From 27 – 30 June, 50 Pacific youth will descend on Fiji from around the Pacific to become climate change leaders. The ‘Pasifika Youth Climate Leadership Workshop’ will bring young people from 13 Pacific nations together to learn about the implications of climate change with an outlook to safeguarding the future for the Pacific region from climate impacts.
In 2011, the workshop programme aims to engage 1000 young people across the Pacific region with climate education and leadership skills. The workshop brings together young people who will be trained to run further workshops at schools and villages when they return home. Workshop participants will also begin planning local actions to join the global day of action called “Moving Planet” on September 24th to call on the world to move beyond fossil fuels and toward a clean energy future.
Furthermore, participants will develop a three year plan for Pacific youth action on climate change, identify how to support each other as Pacific youth climate leaders, and learn new communication skills to tell their stories of climate impacts with the rest of the world. This will be the second such workshop to be coordinated by 350.org, a global climate change campaign organisation, as part of their Pacific Youth Climate Program. Like many of 350.org’s projects, it is driven by a team of passionate youth who are worried about the impact of climate change on the future of the Pacific. There will be a series of monitoring and evaluation steps taken during the Pacific Youth Climate Program to learn from and improve the programme as it continues.
The workshop has been made possible with the support of the British High Commission, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural and Communication Organisation (UNESCO), SOPAC, AusAid, the European Union. The workshop will be held from Monday 27 June to Thursday 30 June at Sigatoka, Fiji.
NOTES: Participants will be from 13 Pacific countries including the Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Palau, American Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Kiribati, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu and the host country Fiji.
The Secretariat of the Pacific Community Applied Geoscience and Technology Division (SOPAC) will run sessions at the workshop as part of their youth engagement on climate change and water.
For all media enquiries, contact: Ewan Cameron, Pacific Moving Planet Coordinator, 350.org
Email: ewan@350.org
About 350.org
350.org – is an international organisation that's building a movement to unite the world around solutions to climate change. Our mission is to inspire practical climate action in communities across the world. 350 comes from 350 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere – the level scientists say we need if we want to maintain the world as we currently know it. (Due to the burning of fossil fuels the world is currently at 392.)
For more information on 350.org please click the hyperlink.