EYES – Engaging youth in Sustainable Energy Planning
Read about the EYES project which involves 6 European local communities in Spain, Denmark, France, Poland, Italy, Bulgaria committed to developing action plans for engaging the youth target group in the local climate and energy planning processes.
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The EYES project involves 6 European local communities in Spain, Denmark, France, Poland, Italy, Bulgaria that all are committed to develop local strategies and action plans for engaging the youth target group in the local climate and energy planning processes (18 – 29 years old). The project is supported by the ERASMUS+ programme and runs from 2019 – 2021.
Each community will establish a Youth Intervention Team (YIT) that will develop a research to other young people to identify the key fears and barriers from the youth perspective on energy and climate. At the end of the YIT activities, they will produce Recommendations for policy makers on energy and climate planning, and on how to engage youth in these topics.
EYES aims at demonstrating that youth participation will lead to Improved local climate and energy plans with perspectives and input from the youth target group. Further this can lead to improved Citizenship and service, as involvement in local planning allows young people to better understand their local government and community, to address community issues, and to develop habits of participation and good citizenship.
Sønderborg, Denmark
The Municipality of Sønderborg has from the beginning of the project established a Youth Climate Council to provide the YIT input. They have made a statement that in a sustainable community everybody should take care of each other and be engaged in the city development. They particular wish to engage the youth and make them realize that they themselves can influence how their community thinks about sustainability. The YIT was therefore represented at the local culture night in Sønderborg to inform the local community about the EYES project and recruit new YIT members. The YIT used a vision board to interact with the by passers, asking them for ideas on how the youth climate council can help improve a greener Sønderborg. The response to the project was well received and many people, young as well as old, were eager to share their ideas. The EYES project is in Denmark implemented by EC Network and EUC SYD (vocational educational centre) in cooperation with Project Zero.
Granollers, Spain
As within the other communities the Municipality of Granollers has established an Advisory Board consisting of local stakeholders which are highly committed to collaborate with the YIT and training the youth in the community to face the challenges in relation to climate mitigation and the necessary energy transition empowering them to engage in the local planning process. A YIT with committed young people has been established and the first meetings have been held to plan the youth research.
The EYES project is in Spain implemented by the Municipality of Granollers and ECO Serveis (overall coordinator of the EYES project).
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