September 2, 2021
Take action! Not just planning, but also doing! How often do we as a society expect action and not just talk or planning? So how can people be motivated to act? How do you get people to take things into their own hands? By creating the conditions for it! This is exactly what is happening now with the climate agreement for Berlin schools. Climate protection and climate change are important everyday issues, especially for younger generations, as the many school strikes in recent years have shown. The idea behind the climate agreement is to give pupils a tool that they can use to take action for climate protection at their own school. The problem of climate change often seems overwhelming, structures seem too complicated to change and the effects of changing one’s own behavior on the problem seem far too small. The new climate agreement from the Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family enables pupils to make a binding agreement with their school to implement their own climate protection initiatives. Pupils therefore have the opportunity to launch their own climate protection initiatives at their school and implement them with the help of the school. The school, a seemingly bureaucratic system, becomes a partner of the pupils through the climate agreement. The climate agreement is also intended to strengthen pupils “ingenuity, solution-oriented thinking and willingness to take responsibility. As a member of the advisory board, UfU was involved in drawing up the climate agreement with the Senate Administration, representatives of the State Pupils” Committee, Fridays for Future Berlin and BUNDjugend. Florian Kliche, Managing Director of UfU: “We think it is important that pupils are given the opportunity to develop independent action in relation to climate protection. This is the first step towards bringing about change. The fact that the school is there to help them not only promotes initiative and a sense of responsibility, but also trust in our education system”. More information on the climate agreement can be found here: Climate Agreement (German only)