Youth Summit 2017

Parallel to the 23rd Conference of the parties from the 6th to the 17th November 2017Climate Justice Ambassadors from 45 Nations met for the 3rd Plant-for-the-Planet Youth Summit at the Youth Hostel in Bonn.

Our ambassadors took part in many programs and spread all over the city. The Conference of the Youth (http://www.coy13.org) from the 2nd to the 4th of November was the start and over 40 ambassadors participated.

Plant-for-the-Planet offered 2 trainings at COY. Denis Hess from DLR presented the topic „A Virtual Journey to Deserts“. Together with Felix Finkbeiner he then faced the questions of the crowd. The focus of the second workshop was „Reinvent the Woood Industry: Wood is ingenious!“.

A highlight of Saturday, November 4th was the demonstration for the protection of the climate and the coal exit. With the attention drawing paper trees, the Climate Justice Ambassadors were easy to spot between the 25,000 demontrators and were able to grab the attention of the international as well as the top German press.

Together with the German Minister for Development Dr. Gerd Müller, the head of the UN climate secretariat in Bonn, Patricia Espinosa and the head of government of the Fidji Islands Frank Bainimarama, who was also the host of COP23, Felix and Yugratna, two of our most active ambassadors were up on stage at the opening ceremony of the CLIMATE PLANET.

Following this event Felix and the Minister of Development Dr. Gerd Müller planted a tree in front of the former chancellor‘s bungalow. This underlines the importance of planting trees. All of the participants who arrived later, were able to watch the movie: „Can one flee from climate change?“ and following the movie, take part in a debate with Felix.

To prepare our ambassadors for the content of COP, we invited 30 more scholarship holders from 27 countries of the global south to listen to a presentation of Prof. Franz Josef Rademacher, who has been advising Plant-for-the-Planet with scientific quetsions for years. While 30 young adults represented Plant-for-the-Planet at COP23, 30 more young adults participated in our training program, for which we got a hold of renowned trainers.

We offered a rhetoric training with Katja Schleicher from IMPACT! Communication Coaching B.V. for the first time. We were again able to offer a Junior Project Management Training with Dr. Christopher Hausmann and his colleagues Benjamin Michels and Ingmar Petermann from the International Association of Project Managers.

Furthermore employees of the Plant-for-the-Planet secretariat trained 20 new program coordinators, who will now organize academies in their 16 countries of origin!

This year our ambassadors once again spread their message to the delegates. Helping with this was the Change Chocolate, which contained the message inside of it. Their call to plant 1 trillion trees was distributed 70,000 times. The visitors had the chance of informing themselves about the initiative and the ways to get involved at the Plant-for-the-Planet booth. Additionally our delegates organized a discussion forum in which the first round of negotiations and the participation of the young people were discussed.

Over a time span of two weeks our team of ambassadors, volunteers and supporters showed complete commitment to fight the climate crisis together! We want to thank the operators of the Youth Hostel Bonn, Mr. and Mrs. Hecker and their team. You well received Plant-for-the-Planet and arranged our two-week-stay with flexibility, understanding and concession. Mrs. Rath, who is with the Deutsches Jugendherbergswerk Rheinland e.V., thank you for the great interview with Felix Finkbeiner. You can read said interview right here.

Thank you to all the trainers for not sparing any expenses, travel distances or effort, to support the empowerment of the Plant-for-the-Planet ambassadors. A thank you to the 20 employees of BASF, who really helped the ambassadors with their professional views during the Project-Management-Training.

Thank you to the BMZ, GIZ and Engagement Global for the support, and last but nor least: Thank you to all of our ambassadors for climate justice for your ideas, commitment and motivation to fight the climate crisis.

We had a lot of fun! See you next time!

The Plant-for-the-Planet team