Franco-Russian Youth Dialogue on Climate Change
Our initiative is a group work between 50 young French and Russians, within the framework of the Trianon Dialogue, on ecology around 4 themes: biodiversity, Arctic, energy, and city of the future, which include 4 to 6 proposals, on which the young people worked in bi-national teams. The project resulted in a report.
Overview of the project
The project has its roots in the Trianon Dialogue. In 2017, Presidents Putin and Macron met and the desire to strengthen cooperation between the civil societies of the two countries emerged from their exchanges.
Our initiative is a group work between 50 French and Russian youth, under the framework of the Trianon Dialogue, on ecology.
Four themes organised our work: biodiversity, the Arctic, energy, and the city of the future. Each theme includes between 4 and 6 proposals, which the young people worked on in bi-national teams.
The project culminates in a report, which the participants carry with them at the end. The aim is to promote our work to the decision-making bodies of our States, supranational bodies, associations and institutions concerned by the subject, and which are in a position to transform the project.
Based on youth, the ambition of the project is to lay the foundations of a long-term international cooperation between the two countries on climate issues for a more effective action.
To promote discussion between young people from Russia and France for climate cooperation.
Published research
30/09/2020 - project still in progress
We worked for 10 months, in groups of 12 French and Russian people, online via zoom, to come up with 20 proposals and 120 pages of our report.
We had a total of 200 applications, of which 50 were selected, and many professional and friendly relationships were formed that last beyond the project.
The enthusiasm around the project illustrates that this coordination makes it possible to better include environmental issues in the climate agendas of the two countries so as not to act in isolation, which appears all the more crucial when it comes to France and Russia in the political contexts that we know today.
Our project is the source of a real construction of future relations between these nations, we are working on it.
We were able to express our concerns on various subjects, from the protection of biodiversity and forests in Russia to the decline of species in France. We have also worked to create spaces for knowledge exchange to better coordinate the two nations, and thus better address the issues at hand.
In this context, we had the opportunity to present our ideas at the IUCN Nature Congress in Marseille in September 2021, a session during which we were able to exchange with UN officials, who expressed their support for our initiative.
In addition, we are currently preparing a presentation of our work for the Night of Ideas in Moscow in a month’s time, which will be attended by a number of political decision-makers.
The project was financially supported by the Trianon Dialogue.
organisation
Youth and Environment Europe (YEE) is the largest independent European network of youth environmental organisations. YEE has 42 member organisations from 25 countries.
All YEE activities and projects are organised and implemented by young people under 30.
YEE aims to unite non-profit environmental youth organisations in Europe. Its aim is to mitigate the climate and biodiversity crisis by:
- Raising awareness and building capacity of young people on the climate crisis
- Improving international cooperation and knowledge sharing among our members.
- Strengthening youth participation in environmental and climate decision-making processes.
in collaboration
Institut Français; Trianon Dialogue, Russia; Youth Climate Ambassadors.