The Youths' Participation in the EU Climate Policy. How to Enhance the Representation of Those Who Are Most Entitled?

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The Youths' Participation in the EU Climate Policy. How to Enhance the Representation of Those Who Are Most Entitled? The youths’ participation in the EU Climate policy. How to enhance the representation of those who are most entitled? Research Paper, October 2019 Duccio Maria Tenti Disclaimer: This publication received financial support from the European Parliament. Sole liability rests with the author and the European Parliament is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein The youths’ participation in the EU Climate Action policy. How to enhance the representation of those are most entitled? The information and views set out in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Neither the European Union institutions and bodies nor any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein. Responsibility for the information and views expressed in the therein lies entirely with the author. Contact information Duccio Maria Tenti [email protected] 2 Duccio Maria Tenti The youths’ participation in the EU Climate Action policy. How to enhance the representation of those are most entitled? Abstract In the EU, one-third of the population is under the age of 30. Many of these 170 million young Europeans showed an unexpected commitment facing the climate crisis, especially in the last two years. A peculiar sensitivity to the subject, nourished by academic preparation and sense of community, are the driving values of this young generation. It appears consequential that the future of the continent will be decided by this generation of committed young men and women. If the EU seeks to foster its global role in the fight against climate change, then it seems plausible that the leadership needed is the one originating in the current European youth, that will compose the next generation of EU leaders. This paper aims at exploring how and to what extent the youths can influence the EU climate policy and how to increase the youth’s participation in EU climate policy. In the first part, the paper introduces the issue of the youth’s underrepresentation in the EU Climate policy and the inadequacy of EU instruments to represent interests and instances of the next generation of Europeans in the field of climate change. The argument is based firstly on an evaluation of the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027 proposed by the European Commission. The EU Youth Strategy aims at encouraging youth participation in democratic life and to enhance EU youth policy cooperation for 2019-2027. As of now, the two main issues affecting this generation of young Europeans committed in the field of climate policy are, first, underrepresentation at the EU institutional level, and second, a lack of influence in the field of EU Climate policy. Through the EU Youth Strategy, the Council indicates a Sustainable Green Europe among the 11 priorities of the EU-Youth Cooperation and it recognizes the role of young Europeans facing current and future challenges, such as climate change. The resolution establishes a new consultative process that brings closest youths and EU policy-makers in the form of a structured dialogue instrument. Nonetheless, the adoption of such an instrument still does not guarantee the adequate representation of the young population in the EU Climate Action policy-making. The EU should reply to the young Europeans’ demand for a stronger role as climate agenda setters by fully integrating them in its climate policy-making. In the second part, the paper aims at exploring the variegated landscape of the youth-led climate organizations at the EU level, to understand measures and sum up their political proposals to enhance the role of young people in the EU climate policy framework. So far, climate youth organizations are mainly 3 Duccio Maria Tenti The youths’ participation in the EU Climate Action policy. How to enhance the representation of those are most entitled? active at the local level given the rapid growth of the Fridays for Future movement, which the base is composed of young students. However, following the recent events, mainly the last EU election and the rapid growth of youth climate movements, a new kind of organizations are coming up. This study takes as an example of the youth-led climate organization Generation Climate Europe to show how this bottom- up young lead organization claims the role of young Europeans as truly climate agenda setters. This organization aims at bringing together the voices of the different youth climate organization in Europe to push the EU institutions to take more serious action in the fight against climate change. Once having identified the EU youth policy instruments in climate policy and the climate priorities of the youth-led organizations actively engaged with the EU institutions this paper identifies a mismatch between the willingness of the youths to be represented into the EU climate policymaking and the EU instruments in place. To fulfil this gap in accordance with the proposals coming from the youth-led organizations this study proposes the launch of an EU Youth Climate Summit such as the best tool to strengthen the voice of the young Europeans in the EU climate policy. 4 Duccio Maria Tenti The youths’ participation in the EU Climate Action policy. How to enhance the representation of those are most entitled? Table of content 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 6 2. Methodology, literature review and the paper’s structure ...................................................................... 8 3. The EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027. Which role for the young Europeans in the EU Climate policy ... 9 3.1 Climate change, a popular topic ........................................................................................................ 9 3.2 The EU Youth Dialogue and the 11 European Youth Goals .......................................................... 13 3.3 The EU Youth Strategy ................................................................................................................... 16 3.4 The recent efforts of the EU to include youths in the EU policy making ....................................... 19 3.5 The EU youth strategy, a wishy-washy step ................................................................................... 20 4. Outside the institutional framework, the proposals of the youth climate organizations ....................... 22 4.1 How the young Europeans perceive the climate change issue ....................................................... 22 4.2 The EU youth organization landscape ............................................................................................ 25 4.3 A new alternative to the present youth organisations: Generation Climate Europe ....................... 29 4.4 Conclusions of the chapter .............................................................................................................. 30 5. How to channel youth voice for climate change at EU level ................................................................ 32 5.1 Setting the framework ..................................................................................................................... 32 5.2 The policy bases .............................................................................................................................. 32 5.3 A new proposal: “the EU Youth Climate Summit “ ....................................................................... 33 6. Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................... 35 Annex 1: The Matrix ................................................................................................................................. 37 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................. 41 5 Duccio Maria Tenti The youths’ participation in the EU Climate Action policy. How to enhance the representation of those are most entitled? 1. Introduction In the EU, one-third of the population is under the age of 30. Many of these 170 million young Europeans showed an unexpected commitment facing the climate crisis, especially in the last two years. A peculiar sensitivity to the subject, nourished by academic preparation and sense of community, are the driving values of this young generation. It appears consequential that the future of the continent will be decided by this generation of committed young men and women. If the EU seeks to foster its global role in the fight against climate change, then it seems plausible that the leadership needed is the one originating in the current European youth, that will compose the next generation of EU leaders. As of now, the two main issues affecting this generation of young European committed in the field of climate policy are, first, underrepresentation at the EU institutional level, and second, a lack of influence in the field of EU Climate policy. However, on the 26 November 2018, an EU Council Resolution 14080/18 released the framework of the EU Youth Strategy, aimed to encourage youth participation in democratic life and to enhance EU youth policy cooperation for 2019-2027. In the same resolution, the Council indicates a sustainable green Europe among the 11 priorities of the EU-Youth Cooperation and it recognizes the role
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