YOUTH GREEN INITIATIVES IN EUROPE – NETWORK AND ACTIVITIES
European youth are particularly active around the green topic and sustainability, it follows some of those initives directly from their websites :
- YOUTH AND ENVIRONMENT EUROPE (link https://yeenet.eu)
Youth and Environment Europe (YEE) is the largest independent European network of environmental youth organizations. YEE unites 42 member organisations coming from 25 countries.
YEE was founded as the European region of the International Youth Federation for Environmental Studies and Conservation (IYF) in 1983. YEE is a member of the United Nations Environment (UNEP), European Environmental Bureau, and European Youth Forum, and a co-founding member of the EU4Ocean Coalition. Our HQ is in Prague, Czech Republic.
All activities and projects of YEE are organised and carried out by young people under 30. YEE organises, facilitates and supports projects and campaigns aiming to increase the knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the environment and the awareness of climate issues among young people in Europe. We are also an active hosting organisations for the European Solidarity Corps volunteers.
The office team consists of the Secretary General, Project Manager and Project Coordinator, Communications Manager and Communications Coordinator, Advocacy Manager and Advocacy Coordinator and one ESC volunteer.
YEE aims to unite environmental youth non-profit organisations in Europe. Its goal is to mitigate the climate and biodiversity crisis by:
- Raising awareness and building capacity among youth on the climate crisis.
- Enhancing international cooperation and knowledge-sharing among our members.
- Strengthening participation of youth in environmental and climate decision-making processes.
- GENERATION CLIMATE EUROPE (https://gceurope.org)
Generation Climate Europe (GCE) is the largest climate coalition of youth-Generation Climate Europe (GCE) is the largest climate coalition of youth-led networks at the European level, pushing for stronger action from the EU on climate and environmental issues. GCE brings together 381 national organisations across 46 countries in Europe. We are guided by the voices of over 20 million young Europeans. Its’ aims is to :
- Facilitate internal coordination and collaboration between our Member Organisations;
- Empower young people to meaningfully engage in EU decision-making processes on climate, environmental and sustainability issues;
- Advocate for stronger action on environment and climate by and in the European Union that proactively and regularly includes the voices of young people.
- GREEN EUROPEAN FOUNDATION
EUROPEAN GREEN ACTIVIST TRAINING (EGAT) https://gef.eu/project/european-green-activists-training/
The European Green Activist Training (EGAT) was launched in 2015, with the goal of educating young and Green-minded people on European politics and active citizenship in order to enable them to promote Green values and politics in society.
EGAT specifically aims to add a European dimension to existing training sessions at the national level by ensuring international aspects are present in their content and by promoting cooperation amongst young activists across Europe. Through education and networking, EGAT empowers young people by equipping them with the knowledge and capacities to engage in their own communities and cooperate on a Europe-wide level with other activists across Europe.
EGAT has been taking place each year since its launch and broadly consists of three phases:
- Participants complete theGreen Learning online course Impact Europe, which in doing so they gain a solid understanding of the workings of the European Union and of Green politics.
- Participants take part in national training sessions within their own countries, in which they learn more about their domestic and wider European politics.
- The final phase entails a study trip to Brussels, which brings together the participants from their respective countries to experience the European political sphere first-hand. On this trip, they put into practice what they have learned with a range of workshops, visit the key institutions and hear from influential policy-makers, and connect and exchange with one another.
4.FEDERATION OF YOUNG EUROPEAN GREENS (https://www.fyeg.org/who-we-are)
FYEG is the European umbrella organisation for Young Green organisations from all over the continent, from Georgia to Ireland and from Cyprus to Norway. Our 36 member organisations comprise various backgrounds: local ecological groups, student unions, youth wings of Green parties and Green Youth NGOs. In addition, we are also the independent, official youth wing of the European Green Party (EGP).
The organisation is run by a voluntary Executive Committee, the Editorial Board of Ecosprinter (the FYEG online magazine), and the members of our working groups. The Committee and the Editorial Board are elected by our Member Organisations once every year. Anyone can join our working groups without having to be elected. Working group members will then elect two Working Group Coordinators.
In addition, a Secretary General is being elected every two years. The Secretary General works in the FYEG office in Brussels, alongside with our Project Assistant.
EYEN mission is to place youth at the heart of the European energy transition, by empowering energy-focused youth organizations, connecting them with each other and with key actors in the energy sector, and sharing knowledge on European and national levels. EYEN has been working closely with DG ENER and the UN Major Group for Children and Youth (UNMGCY) via the SDG7 Youth Constituency (SDG7 YC) to establish and develop the network. In June 2020, we helped develop the first ever European Youth Energy Day. Following our Youth Shaping the Climate Pactevent in December 2020, we wrote a policy paper on “Gaps and ideas for youth engagement”. Our proposals were received by DG CLIMA, who then invited us to contribute for the Climate Pact. In March 2021, EYEN won the SOLVE THE GAP Hackathon with the OpenPolicy Europe project.