Day 1 of the ESDN Youth Workshop 2024 was a very intense day filled with keynote discussions and interactive group work on foresight and future scenarios.
Youth Network Members were able to hear from expert Sylvia Veenhoff from the German Environment Agency who provid a background and backdrop for the workshop on strategic foresight and how it is used in your work. In addition, we learned how foresight can help in supporting the transition to sustainability by understanding the structure and dynamics of societal systems, developing visions and goals, recognizing new opportunities and risks at an early stage, as well as supporting future-robust and resilient policy and strategy development.
Youth Network Membes also heard from keynote speaker Miranda Boettcher, from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, who presented on navigating multilevel challenges in Europe’s climate policy futures. We learned that climate policy is a multifaceted field characterized by the interplay between domestic, regional, and international dynamics. Thinking through the possible future complexities of EU climate policy requires an approach that considers these interconnections. Foresight can help anticipate of interactions between a range of political, economic, technological, and social factors that will play a role in achieving climate
neutrality in Europe.
After our keynote presentations, we asked our Youth Network Members to imagine themselves in four different scenarios, in which the EU achieved climate neutrality by 2050 and asked them how they imagined life and the wellbeing of their generation would look like in 2050 based on these different scenarios thought out by the Joint Research Center.
We also had an hour-long visit from State Secretary Christiane Rohleder from the Ministry of the Environment, where the Youth Members were able to ask questions about how they could get involved more in government processes and what governments need from them to be most effective.
Day 2 of the Workshop was also a very long and intense day of exchange and discussions that built upon the results of the previous day, where the Youth Members worked on crafting a desirable future.
Our Youth Members reevaluated their main ideas and discussed them further. With the help of our moderator Tanja Busse, we were able to distill 4 main issues on where youth would like to see stronger action taken. The issues centered around trust and strong institutions, power, financing and redistribution, and changing mindsets around sustainable development.
The ESDN has tasked the Youth to come up with a way to formulate a way in which they can put their ideas, desires, and demands into writing for their collective and sustainable future.
You can find the Workshop Agenda below along with a Workshop Report written by our Youth Members who participated. Based on this Report, the ESDN Youth Members will be writing 4 ESDN Policy Notes that cover the main discussion toipcs Youth developed on Workshop Day 2, namely:
The Policy Notes will be published over the next couple of weeks.
What is Strategic Foresight? Why Scenarios?
Sylvia Veenhoff, German Environment Agency, Germany
Navigating multi-level challenges in Europa’s climate policy futures
Dr. Miranda Böttcher, Research Cluster Climate Policy, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Germany
JRC Climate Neutrality Scenarios
Yannick Dujardin, Joint Research Centre (JRC), EU Policy Lab: Foresight, Design and Behavioural Insights, European Commission, Belgium
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:
