Young Citizens Get Involved in the Future of Europe

An international process
on climate-change impacts and youth commitments

The Brazilian Ministry of Education, in partnership with UNESCO and the UNEP – United Nations Environment Program, invites all the UN countries to participate in an International Conference of children and youth for the environment to involve the youth from all continents in a process of awareness raising, reflection and action on the global social and environmental changes, focusing on climate changes. The activities in each youth group will lead to the International Conference in June 2010, Brasilia.
This dynamics constitutes an excellent opportunity for the youth to feel active European citizens: the purpose of the present project is to gather the participating European countries, upstream the International Conference, to reinforce and emphasize the European youth voice (12-16 years old). The involvement of a European delegation in Brasilia will also increase the visibility of Europe in the international stage as well as its commitment on environmental issues.

Objectives and results

The activities with the European youth will focus on awareness raising on climate change and consequences, reflection on youth’s responsibilities for environment at their levels, youth involvement to impact the planetary threats through action proposals, and reinforcement of a European citizenship.

The project will come to, among others, the following results:
 a collective construction, by the youth, of a European Youth Charter of responsibilities for the environment “Let’s take care of Europe”, each responsibility being related to concrete actions;
 the election of European delegates that will participate in the International Conference in June 2010, and will be the messengers of this charter;
 the creation of ‘educommunication tools’ as educational material on climate change and its consequences on the Earth and on human beings, to be widely diffused.
 the emergence and reinforcing of European responsible youth networks, active in the field of environment, in charge of this process follow-up.

During the International Conference in Brasilia, the young delegates from all countries will write together a Charter of responsibility of the youth on environment ‘Let’s take care of the planet’ along with actions related to each responsibility.

Youth groups’ activities, step by step

January-April 2010

 make research on the environmental issues they focus (methodological and pedagogical documents will be distributed)
 organize debates among the group on the notion of responsibilities of the youth in their daily life to change the future of the planet, and on related actions as a concrete involvement
 from these exchanges, write a list of youth responsibilities and actions [1]
 set up an ‘educommunication’ tool to present the studied issue challenges (poster, painting, powerpoint, game…)
 send this tool to the national or European coordinating team that will publish it on internet
 select or elect through a democratic process a delegate and a substitute that will represent the group at the Intercontinental meeting in Brazil in June 2010. [2]

May 2010

Participate in a European intercultural meeting though internet to exchange experiences and educommunication tools, and gather the responsibilities and actions proposed by each European group in view of the European Charter of Responsibilities for the environment "Let’s take care of Europe". Upstream, the youth will exchange on a virtual platform through internet, coordinated by the Brazilian team: the virtual learning community.

June 2010

The International Conference in Brasilia will gather the European delegates, to share their contributions, finalize the writing of the European charter and create the conditions for the emergence of a European network.
Plus, all the regions of the world will be there and work on a regional charter of responsibilities, along with Europe (first day of the meeting). This activity will then give rise to the writing, by the young delegates of all the continents, of the International Charter “Let’s take care of our planet”.
This international dimension will reinforce this feeling of being young citizens of Europe but also of the world, responsible and involved actors, at their levels, for the planet future.

The whole scenario will rely on adapted pedagogical methods and tools and will be implemented in collaboration with the Brazilian team in charge of the International Conference.

Participate in the European process!

Any youth group from a school, a network, an NGO, interested by European citizenship and future, already involved in an environmental education project related to climate change consequences, aged from 12 to 16, can participate, along with a teacher or moderator ready to follow the activities with us.
The European dynamics is already well under way, with in particular 5 European countries concretely involved in the project: France, Germany, Greece, Great Britain and Portugal. The purpose is to reinforce and enlarge these collaborations for a stronger European voice and representativeness. Contacts are now being established with Denmark, Sweden, Hungary, Latvia and Spain for their participation to the process, through their institutions, the civil society or the UNESCO. CarboSchool European network, linking the scientific community and the schools on the theme of climate changes, are important partners as well.

The International Conference launched by the Brazilian Minister of Education is a great opportunity for a European youth networking on Environmental Education and to help them feel and be active citizens of Europe involved for the future of the planet. Contact us now!

More information available in the European Website of the Conference: http://confint-europe.net/index.php...
You can also visit the official Brasilian Conference Website: http://confint2010.mec.gov.br/index...

Contacts :
Lydia Nicollet: lydia Jq2 infocom21.net – Charter of Human Responsibilities network
Delphine Astier Leroux: delphine.leroux Jq2 mondepluriel.org – Monde Pluriel
note: to use these mail addresses, do not forget to replace the letters per AT... this is just to block our boxes from spams...