An engaging program

The program offered a diverse range of workshops, podium discussions, skill-building sessions, and lectures on various topics. The event provided opportunities for networking through snack tables, workshops, and open discussion formats. In the evening, there were fun meeting programs such as speed dating, board games, and a science slam where scientists presented their research in a quick and humorous way.

With hundreds of possible options to choose from, I sometimes felt overwhelmed, but I was able to attend some activities that were valuable to me. One workshop that I particularly enjoyed was about constructive journalism, which provided practical information on climate communication to the public – a skill that may be just as critical as climate research itself.

Different views

During an event, I had the opportunity to personally meet the ambassador of the United Arab Empire. We discussed the upcoming COP28 (2023) in Dubai and exchanged views about the representation of the global south, the expectations of the host nation, and the interplay of diplomacy, geopolitics, and climate action. Despite the nation’s reputation as an oil-rich country, I found it interesting to have a face-to-face conversation about these issues. It was fascinating to observe how diplomats and politicians can talk about something without saying much. When I asked about behaviour changes and disruptive transformations, the ambassador’s response was deeply rooted in the current system logic along the lines of “technology will save us”. Although this was partly frustrating, I felt that everyone ended up learning something from each other.

It was truly inspiring to witness young people from diverse backgrounds actively participating in discussions, workshops, and panels with an incredible level of knowledge about sustainability. Even high school students, as young as 17 years old, were able to comprehend and effectively communicate the urgency of environmental problems to older politicians, which gave me hope for the future. Overall, the LCOY was a weekend well spent with great company, valuable insights, and engaging discussions. It was a reminder that each one of us can be an agent of change!

The post Empowering the Young – Visiting the LCOY Climate Conference 2023 appeared first on Global Change Ecology.

Climate targets – a goal without hope?

The grand coalition states they acknowledge the Paris agreement and will make an effort to reach the 2020, 230 and 2050 targets and restrict the global warming to well below 2°C. That means, Germany will have to achieve greenhouse gas neutrality until the middle of this century and a coal phase out till 2030. And even though these points are explicitly mentioned in the contract, there is no clear statement how this shall be accomplished. Thus, Germany will lose precious time and will accordingly set a poor example for the next climate negotiations in Poland. A target-oriented and well-defined acting of industrialized countries will be crucial for a positive outcome, as developing countries are calling for more action from the big global players.

Additionally, the parties stoically accept the fact that Germany`s 2020 targets won’t be met. Instead, they give assurance that every effort will be made to meet the 2030 targets. Considering the urgent call for pre-2020 actions (i.e. immediate actions, not some plans to do something somewhen) at the COP23 last year, this seems to be a slap in the face of all the people already suffering from climatic impacts.

They coalition partners promise, however, to build a commission for “growth, structural transformation and employment”. The commission will cooperate closely with different stakeholders from politics, economy and environmental organizations and will work on an action plan till the end of 2018. This action plan includes measures to close the gap to reach the 2020 target and to reliably reach the 2030 target, an action plan to reduce and finally stop coal-fired generation, including a final date, and the financial hedge for the necessary structural transformations.

CO2 emission trading: A strong and global system

The new government aims to strengthen the CO2 emission trading, and to set up a global CO2 pricing system. A CO2 trading system is expected to help Germany to reach its climate targets, but a specific price is lacking in the contract. Without a definite number, however, this can be hardly an incentive for climate friendly investments, and Germany is missing again an opportunity for inducing efficient climate action.

Energy and transport: Go electric

The coalition strives to have a proportion of 65% of renewables in the energy mix till 2030, building on an energy efficiency strategy to reduce even more emissions. The German politicians aim to strengthen the public transport sector, including busses, trains and bicycles. They also state their will to create 100 000 charging stations for electric vehicles till 2020.

International climate action

Germany pledges to cooperate more closely with France, in the context of the 2015 Paris agreement as well as the One planet summit from 2017. The new government furthermore promises the increase Germany’s international climate funds and support developing countries with climate protection, adaption and the protection of biodiversity.

Conclusion

All in all, the coalition contract contains many good approaches to tackle climate change. Considering the changes that are promised in the energy and the transport sector, Germany is on a good way to meet its 2030 targets. The parties seem, however, to misjudge the urgency of immediate and purposeful action and the contract lacks specific measures. Whether the broadly formulated climate objectives are enough to tackle the burning issues of climate change, remains to be seen.

Read more

The coalition papers can be found here (in German)
https://germanwatch.org/de/15018 (read in more detail (in German))

The post How does the new German government affect climate policies? appeared first on Global Change Ecology.

Giving youth a voice since 1945

The European Forum Alpbach is a think-tank and interdisciplinary platform for science, politics, business and culture established in 1945. Every year it addresses relevant socio-political questions of our time in a fun, interactive andopen way to inspire social debates.

This year’s EFA18: Diversity and resilience

In 2018, the EFA will be all about “Diversity and Resilience”: an extremely relevant topic that defines our age of rapid transformations. Now more than ever we hear from all possible sides how systems are changing and questions arise whether diversity in financial, technological, human and environmental terms is or not driving the change and whether or not it can provide resilience, prosperity and success for manifold human and environmental systems.

Participate as an scholarship-holder

As a scholarship-holder sponsored by the European Forum Alpbach you will have an unforgettable academic and social learning experience! You will witness how think-tanks can foster international dialogue and gather young agents of change to share their ideas, passion and motivation – Carla Madueño, EFA17 participant

Students willing to expand their bag of ideas are encouraged to apply, as topics range from sustainability issues to ethics in economics, grassroots politics and social movements, law, technology and development, education, finances and markets, and many more.

Don’t miss out the opportunity to meet fascinating people from all over the world and spread the momentum for change in the heart of the Austrian Alps.

What are you waiting for?

Apply until March 30, 2018 (11:59 noon CET). If not convinced yet, get inspired & watch the video here.

Application links

• European Forum Alpbach Homepage
• EFA Scholarship Program and Online application
• Testimonials by former scholarship-holders: Humans of Alpbach
• Participant Report EFA2017
• Contact Author for further details

The post Apply now for a scholarship to attend the European Forum Alpbach appeared first on Global Change Ecology.

Being the only participant from Armenia, I would like to share my experience as well as do my best in involving Armenians in the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15.2 Halting deforestation target.

To halt agriculture or not – that is the question

Since a lot has been said about the conference, I would rather concentrate on its “gaps”. One fundamental statement of the conference was “industrial agriculture is the main driving force of deforestation”.

But first wait. Do we all know what really drives agriculture? Let’s think about those developing countries whose economies mainly depend on agriculture. Would it be possible for a country that cannot even fill their people’s stomachs to start caring about the environment and the future of the planet? I don’t really think so.

Halting deforestation but promoting at the same time Zero Hunger (SDG goal 2.4) may therefore not align at first sight. The Halting Deforestation conference could have addressed this issue better by focusing on people’s current needs rather than on future political agendas. Discussions left out of sight opportunities for agricultural sustainability that maintains ecosystems, strengthens climate change adaptation capacity and extreme weather resilience (droughts, floods, and other disasters) as well as progressive improvement of land and soil quality.

Yes. 80% of deforestation is caused by agriculture,  but for some countries agriculture is the only way to keep their economy running and to secure livelihoods.

Other drivers of deforestation that weren’t assessed

Even though the conference served its purpose by reviewing on-the-ground initiatives to combat deforestation, it didn’t directly reduce the risk of nor provide immediate solutions to deforestation. Evidently, there were some drivers of deforestation left out of the discussion:

• Extractive activities: Industrial logging and mining (private sector representatives largely absent)
  
• Energy and transport: biomass energy questions raised by audience never answered)
  

If not aware of the real dangers yet, we can perhaps make an urgent call with the case of Mining in the Amazon Rainforest.

To halt or not illegal mining in the Amazon

In the Amazon region, logging and mining are the main environmental threats. Both destroy the forest and are slowly converting this major carbon sink into a carbon source, counteracting climate change.

Since 2000, mining in the Amazon region has been actively developed, destroying more than 10% of the Amazon Rainforest. According to the WWF, iron, gold and copper are found in the Amazon forest and the overexploitation of these minerals is increasing dramatically.

Gold mining is however not only bad for the environment but has also chronic socioeconomic consequences. As our Peruvian GCE Student Carla Madueño explains in the following lines:

“Illegal mining in the Amazon is a matter of concern for all. This rainforest is also called green gold that must be cut down so that illegal workers can extract the precious gold contained in the soils of protected forests. The use of highly toxic metals (cyanide, metal oxides, mercury, sulfuric acid) poses an immediate health threat to humans and the entire biome. 

Yes 40 % of our Peruvian Amazon soils are rich in gold, but 100% are rich in green gold (biodiversity and ecosystem services).
That is the real opportunity we must not miss, as it is our own human survival that depends on it.

Peru’s rainforests are rich in gold. That is our blessing and curse. 40% of the soils of the Peruvian Amazon region are estimated to contain gold, which has been transported throughout millenia with erosion mechanisms from the upper Eastern Andes to the lower Western Amazon basin.”

Mining in the Amazon forest is by far not the only example. Ghana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, the Congo basin, Indonesian forests and the Philippines suffer currently under illegal and unmanaged mining.

Take home message: Youth must halt deforestation

We do believe that youth is the future and a strong driver forwards. Any problem can be solved with the support and efforts of the youth. For instance, the Wijsen sisters banned plastic in Bali and the Dutch boy Boyan Slat is fighting for plastic-free oceans.

We believe international youth organizations such as IFSA and the Youth in Landscapes Initiative are as well brilliant examples of youth caring for the environment and connecting cross-sectoral to the rest of the world to figure out solutions now.

About

Main author Lilith Musinian , co-author Carla Madueño.

Related material

• United Youth to halt deforestation (Blog entry here)
  
• Become an export now! IFSA short course on halting deforestation
• Halting deforestation Photo Gallery by FAO Forestry

The post Shortcomings of the UN Halting Deforestation conference appeared first on Global Change Ecology.

The Capacity Development Workshop held on Monday February 19th, was led by the International Forestry Student Association (IFSA), the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) and the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) and trained 50 international Youth delegates on accelerating efforts to halt deforestation. Furthermore, Youth proposals were collected for later High Level UN Political Agendas.

Halting or not halting deforestation, that is the question

Forests are our best asset to combat climate change and they are key in securing food, water and ecosystem services for mankind survival. Despite of their fundamental role to sustain life on this planet, we keep on losing them at terrifying annual rates.

With the current rate of deforestation, there will be no forests left within the next 100 years.

Given that deforestation is in the eyes of a conservationist an ecological tragedy and in the eyes of the investor a money-making opportunity, we need to reconcile these opposing interests.

Youth ideas feed UN Plan for Forests

In order to contribute to and accelerate global forest goals and SDGs, the workshop in the morning of February 19th led by Wageningen University (Netherlands) collected Youth proposals for the Halting Deforestation Conference (CPF). Discussions went about how to have an integrated management of lands at the landscape level: where different actors of society, different land use types and different instutional frameworks are best combined to ensure forests protection and sustainable management.

Desmitifying Gender in Forest Conservation Efforts

After the morning session on the Landscape approach, the noon session led by Taylor Tondelli (FAO) touched with the Youth delegates on the importance of mainstreaming gender in efforts to halt deforestation. To see, what we did exactly, check out the video below.

I found this group dynamic to be extremely mind-opening. Participants had assigned roles. We were all standing in one single line and as Ms. Tondelli would read statements we had to give either a step forward (yes) or backwards (no), depending on whether read power statements matched our roles. Example: one would give a step forward if in the role of a woman community leader one would have “political influence on the community” or a step backwards if “at night one wouldn’t feel secure to walk alone”. At the end of this power dynamic, assigned roles revealed high assymetries in power distribution across different societal actors.

Make our voices heard

Throughout the Capacity Development Workshop Youth delegates worked on global proposals to halt deforestation: ideas ranged from experimental urban jungles, to mainstreaming deforestation through comedy and art and music for collective awareness.

All Youth proposals were collected in the afternoon session by IFSA and GLF Sponsored Youth in Landscapes delegates. Youth Proposals to halt deforestation will contribute to the UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2017 – 2030 and will be presented at the 13th Session of the UN Forum on Forests this May.

Finally, selected Youth delegates prepared online content for the IFSA short course on Halting Deforestation. You can see here, what the results of these hours working on solutions are.

Quick links

IFSA Short course on deforestation Check out now (!)

Halting Deforestation Conference

The post United Youth in Rome to halt deforestation appeared first on Global Change Ecology.

The first speech was given by Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, which was accompanied by high expectations from the public, as the German “Energiewende” is internationally appreciated. Many hoped that she would announce a date for the coal phase out in Germany.

A fast phase-out would be the only possibility to come close to the achievement of the German climate goal of reducing the carbon emissions by 40 % until 2020 compared to 1990.

However, Mrs. Merkel only admitted to the high importance of coal mining considering climate change, but then outlined the importance of the coal industry for guaranteeing jobs and that a phase-out takes time due to additional costs. Moreover, she mentioned difficulties of giving concrete statements in regard of the ongoing formation of the new government in Germany.

President Emmanuel Macron from France held the second talk. One of his main statements was that the EU should replace the US in the future and take the leading role in climate policy. He further emphasized that in Europe CO₂ should be taxed with 30 Euro per ton and that he would be willing to punish other countries through increased import tariffs.

President Macron announced that France will end the use of coal for energy production by 2021, but that they cannot make any statements towards nuclear energy at the moment.

He said France “is obsessed” to get active in climate protection and that the moment of action is now. His speech was accompanied by great applause from the audience.

A large number of heads of states of small island developing countries, many of them already facing the consequences of climate change today, felt the urgency to attend the COP 23 lead by Fiji and give their statements at the high-level segment on Wednesday and Thursday this week. Among these were for example the presidents of Vanuatu, the Cook Islands, St. Lucia and Dominica. The president of Tuvalu, Enele Sopoaga, held one of the most vigorous speeches using many strong metaphors to directly or indirectly address other parties and stakeholders, in particular the United States: “Deniers of climate change must go home” and “Jump out of the canoe and face the consequences”. He also said that without appropriate actions taken in the near future, our children would have to face a life in “living hell”.

In general, many representatives of developing countries are disappointed that concrete commitments regarding the adaptation fund and financial support for loss and damage, for example due to hurricanes such as Irma, José and Maria in the Caribbean earlier this year, are not yet decided upon. Moreover, many among them think that pledges from developed countries are not yet sufficient.

Authors: Sophie Reinermann, Jan-Christopher Fischer and Georg Küstner.

The post COP23: Merkel, Macron & Heads of States appeared first on Global Change Ecology.