In the spotlight
Key2Europe 2019-2020
Generation Climate Europe: the voice of youth on climate change policy-making Written by Álvaro González Pérez, Board Member of Generation Climate Europe and Vice-President of the 57th Comité Directeur of AEGEE-Europe If there is a new organisation that AEGEEans have heard of this past year, it is GCE, or Generation Climate Europe. Few organisations have had such a headstart and impact in such a short time span. But what is it and how did it come to be when a bit over a year ago it did not even exist? Generation Climate Europe is, as of today, the largest climate and environment-focused youth-led coalition of European youth organisations and represents over 460 organisations with an outreach to over 20 million young Europeans. In July 2019, it was merely an idea in the heads of a few motivated and ambitious representatives of European youth NGOs, that took form into the official launch of the coalition a month later. These founding member organisations were AEGEE, CliMates, European Students’ Union, FIMCAP and Youth and Environment Europe, which would later on be joined by ESN, International Young Naturefriends and OBESSU. The goal of GCE is two-fold: firstly, it aims at creating a united voice to better advo-
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cate for the position of youth in European decision-making processes on climate and environmental issues, and secondly, while doing so it pursues the empowerment of young people to become effective climate advocates. We have done this so far through various events and actions, participating in high-level panel discussions and writing for international media outlets. The key highlights include a meeting with the cabinet of Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice President of the European Commission for the European Green Deal, and with Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Energy, so as to bring them the demands of the coalition. Worth mentioning is as well the fact that we were organising, in collaboration with the European Parliament and the EESC, the so-called Youth Climate Summit, an event gathering 350 young people from all around Europe to educate them on climate an environmental issues and to gather their opinions and views on the topic for European-level policy-makers. Needless to say, the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to cancel and postpone the event.
