymaking (decision 19/CP.20).
The UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) is contributing to the discussion in the UN institutional framework and it recognizes that human rights appear to be still disconnected from environmental protection. For instance, its Montevideo Environmental Law Programme initiative incentivises discussions among UN institutions, civil society, and academic experts on the need to strengthen environmental law.
Within this latter, the contribution youth can give is to engage in discussion on how to:
Enhance the understanding of the links between the rights of children, youth and future generations and environmental law;
Enhance the understanding of the role of youth in decision-making and on how to promote participatory rights;
Ensure the promotion, protection and respect of youth and children’s rights in environmental protection (and vice versa).
The role of UNICEF: advising on making climate policies child- and youth-sensitive
An example of how to promote, protect and respect youth and children’s rights in environmental protection is UNICEF’s work in advising on how to make climate policies more child and youth sensitive.
Ambitious and urgent: they must include ambitious mitigation and adaptation measures to protect the rights and best interests of children and young people from the impacts of climate change;
Rights-based: they must explicitly and meaningfully refer to children and young people as not only rights-holders, but as important stakeholders;
Holistic and multi-sectoral: they must consider that the impacts of climate change on children and young people have to be addressed holistically throughout all policy sectors involved;
Inclusive: all children and young people must be systematically and meaningfully consulted and given the possibility to participate in climate policy-making processes (UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2017).
The work of UNICEF and UNEP, despite addressing the problem from two different starting points, both result in calling for enhanced youth participation within the context of climate change policy-making and decision-making: human rights and environmental law systems are thus to be conceived complementary, and the right to a healthy environment being an example of this interlink.
In this regard, youth-led civil society organizations are strongly advocating and raising awareness at the international and national institutional levels to enhance the inclusion of children and young people at the decision-making level
However, from the individual side, how can we make our voice heard when it comes to environmental policy- and decision-making?
If you do not know where to start, and if the above-mentioned framework seems too theoretical and far away from you, here there are some suggestions on how to promote your right to a clean and sustainable future starting from zero:
Learn
Learn and enhance your knowledge of the main actors and processes of environmental decision making. Find out which are the environmental leaders, civil society organizations and initiatives which influence your future. Think in a holistic and inclusive perspective: which decisions or policies in your country endanger your future and one of your peers?
One starting point could be first to increase your knowledge of international environmental law, public participation opportunities and climate litigation, in order to think in a concrete way: in this regard, we recommend attending our series of workshops taking place in June and July which fit exactly this purpose. We want to make sure that you know about the legal processes behind climate cases, in order for you to build capacity and gain confidence. More info will be shared on our website. Besides, collaborative learning opportunities and knowledge sharing not only increase our expertise and give us hope but contribute to building a network of people sharing, supporting and strengthening the same cause.
Advocate
Advocate and spread the word: try to engage as many other people as possible, sharing what you discovered and learned. Use social media to denounce violations of your rights of living in a clean environment, join campaigns and encourage public debates.
Get involved
Get involved in youth-led organizations that promote environmental protection, in your local area or globally. You will find out that many people care as much as you and collect their efforts for many environmental-related causes. Among these, Generation Climate Europe, Global Youth Biodiversity Network and many of our YEE members working at the national level are only some suggestions to start.
Enjoy nature
Last but not least, enjoy nature: appreciate the unique value of different ecosystems and the benefits a healthy environment has on our physical and emotional conditions.
These are some of the inputs we can give you to support your concerns and to make you feel that even if participating in environmental law decision-making seems to be so distant from your everyday life, it is the starting point for protecting our future.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
The group was also successful in introducing solutions that are not strictly youth-oriented, but also affect young people, such as the development of public transport. It is mainly young people who commute to school or to work by bus. There were also quite a few solutions that this group cared about that were not youth-oriented at all, and in fact, most of them were implemented. They brought up the issue of business incubation, or the issue of water restoration, or reclamation of post-mining areas. Furthermore, a solution related to financing youth initiatives, i.e., a kind of youth grant, has also successfully been passed.
Let’s raise our voices for the Ocean in the run-up to the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon! The Youth4Ocean Forum and YEE representatives will be there to advocate for stronger and more extensive protection of ocean life through international governance, spreading ocean literacy, and to push world leaders towards more meaningful engagement of youth in ocean-related decision-making, such as under the future High Seas Treaty. If you have a message you would like us to bring to UNOC, send me an email at 
YEE aims to unite environmental youth non-profit organisations in Europe in order to enhance international cooperation, increase knowledge about the climate crisis, raise awareness of environmental problems and to strengthen participation of youth in environmental decision-making.
