27. May 2021
“5 for the climate” – A digital week on civil society involvement in climate policy (14 – 18 June 2021)
Civil society involvement is still not common practice and in many countries around the world civic space is increasingly restricted. However, civil society organisations are key stakeholders in developing and implementing climate policies. They hold an incredible amount of knowledge and expertise and are well connected with local communities who play a crucial role in fighting the climate crisis.
As the need for action is greater than ever, we need to learn from experiences and cases of success from around the world. “5 for the climate” is an international exchange and networking week initiated to jointly examine if and how civil society can participate in climate policy making. Analyses of barriers that hamper involvement will help to identify instruments and strategies of actions that can help improve conditions and possibilities of participation in climate matters.
We aim to connect civil society organizations and actors, think tanks, project implementers and other relevant stakeholders in the field of climate. Together, we will reflect on forms and opportunities of civil society participation, share our experiences of fighting climate change from a civil society perspective, explore current good practices of civil society participation, and we will develop strategies to secure civil society’s participation for more ambitious climate policies.
Formats during the week
We offer different kinds of input and exchange opportunities in various working and networking formats. The program is filled with:
- interactive workshop sessions (90 minutes)
to jointly work on pressing questions of civil society engagement and look into frameworks, visions and conditions for involving civil society.
- deep thinking sessions (60 minutes input + Q&A)
that 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.
- hands on sessions (60 min presentation + discussion)
in which 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.
- panel debates (90 minutes debate + discussion)
in which a diverse set of exciting speakers discusses questions such as how the Covid-19 crisis affects the quality of participatory formats and influences access to political processes.
- interactive working group sessions (45 minutes)
in which we invite you researchers and practitioners 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? We are going to look into those 5 elements once a day in order to further define their meanings and understand their implications.
Networking opportunities
Even in times when we collaborate on screens, we need spaces to get together informally. We can happily offer you two easy networking formats which you are invited to make use of:
- The virtual Lounge
in which you can find other like-minded talking partners, join ongoing small-group discussions on networking tables or create one yourself and invite other for exchange.
- Booths (virtual stands)
which you can get to represent your organization and/or provide materials – e.g. the latest release of your project. Booths are perfect to exchange one-on-one and for in-depth discussions, to build synergies and start collaborations.