From 17-18 June 2021, the Young Climate Conference Berlin invited young Europeans to spend two days in the virtual conference venue gather to exchange, learn & collectively develop concrete demands to improve local climate protection policies in the city of Berlin. The ideas for improvement were officially handed over to Berlin’s city administration at the end of the event in order to influence the process of the further development of the Berlin Energy and Climate Protection Programme 2030.
After a personal and enthusiastic input from Elena Višnar-Malinovska (EU Commission, Head of Unit “Adaptation” in the Directorate General for Climate Action) about the importance of youth engagement at European and local level and the address by Scient Youtuber Jacob Beautemps about the relevance of cooperation for reaching the goal of climate neutrality, the participants dived into the different fields of action of the BEK 2030 in a bunch of participative topic workshops. Under the guidance of the Kipppunkt Kollektiv and together with other climate enthusiasts, activists & topic experts, the individual working groups were united by the burning question:
Even if the city of Berlin has set some good examples when it comes to tackling the challenges of climate change and even if first measures have been implemented at an early stage, and are continuously being further developed and expanded, there is room for improvement: How can our climate goals of becoming climate neutral by 2050 be pursued and implemented in our local but also European context?
Before working simultaneously on the virtual white board, topic experts gave short thematic impulses and were available for the participants’ questions. Afterwards, the participants of the workshops worked out their own ideas on climate change and handed it over to the Berlin Senate Department for Environment, Transport and Climate Protection in the Final Claiming Act.