About the Project

The problem

Even if climate change is a threat to every Romanian, we are not all equal in the face of fires, floods, heat waves, storms, soil degradation, and destruction of local ecosystems. The vulnerability to the effects of climate change is today very unevenly distributed not only within communities but also among them.

Many small towns in Romania have been in economic, demographic and social stagnation or even decline for three decades. The conventional model of development has given them the wrong recipes and failed them. As a result, these communities today lack sufficient economic capital (money, assets), political capital (representation, influence), educational capital (technological and organisational skills) to be able to implement the same local climate change adaptation policies as the wealthy, influential cities, which are well connected to national and international networks.

We are facing a situation of “climate injustice”! That is, citizens (and especially young people) in these declining small urban communities contribute significantly less to the causes of climate change – because the lack of development and poverty mean lower flows of materials and consumed energy, hence less carbon emissions – but risk being significantly more affected by its impacts.

The Protagonists

The project’s protagonists are more than 400 high school students (aged 14-18) and 60 community actors (teachers, librarians, entrepreneurs, local civil society representatives) from 13 small urban communities where the conventional development model has not produced the promised results for 30 years: Lupeni, Uricani, Târgu Cărbunești, Săcele, Câmpina, Moreni, Urlați, Turnu Măgurele, Oltenița, Călărași, Slobozia, Țăndărei, Moinești.

The Intervention

The premise of the project is that the climate situation of these small, declining towns will not be improved without the development of local climate activism. Especially in their context, the civic engagement and political will of communities must compensate for the structural insufficiency of economic, political and educational means available for the adaptation to climate change.

With an objective to develop local climate activism, the project intervention model aims to empower community actors, especially young people:

1. to raise awareness of climate realities and risks as well as the climate injustice affecting their cities and, on this basis,
2. to advocate towards local decision-makers to implement ambitious and alternative climate change adaptation policies, i.e. not based on conventional development plans (which have failed in these communities).

The project builds these activist capacities of youth and community actors through non-formal and intergenerational education methods. They are innovative, participatory, creative and user-friendly.

The Vision

Through their engagement, young people and active citizens will be able to contribute to transforming their own communities into ‘Resilient Cities’, i.e. cities with a double capacity:

• to anticipate the effects of climate change (in order to reduce “potential” impacts as much as possible), thus limiting crisis situations;
• then (after the “residual” impacts, which climate change will produce anyway, even if adaptation policies are implemented), to withstand disruption, to maintain a minimum state of functioning in critical moments, to learn from crisis experiences, to reorganise their economy and social services, to “get back on their feet” and continue their development in a regenerative, full and sustainable form.

A city’s resilience to climate change defines this capacity to adapt economically, socially, politically and culturally despite its vulnerability. A city is vulnerable because it is affected by shocks, disturbances and adverse climatic conditions, but it is resilient because these do not compromise its adaptation and regeneration processes.

The specificity of our initiative is to build the climate resilience of vulnerable cities with the support of young people and active citizens from these communities, by systematically linking ecological (‘green’) and social (‘inclusive’) approaches.

We invite you to join forces in this project under the motto:”Working together for a green and inclusive Europe!”

For more information about the initiative, please do not hesitate to write to us at: anamaria.paladus(at)gmail(dot)com.