Every year, when fall turns into winter, toppoliticians from around the globe gather to discuss how we should battle climate change. This, literally, hot issue is also on the minds of young people around the world as research shows: young people want to take action against climate change but they don’t know how.Organizations like Climates and Globelink therefore keep it on top of their agendas. The cooperation between our organisations started in the fall of 2015 with the pilot project of the Secret COoPeration (with the COP 21 in perspective).In 2016 and 2017 10 French and 10 Flemish youngsters will sign up as a secret COP and engage themselves to work for and promote the ‘Secret COoPeration. This secret society strives to inform and mobilize other youngsters to work against climate change.These core groups will meet each other during 3 exchange weekends. At the end of each exchange weekend the 2 groups will have decided what they will do in between the weekends in their own country/city. Climates and Globelink will guide ‘their’ youngsters through these assignments.1) Weekend 1: Teambuilding and ‘themebath’The two groups meet for the first time in one of the two countries, dig into the topic climate change by means of dynamic methods. At the end of this first weekend they have chosen their subtheme (e.g. energy, climate refugees, …).‘Homework’: National researchBefore the next meeting each group has to become ‘experts’ in the chosen subtheme and organize a survey of some sort among their peers. Thirdly, the group prepares a presentation about the outcomes of their survey for their counterparts in Paris or Flanders.2) Weekend 2: ActiontrainingAfter exchanging their findings based on the survey and a brainstorm on the way to spread these messages (a product), they will be prepared for battle. In other words, they will prepare their public action and promotion plan.‘Homework’: Action timeRealization of the product, the call to action and the public action to disseminate the opinion of the surveyed youngsters and raise awareness on the coming COP 23.3) Weekend 3: Climate-ambassadorsDuring this last meeting the secret COP’s exchange their action experiences and the outcomes of the COP of that year in order to prepare the last phase: their ambassadorship and outreach activities towards other youngsters.‘Homework’: Ambassadors on the roadIn this last phase of the project, the members of the secret COoPeration hit the road. The aim is that they share their experiences in climate action with other youngsters to raise awareness and stimulate them to follow in their footsteps.The methodology:The theoretical background can be summarized by the principles of education for sustainable development: Through (new) knowledge and tools to stimulate systems thinking we (Globelink and Climates) want to enable youngsters to develop their own values and opinions on climate change so that they are ready and eager to take action.Summarizing: the results, impact and long term benefitsIn short, this project will reach a core group of about 20 young people who will turn into climate-ambassadors based on a concrete action experience. Along the way they will involve a lot more of their peers so that the voice of this generation is heard in the fight against climate change.In the long run this project will increase the awareness on climate change among young people and show them that there are ways to take action.
The “Global Shapers Annual Survey 2017” of the World Economic Forum (http://www.shaperssurvey2017.org/static/data/WEF_GSC_Annual_Survey_2017.pdf), shows that for young people climate change is the most serious issue affecting the world today (48.8%). While 78.1% said they would be willing to change their lifestyle to protect the environment, also, concerns about water and food security (18.2%), lack of education (15.9%) and lack of economic opportunity and unemployment (12.1%) were expressed. The Secret Cooperation – Youngsters in action for the climate has brought 25 French, Belgian and German youngsters together to learn from each other on the many topics that Climate Change action addresses. The main aim of the projects for each national organization was to choose a climate focus that the young people find important, to study the subject, become expert and ambassadors and spread awareness about it towards their friends and their peers. After the first Exchange weekend, the French side chose to work on the impacts of the clothing industry and the consumption alternatives to fast fashion, while the Belgian participants chose to focus on sustainable food consumption and the lack of media coverage on climate education and action. Once their focus was chosen and they studied their topics on the national level for some time, they assembled together in Paris to exchange knowledge on the survey they had developed. They learned from each other’s results, and brainstormed on possible action implementation of their newly gained exchanged knowledge. The participants of CLIMates, the French partner organization, organized a survey on fashion consumption with 862 replies of French youngsters. These results became the backbone for their workshops and actions that took place after the exchange weekend in Paris. They decided to create a new organization called “Collectif Démarqué” .On the Belgian level the survey reached out to 491 youngsters that shared their (un)happiness with climate action and media coverage on the Belgian level. The innovative character of this project was to give as much freedom as possible to the youngsters, to facilitate their learning and to let them focus on topics that are important for themselves. This resulted in a change of the initially planned direction of the project. Because the UNFCCC COP23 happened in 2017 in Europe, the active participants resulted in their brainstorm that it makes most sense to become an ambassador for the climate during this event in Bonn. But because it was impossible at that time to become accredited for the UNFCCC event, the youngsters chose to raise awareness amongst their peers on the Conference Of Youngsters (COY13), being organized right before the COP23. 4 youngsters of Kreisjugendamt Steinfurt joined the project, as they shared the same needs like the French and Belgian participants. As a result, the 3rd exchange weekend was organized in Bonn at the COY13, together with 1300 youngsters from 114 different countries. This impacted the outreach and dissemination of the project much larger than initially dreamt of. The young participants used their knowledge and expertise to become an active climate ambassador amongst other youngsters from around the globe. They spread the results of the survey and created partnerships with organizations from other European countries or even youth organizations from another continent. Together they hope to keep on being an active ambassador by spreading the need for more climate action! The longer-term benefits of the social media accounts, the blog and the report are believed to be the awareness of the people visiting them. Even if the Collectif Démarqué breaks up, the different platforms will still be available for the visitors to look for information and discover tips and initiatives they did not know about. Furthermore, the members themselves can bring the knowledge they have accumulated anywhere. They also gained or reinforced professionally useful skills they can highlight during job interviews.