We are aware of the fact that the installation of renewable energy Europe- or even worldwide will take a long time. Hence, plans of short duration will not serve to develop sustainable strategies concerning renewable energy resources. Each step has to be planned carefully, and it has to be secured that it can endure over decades.
One essential idea is the enforcement of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) which coordinates the environmental activities of the UN. Today, it is mostly focused on development countries, which tend to be more open when it comes to implementing environmentally sound policies and practices. However, we think that it should also be encouraged to assist European states in order to implement renewable energy as a reliable source for electricity. Often, the member states of the EU deal with these tasks on their own, which can result in hesitancy and the abortion of ambitious but sometimes risky and expensive projects. If the UN would grant its UNEP more funds and authority, the programme could support more projects in Europe, which then could be carried out efficiently.
Another important step would be the restriction of the power of highly industrialized countries within the UN. The governments of these countries are often afraid of losing their status by implementing renewable energy and environmental friendly production.
Within Europe different initiatives can be found supporting sustainable solutions, governments that massively subsidise solar panels for example. This development led to Germany being one of the leading countries in terms of produced solar energy. Other initiatives are for example the European Climate Foundation, which collaborates with NGOs, governments and business partners to drive the transformation of Europe to a low carbon economy, aiming to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 30% in 2020 and 80% by 2050. Apart from giving out grants to NGOs, consultants and research institutes with the goal of de-carbonising the European economy, reducing energy consumption in member states, the ECF strives towards making the EU leader in global climate negotiations.
In our previous reports we have mentioned the pan-European supergrid with the motto ‘Europe: United in diversity’, organisations like the ECF could be key in supporting developments to install and maximise potential of ideas like these.
Institutes like the ECF are great on European scale and are very effective if they are supported well enough, but to solve the bigger problem –sorry for the repetition of part of the last report- we have to upscale matters. Climate problems are not solved on regional (European scale is relatively regional compared to global) scale. As aforementioned, global organisations like the UNEP should be given the power and means to achieve the goals set so ambitiously by many, though are unlikely to be reached by almost as many.
How can young people participate? Young people have fresh, largely uncorrupted perspectives on the world they see, and are granted with a creative mind. We’re not steering towards hoping for that one Einstein to step out of the dark and solve this problem, no. The young people recognise that the way things are going right now, this planet is going to be not so pleasant to inhabit in a couple of centuries according to the predictions by plenty of research institutes. It makes us angry that economical interests are constantly prioritised over the climate issues we’re facing. The cliché ‘the youth is the future’ is one that applies, we hope that environmentally weary people will start becoming more widespread throughout corporations.
The main reason the young people are the key group, is that it’s their future that’s being jeopardised right now. Raising awareness of this fact will draw the attention of most young individuals thereby creating a climate-weary generation. What we start thinking is that no individual can do anything on its own to solve this problem. Of course, it’s not going to be one single person that will get everyone to live more sustainable, it will be a new mindset for people that achieves just that. So what can an individual do? Raising awareness is as aforementioned a key part in our approach to solving this problem. It’s not the thing that will solve the crisis eventually, but it’s a fundamental move towards a greener mindset.
