The ESDN Youth Workshop 2023 took place in Berlin on 25-28 October. Under the title “How can Europe shape a sustainable world?”, the event dealt with the topic of spillover effects, Europe’s responsibility for them and policies to address such effects. 41 Youth Delegates and Representatives from 21 European countries attended the event. For the first time this year, young ESDN civil servants were also invited to take part, and as a result, 9 young civil servants from 6 countries attended the ESDN Youth Event. Senior ESDN members also actively participated: ESDN President Daniel Dubas and ESDN Vice-President Marguy Kohnen gave welcoming remarks; Katrin Kowalczyk and Frank Hönerbach from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) hosted the event and Peter Iwaniewicz from the Austrian Ministry of Climate Action and Energy gave a presentation on youth participation in Austria.
The event served as a platform for European youth, ESDN members and experts on the topic of spillover effects to exchange ideas and experience, to learn how different European countries are dealing with the topic and to network. On the first day, Youth Delegates had a chance to learn more about spillovers from experts and to exchange their thoughts on the topic in small working groups. After listening to more input from the experts and hearing about experience of the ESDN civil servants on the second day, the Youth Delegates presented the results of their discussions. The topics that concerned the young people the most were climate justice and triple planetary criss, fast fashion, transformative system change and climate migration. Beside the official parts of the event, the participants also had a chance to socialise during several dinners and a guided tour to Klima_X exhibition in the Museum of Communication.
One of the highlights of the event for young people was a decision to formally include them in the ESDN Advisory Board. Several representatives of the ESDN Youth will be invited to attend Advisory Board meetings starting from 2024. The representatives will take part in the discussions and present views of the young people.
A look at the history of the ESDN reveals that ESDN Workshops have played a prominent role in facilitating networking between European SD practitioners and policy advisors. This section of the website provides a one-stop-shop documentation of all ESDN Workshops so far. Please click on one of the Workshops for more details:
