Background
The effects of climate change are likely to be some of the biggest environmental challenges the world has ever faced. Decades of intensive use of natural resources and degradation of the ecosystem aimed to increase economic development, brought global warming, loss of biodiversity, and various negative impacts on our health. Europe is one of the 7 continents that face multiple challenges in terms of securing ecological sustainability and addressing climate change. The high percentage of greenhouses emissions, plastic and food waste, pesticide use, and other threats to biodiversity demands from people, to make caring for nature, part of their lives.
According to Eurostat October 2019, Romania in 2017 recorded a very low recycling rate of municipal waste of only 14%. Bulgaria is one of the Member States with the most pollution-related deaths associated with air pollution (EIR 2019). In Cyprus, there is a need for raising awareness on water conservation as the island’s natural water resources cannot cover the increasing needs. Recently in 2019, EC’s President Ursula von der Leyen presented the “European Green Deal”, a proposal of measures aimed at tackling the climate emergency, among which, it emphasizes the need for education providers to engage young people with the changes needed towards sustainable development. But why young people? One-third of the EU population is under the age of 30. While several initiatives dedicated to climate action by the EU have been developed and implemented there is a continuous need to change the attitude of young people against climate change. The future of our continent will be shaped and experienced by more than 150 million young Europeans. This is why we need to empower them with capacities and skills for climate action. In a period where Earth faces the consequences of climate change and global warming crisis Green-ACT aims to further support these YOUTH INITIATIVES and raise more awareness in the 6 countries.
Project Aims
OVERALL OBJECTIVE of our project:
To support further these YOUTH INITIATIVES and raise more awareness in the 6 countries, through the organization of the SUMMER SCHOOLS, an innovative learning methodology for educating young people on environmental issues, inspire them in developing a firm ecological mindset, and engage them in having a positive impact in their communities as active agents.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
Furthermore, our project aims to:
– set up the GreenACT MOVEMENT (a network of young activists) for coordinating their actions and engaging citizens;
– build/increase the capacity of partner organizations to take action regarding reducing waste in the partner countries by encouraging local communities to recycle and re-use.
– equip youth workers with a TOOLBOX for setting up the SUMMER SCHOOLS
– facilitate brainstorming on challenges and possible solutions on alternative energy resources, biodiversity, and food production, sustainable production, and consumption, transport, etc.
– promote the idea of eco- friendly cities in urban regions