Flashback on the YCCB 2021

The Young Climate Collaboration Berlin > learn. claim. act (YCCB) is about coming together and getting involved!

The project aimed to reach out to young international people who want to actively engage in changing local climate politics. The central motto: learn, claim, act – all in collaboration with like-minded people throughout a variety of digital activities and events.

Set up within the framework of the Berlin Energy and Climate Protection Programme 2030, the YCCB focused on relevant fields of action.

By the end of the first half of 2021, the final goal was to develop demands at the Young Climate Conference Berlin in June 2021 and address them to politics at the end of the conference.

• LEARN: Practice-oriented communication of topics within the six fields of action of the BEK 2030. Creation of a common knowledge base about current conditions, successes and challenges within Berlin’s local climate context.
• CLAIM: Development of own ideas, questions and needs in order to create a base for the development and formulation of concrete demands (claims).
• ACT: Presentation of a series of claims that are addressed to political decision-makers. Creation of impulses for future engagement and willingness to act.

• Participation: We want to open up a learning and communication platform where young volunteers and experts can discuss current local conditions, successes and challenges within Berlin’s climate field, while developing their own ideas and claims for the future.
• Internationality: The project language being English aims to invite and include international voices and provide a diversity of perspectives in the elaboration of ideas. Also, it facilitates the transfer and multiplication of promising ideas to other national contexts.
• Sustainability: In the sense of a climate-neutral event management, sustainability and CO₂ compensation are given a high priority.

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.

• YCCB Conference Programme – Link to download
• Ideas from the YCCB Conference – Link to download
• Bios of the Experts – Link to download

From March to May 2021, the Young Climate Campus Berlin formed the learning roadmap to the Young Climate Conference Berlin: gaining essential knowledge and skills, in order to form a well-founded opinion & get political decision-makers to take real action on climate change in Berlin and beyond. Against this background, the Climate Talks and the content management on the project’s own Instagram Channel yccberlin (see below) were dedicated to the aspect LEARN by exploring the different fields of action of the BEK 2030 in a practical way.

The Climate Talks offered a series of six digital expert talks focusing on the different fields of action of the Berlin Energy and Climate Protection Programme 2030 (BEK 2030).

• Find the download of the collected important topic and notes here.
• Find the recordings of our passed Campus events below.

The YCCB media agent team had the opportunity to ask Regine Günther, Berlin’s Senator for Environment, Transport and Climate Protection questions within the framework of the Berlin Energy and Climate Protection Programme 2030 – 5 May 2021.

Is there a particular event or fact that encouraged you to get involved in this fight against climate change? What, in your opinion, will be the biggest challenge to overcome in the next years to make Berlin climate neutral by 2050? Are there any policies being considered to reduce single-use plastics, both in gastronomy/take out and supermarkets? What predestines Berlin as a city to lead the way in the climate transition? BEK 2030 mentions the crucial role of partnerships, for example with other cities or with the private sector. Which partnerships are already running successfully and where do you still see potential? BEK 2030 states that the public sector should go ahead as a role model. What does a climate-friendly working day look like at the Senate? What could be improved?