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Generation Climate Europe

GCE

Generation Climate Europe (GCE) is the largest coalition of youth-led networks at the European level, pushing for stronger action from the EU on climate and environmental issues.

Lobbying Activity

Response to Soil Health Law – protecting, sustainably managing and restoring EU soils

27 Oct 2023

Generation Climate Europe (GCE) is the largest coalition of youth-led networks in Europe, comprising 381 national organisations across 46 countries. Our primary mission is to represent and integrate youth voices into EU policymaking to ensure a just and inclusive transition towards a more sustainable and livable planet. We welcome the European Commission's proposal for a Soil Monitoring and Resilience Law (SML) as a significant step toward environmental sustainability. However, we believe that for the law to be truly effective in addressing soil health and restoration by 2050, it must be more ambitious. To this end, GCE presents a set of crucial recommendations aimed at enhancing the proposal in three key areas: More Focus on Youth: GCE stresses the importance of intergenerational justice in protecting future generations from the impacts of soil degradation. They call for youth inclusion in soil management, consultation groups, and decision-making processes. An integrated youth engagement strategy, using digital platforms, is proposed to provide knowledge and skills. More Ambitious Targets: GCE urges the establishment of legally binding targets, including intermediate goals and mandatory soil biodiversity criteria. We also stress the need for sustainable soil management principles for all land users to restore soil health. Targeted Financing: GCE recommends financial schemes to incentivize sustainable soil practices among young professionals. These schemes should encompass training, professional development, and CAP Strategic Plans integration. In conclusion, GCE advocates for increased attention to soil health, especially involving young people, to ensure a more sustainable and ecologically resilient future.
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Response to Promoting sustainability in consumer after-sales

5 Apr 2022

Generation Climate Europe is a coalition of youth-led networks focusing on environmental and climate issues. At GCE, we fight for a system that respects human rights and the planet, that includes the youth voice and acknowledges our common responsibility. We want to empower young people to meaningfully engage in EU decision-making processes on climate, environmental and sustainability issues because we believe that their voice needs to be heard to achieve a green and fair transition that ensures intergenerational justice. One of the issues we advocate for is the promotion of circularity in the ICT sector. With our contribution to this public consultation we would like to focus on this sector, explaining why we believe that an ambitious Right to Repair is a step in the right direction to achieve intergenerational justice by promoting circularity in the digital sector . Please find below a summary of our feedback and attached our full response to the public consultation. The goal of this initiative should be to strengthen consumer rights and reduce waste generation, resource use and emissions associated with the manufacturing of products. In order to do so, the initiative should improve access to spare parts and instructions and promote the uptake of affordable repair services. Overall, it seems that a combination of the options listed in the high intervention option (number 3) would be the minimum level of intervention required to achieve the desired objectives, as these tools are the most ambitious and binding compared to the moderate and low intervention options. Such a combination would act on different levels, namely prioritising repair over replacement, extending the guarantee period, obliging manufacturers to extend repair beyond the guarantee period, and allowing the seller to replace defective goods.
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Meeting with Andrea Beltramello (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis)

3 May 2021 · Trade and sustainable development

Meeting with Virginijus Sinkevičius (Commissioner)

14 Apr 2021 · To discuss climate change and growth, especially with the view of Recovery Plan.

Response to Protecting biodiversity: nature restoration targets

1 Dec 2020

The new restoration law must be targeted, to avoid past failures in reaching targets, and include concrete actions leading to large-scale restoration across the EU. It is important that it builds on existing definitions to ensure rapid adoption and implementation as well as coherence. The new law should not undermine or duplicate existing EU Directives including restoration requirements but complement them. It should go beyond what is required in the Habitats, Birds, Water Framework and Marine Strategy Framework Directives. The law must create synergies between the biodiversity and the climate crises agendas by putting a specific focus on those ecosystems with high carbon storage potential. The main objectives of the new law must be aligned to the 2030 Biodiversity Strategy. Most importantly, the law must contribute to halting and reverting biodiversity loss, resulting in the restoration of habitats, species and ecosystem functioning, connectivity, and resilience at a landscape level across the EU. The legally binding EU targets for nature restoration on land and sea should be expressed in quantitative and similar terms for each Member State. Regarding concrete restoration measures and criteria, significant improvements should be made which would be measured against specific targets for each ecosystem. The end goal of ‘high-quality nature’ would require further elaboration and definitions efforts to reduce habitat fragmentation and increase connectivity. Clearer indicators of monitoring and measuring restoration outcomes should be defined building upon the existing Directives. Emphasis must also be placed on a significant management change in the landscape/ seascape to avoid greenwashing. Short term targets can focus on that as longer term ones would take longer due to the length of ecological processes. Action on restoration should not discriminate between restoration activities inside or outside already protected areas. The restoration law should ensure that targets are additional to already existing targets under the Habitats Directive etc. Ecosystem connectivity is to be increased for more ecological coherence of mobile species. Restoration measures should specifically encourage interventions that restore natural processes, including the different methods of restoration for different ecosystems. Finally, the value of protection as an essential part of restoration needs to be recognised. Concerning governance, the law should require MSs to draft science-based national restoration plans including quantitative targets in terms of locations, types of ecosystems, and financial tools. The Commission should assess the national restoration plans to ensure that proposed measures contribute to the objectives of the law. The law should explicitly obligate MS to actively engage the public throughout all stages of the restoration plan process . In this context, youth involvement should be mainstreamed by including national youth organizations in the planning process and specifically engaging local youth groups in implementing and monitoring efforts. National Plans should also lay out how governments seek to increase the opportunity for youth employment in conservation and restoration activities, including quantitative targets. The establishment of national youth restoration stewards in MS is encouraged to coordinate youth engagement in restoration. Clear deadlines regarding the establishment of the restoration plans and the implementation of restoration measures must be contained in the restoration law. Finally, it needs to include safeguards to ensure permanent restoration and protection of restored habitats. In terms of funding, the law should create an EU obligation to co-fund effective restoration like Art.8 of the Habitats Directive. There should further be specific grants to support youth-led projects or those involving youth, and to provide training opportunities for grassroots restoration projects.
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Meeting with Frans Timmermans (Executive Vice-President) and European Youth Forum and

10 Sept 2020 · Latest developments in EU climate policy and European Green Deal

Response to EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change

30 Jun 2020

Generation Climate Europe (GCE) is the largest coalition of youth-led NGOs at the European level, pushing for stronger action from the EU on climate and environmental issues. We bring together 8 of the largest European youth organisations, representing over 460 national organisations in all Member States and over 20 million young Europeans. In the next decades, urban areas which concentrate the majority of European population will face unprecedented heat waves and drought. If the European Green Deal Adaptation Plan wants to be more ambitious in disaster risk management, then it must develop initiatives such as revegetation and sustainable water management, by providing funds at local level, managing insurance, and informing citizens about adaptation strategies. This needs to be coupled with increased resource efficiency, to ease pressure on water and electricity supplies during heat waves. Nature-based solutions that promote sustainable livelihoods and value biodiversity as a key component of transformative change, must be emphasised. The Adaptation Strategy should transform our agricultural system into a productive climate-resilient sector. Adaptation to climate change depends on healthy, functioning and resilient ecosystems. We are facing a multi-scalar crisis today (sanitary, environmental, economic, social), that is pushing us towards seizing the opportunity of relocalising our economy, production and manufacturing to Europe. Relocating production in strategic areas of our economy would ensure Europe’s autonomy and resilience in future global crises. Relocating our economy would also be an opportunity for youth, who suffer from higher unemployment rates across Europe, helping enhance their skills through practical formations. The new EU Adaptation Strategy also needs to effectively build on the strategy adopted in 2013 when it comes to educating and raising awareness of climate change and resiliency. This new Strategy must take a more ambitious approach and increase the investments in education and capacity building while incentivising Member States and the private sector to step up their actions towards a more resilient and climate-neutral Europe, and ensuring increased support and funding for activities youth organisations and young people are engaged in such as educational activities, campaigns and capacity building events on the topics at stake. The EU sectoral programmes are under threat of reduced funding, but these programmes are the strongest tools the EU has to empower youth, we must strengthen the work of youth, not restrict it. The EU must create a regular, meaningful dialogue with youth on climate and environmental policies. We propose a Youth Climate Dialogue with roundtables involving youth and the EU’s Institutions. We must ensure that youth from across Europe participate, to bring attention to the unique regional challenges created by the climate crisis. It is imperative that local and national risks are recognised and addressed at the EU level. All the EU’s budget must undergo environmental impact assessments to ensure it is not detrimental to the green transition. Resilience must be a focus, with funds allocated to preparing citizens for the impacts of the climate crisis. Investment to climate-proof the economy must be made with the dual focus of mitigating climate change. Further, the EU must look beyond its borders, supporting the most vulnerable regions already facing the realities of the climate crisis. It must be prepared to support the environmental migrants that have been and will continue to be displaced by the climate crisis.
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Meeting with Kadri Simson (Commissioner) and

23 Apr 2020 · European Green Deal, climate neutrality and ambition, recovery COVID-19, renovation wave and energy efficiency, TEN-E revision

Response to 2030 Climate Target Plan

15 Apr 2020

Generation Climate Europe stresses that this agenda is important in a time of multiple interlinked crises threatening our health, economy and environment. We reiterate our call to listen to science: targets must be binding and based on research. Experts indicate 2040 as the latest that carbon neutrality should be achieved. 2050 is the carbon neutrality deadline for the whole world according to IPCC, so the EU as a wealthy region proud of our capacity for innovation must be climate neutral far earlier. Some countries have already pledged to reach climate neutrality earlier, including EU member states. Sweden and Scotland aim for 2045. Austria aims for 2040 and Finland 2035. Norway and Uruguay aim for 2030. This shows that faster and more ambitious measures to achieve climate neutrality are possible and must also be taken by the EU. The 2030 targets are too low. The current consensus is that there needs to be a reduction of 65% compared to 1990 levels. The targets for years earlier than the goal for climate neutrality must make reductions as close as possible to linearity so we avoid having to pay for steep reductions at a later time. Early reductions are also important because the problem is the total sum of greenhouse gasses emitted, i.e. the area under the emission curve is important, not just that it ends in zero. It is important that we keep working in this direction in spite of the other challenges the EU is facing in the short term in areas of public health and the economy because if we postpone climate action the cost of inaction will grow both financially and in the impact on citizens. Science clearly shows that we are confronted with an existential global crisis and that we need to act immediately. Therefore, the EU must hurry up and increase its 2030 targets as soon as possible to make sure that these higher targets are achieved. If there is not sufficient enforcement then the law and the target will be meaningless. There needs to be appropriate mechanisms in place to monitor progress towards the goal and to ensure compliance with the law. While in the long-term a fast and comprehensive transition will make our economy and society more resilient and prosperous, the EU must not shy away from measures that may be perceived as drastic or expensive in the short term, but that are shown by science to be crucial in fighting the climate crisis. This includes an immediate phase out of fossil fuels and an efficient greenhouse gas pricing mechanism, including a carbon border tax. While investments in research to develop new technologies, contributing to climate mitigation, is important, plans need to be made based on options that are already available, it is pure speculation to predict when new technologies will be available and to what extent they can contribute to climate mitigation. It would be an irresponsible gamble with our future to take such contributions for granted when developing a strategy to combat the climate crisis. A successful strategy to fight the climate crisis requires a comprehensive financial blueprint, indicating how all costs for the necessary investments are going to be covered. While a sustainable transformation will be profitable in the long-term, as scientists and experts predict, it will initially involve significant costs. Costs and profits could be distributed differently: on the one hand, in an unjust way, imposing the biggest burden on those who are struggling already while granting the profits to those who are already privileged. On the other hand, the distribution can be done in a just way, by making those who can afford it pay most while everyone enjoys the profit. The EU must choose the latter ensuring a just transformation of our economy. Besides moral and social implications, a just transition will increase the general acceptance of the urgent measures taken to fight the climate crisis by minimising social hardship, which could be used as an argument against comprehensive measures.
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Response to Climate Law

6 Feb 2020

The EU needs to be clear about what needs to be done to achieve “Carbon Net Zero”. Stopping fossil fuel subsidies, carbon pricing, modernising transport networks, CAP reform, stopping carbon leakage (carbon border tax). Enhance efforts to restore degraded forests and wetlands in order to create natural carbon sinks which are considered by experts as the only viable option to achieve the negative emissions that are required to meet the 1.5° goal and the net-zero goal. The no-debit target the LULUCF Regulation alone is considered by experts as not sufficient for meeting the 1.5° goal. Mainstreaming of strategies to achieve this goal. Climate impact assessment must be included in all future policies. Cannot afford to have conflicting policies. Needs to be a coherent strategy within the EU working towards this common goal. Trade in particular is an area where ecological standards should be included in binding parts of trade agreements. The climate crisis is a global problem and thus, needs to be addressed as such. It must be a just transition. Countries and communities who do not have the capacity to transition need to be supported in achieving this goal. It is a just transition for all, not just for carbon-intensive regions, sustainability should not be a financial choice. Ensure that no one is left behind in this green transition, it needs to be equitable to all with a particular focus on the most vulnerable in society. The EU needs to work with its member states, independent experts and local communities to understand where support is needed to ensure that funds are allocated appropriately and transparently. Provide funds for upskilling/reskilling workers, to invest in the green economy, while providing support such as unemployment benefits, access to training and career guidance for the groups of [young] people who are likely to be more severely impacted by the transition. Listen to experts. Targets need to be made with consideration of current scientific research and expert advice. There is no point enshrining a target, that will be insufficient, into law as many experts have indicated that 2040 is the latest that carbon neutrality should be achieved. Several countries have already pledged to reach climate neutrality earlier, including member states of the European Union. Sweden and Scotland have pledged to reach climate neutrality by 2045. Austria aims for 2040 and Finland 2035. Norway and Uruguay even aim to be climate neutral by 2030. These government plans show that faster and more ambitious measures to achieve climate neutrality are possible and, therefore, must also be taken by the EU. Further, the 2030 targets are too low, the current consensus is that there needs to be a reduction of 65% compared with 1990 levels. If there is not sufficient enforcement then the law and the target will become meaningless. Therefore, there needs to be appropriate mechanisms in place to monitor progress towards the goal and to ensure compliance with the law. Often the belief in the abilities of not yet invented future technology is used as an argument against the necessity of urgent measures to combat the climate crisis. While investments in research aiming to invent new technologies contributing to climate mitigation is important, it is purely speculative to predict when such new technologies will be available and to which extent they can contribute to climate mitigation. It would be, therefore, an irresponsible and risky gamble with our future to take such contributions for granted when developing a strategy to combat the climate crisis. A successful strategy to fight the climate crisis, furthermore, must not only not rely speculation on future technology, but requires also a gapless financial blueprint that clearly indicates how all the costs for the necessary investments are going to be covered.
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