The Local Conference of Youth Austria is part of a global movement of youth climate conferences in the run-up to the yearly climate summit of the United Nations. More on LCOYs and international climate politics HERE. More about the organising team in CliMates Austria HERE.

HARD FACTS

  • venue in Vienna tba. So stay tuned!
  • dozens of parallel workshops around climate action. Find out more on the program HERE
  • up to 400 participants from different backgrounds
  • more answers to your questions in our FAQs

 

MISSION

Our mission: empower youth climate action in Austria and strengthen the voice of youth in climate politics.

As the official Local Conference of Youth Austria we realise this by offering a conference program of knowledge-sharing on climate change, political action and personal empowerment. With up to 400 planned participants to attend workshops, talks and spaces for exchange, we are a unique platform for youth climate action in Austria. Why unique? Because of uniting empowerment and political action in one program, engaging an extensive network of organisations in Austria and beyond, and being organized by youth for youth.

The LCOY is targeted at all youths, from age 15 to 30, concerned about the climate crisis  – school and university students, young workers, youth engaged in organisations and new faces to the topic, aided by a mix of topics on every conference day and difficulty levels being assigned to workshops. We want to make EU climate policy a main topic this year.

Through the conference, participants get the chance to inform themselves and try out methods, contribute to several outputs with their voices being listened to, get to know a variety of options to get engaged, set themselves own goals and establish a new personal network of inspiring people.

VISION

Our vision is a world in which Austria is implementing ambitious climate action – to which youth engagement in politics contributed. The youth movement for climate action has evolved from a student and academic context  to equally include youths from diverse social and educational backgrounds. Young people have become and are perceived by Austrian politics as empowered actors who demand immediate climate action, while implementing their own projects and changing their lifestyles. Through the contribution of the LCOY Austria 2019, participants had acquired the knowledge, the tools and the motivation to reach more and more people in their communities or get them engaged in a common action. School kids have taken action to both address the climate crisis in schools and talk about the topic in their personal lives with friends and family, university students have created a strong presence of the climate crisis within universities.

MAIN GOALS

We face a problem. International and Austrian climate politics are not acting fast enough to address the climate crisis. Many young people lack a sense of community of support, are discouraged about the future and don’t get to know organisations and best-practices. The voice of youth isn’t heard sufficiently in politics. Many are confused by the complexity of climate science. Usually engagement stays in a “bubble” of people.

To change the situation we set ourselves these goals and priorities:

  • have a diverse and participatory program to fulfill the needs and sense of meaning of people from different ages, disciplines and, as far as possible, social backgrounds. More info [here] and we want YOUR input!
  • bring together actors from science, youth, NGOs, business and politics together for participants to be able to engage with them, for knowledge-sharing and critical discussion
  • be a space of critical thinking and give participants the tools to strengthen  it.
  • awaken and deepen a sense of sustainability in participants
  • create a community at the event, before and after
  • have strong conference outputs
  • collect the findings and learnings from both the conference and the planning process to spread knowledge and to contribute to giving young people the tools to do their own projects
  • become a recognized and widely known platform for youth climate action in Austria by politics and society, and use this position to drive networking/knowledge-sharing and support climate action also past the conference along with Fridays for Future and others

VALUES

We believe in altruism, respect, courage and responsibility – in accordance with the CliMates Austria Charta – as guiding values to grow as a community of youths and achieve our ultimate goal of driving ambitious climate action in Austria and on the UN-level.