On the 16th of December, we held our first ‘Coffee with’ event as part of our GamifyEU project. We invited three young and dynamic experts on climate change from across Europe, and together tackled the topic:
Jana Carmela: currently involved in Climate Camp and Cop 26 Civil Society Coalition; Jorge Sánchez Hernández: co-Founder of Skyrocket Your Team and Sustainable Development Goals Trainer; and lastly Monika Skadborg: currently a Board Member of Generation Climate Europe and an Executive Committee member of the European Students’ Union.
It was a great success! We gathered around 25 participants, who asked them their questions and presented their doubts. Through a dynamic and informal format of questions and answers led by Ismael Paez Civico, the event took the shape of a casual yet very informative conversation between friends.
Some of the questions were ‘What is the cause of climate change?’, Why do young people need to lead this movement?’, ‘Which are the actions to be taken?’, ‘Are citizens the ones to blame, or is it the system?’, ‘Can the targets set for Climate Change SDG be achieved by 2030?’
Our guest speakers gave their opinions bluntly: we are already late and every minute counts, but every small action will help to decrease the impact of climate change.
They also talked about the responsibility of governments, big corporations, and citizens as well as the consequences of global warming. The speakers clearly highlighted that while using different means of transport, adopting a more responsible diet and recycling are all important actions that can reduce carbon footprint, these actions do not address the problem of climate change at its core. It is therefore important that all stakeholders take action together and now.
Finally, the event ended with the speakers given some tips on how to improve the actions taken by organisations, such as by focusing on one field of climate change, educating people and creating meaningful projects with enough impact. Jana’s last message was: ‘Encourage people to take action in any form, share this message widely, and start now’.
