"5 for the climate" – A digital week on civil society involvement in climate policy
14 - 18 June 2021
"5 for the climate" was an international exchange and networking week filled with interactive and informative sessions. We posed the question if civil society is able to participate in climate policy making in a reasonable and meaningful manner. As civil society involvement is still not common practice, we need to learn from experiences and cases of success from around the world.
We wanted to connect civil society organizations, think tanks and project implementers. In various working and networking formats, we shared our experiences with fighting climate change from a civil society perspective and we developed strategies to secure civil society’s participation for more ambitious climate policies.
A wrap-up of the conference (in German) can be found here.
What we were up to:
We have created a range of different formats in order to offer different kinds of input and exchange. For each format, you can find a number of different sessions on various topics in our program.
Workshop – 90 minutes interactive session
Let’s jointly work on pressing questions of civil society engagement. Whether it is online participation or international agreements that safeguard civil society’s seat in decision-making, we look into frameworks, visions and conditions for involving civil society.
Deep Thinking – 60 minutes session (input + Q&A)
Deep Thinking sessions give you the chance to listen to relevant findings of researchers and practitioners who dig deep in the field of civil society engagement in climate policy and beyond. Our session hosts will share their analyses of civic spaces, experiences with climate lawsuits and more. Expect 60 exciting minutes with plenty of time to ask your questions.
Hands on – 60 minutes session (presentation + discussion)
We take you to places of real civil society engagement. Listen to first-hand success stories; learn about fights for climate justice and action on the ground, particularly in the field of climate and energy. Our session hosts will illustrate their narrations with pictures to give you a good impression of local cases. Also, use the opportunity to pose your questions directly to those involved.
Panel Debate – 90 minutes session (panel debate + discussion)
How did Covid-19 affect the quality of participatory formats and how did the pandemic crisis influence access to political processes? How is civil society involvement organised in Europe? A diverse set of exciting speakers discusses those big questions in two panel sessions on Wednesday and Thursday.
Daily Working Group – 45 minutes interactive session
Once a day, 5 times a week, we invite you researchers and practitioners to a continuous working group to jointly elaborate basic requirements for meaningful participation. What are criteria of participatory processes that are perceived as transparent, inclusive, at eye level, enabling and continuous? In a daily 45-minutes session, we are going to look into those 5 elements to further define their meanings and understand their implications. We intend to develop a common vision of meaningful civil society involvement could form a basis for further elaborations. You are not obligated to attend all five sessions, but you are very welcome to do so.
Networking opportunities
In times when we are used to staring at screens most of the time, we need spaces to get together informally. We are happy to offer you two formats for easy networking that you are kindly invited to make use of:
Lounge
Find your talking partner in the virtual lounge on our digital platform Floor! Join an existing networking table or create your one yourself. Exchange with other like-minded participants or just take a seat in an ongoing discussion. There are tables for you to chat in small groups of up to eight persons.
Booths
Get your virtual stand at the 5 for the climate week to represent your organization and/or provide materials – e.g. your latest release - of your project in order to find like-minded people. Booths are perfect to exchange one-on-one and for in-depth discussions, for finding synergies and starting your collaborations. Furthermore, attendees can leave their business cards in order to be contacted later, if the booth is not occupied.
"5 for the climate" was organised by Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND) in cooperation with the Independent Institute for Environmental Issues (UfU).
This project is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag.
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