How can young people have a real influence on the climate decisions made in their local area? This question is the focal point of the new project “Youth voice in local climate action”, which has just been launched.
The project aims to establish local climate panels in up to 35 Danish municipalities, inviting young people to become active players in local climate action. The project is developed by young people who have previously been involved in local and national youth climate councils and is run in collaboration between CONCITO, municipalities, youth schools and We Do Democracy – with support from the Tuborg Foundation.
Three players – one common cause
The project is based on interaction between three key groups:
- The young people who bring their perspectives, experiences and ideas into play to strengthen local climate action.
- Municipal employees who are tasked with translating young people’s input into administrative work and supporting a new form of participation.
- Local politicians who create the framework and mandate for youth voices to actually translate into action.
We Do Democracy’s role
At We Do Democracy, we contribute with our specialized knowledge in democratic design and citizen engagement, and we have a special focus on ensuring that young people’s contributions are usable in the political and administrative reality.
Among other things, we stand for:
- Improving the dialog and workflows between young people, civil servants and politicians
- Competence development of municipal employees
- Facilitating experience forums and developing models for political mandate for youth climate councils
- Advice on recruiting a broad and diverse youth population
“We know that young people have both the will and the ability to take responsibility – but it requires that the system is geared to listen. That’s where we come in,” says Kolja Dahlin, Senior Consultant at We Do Democracy
We look forward to working with CONCITO and learning from their hard work on climate change – Thanks to the Tuborg Foundation.
Get in touch with Kolja Dahlin – kolja@wedodemocracy.dk – if you want to hear more!
Read the full press release here.