Against the backdrop of the theme “A Climate for the Future”, over 150 youths participated and suggested their solutions for a future threatened by climate change. With the help of the France-Quebec Office for Youth, Thibaut was given a platform to share our message of green action every day going a very long way. Lire plus – Continue reading “A Climate for the Future”→
Our Communications Officer Thibaut has been selected to take part in the Institut du Nouveau Monde’s 11th annual “winter session” programme in association with the France-Quebec Office for Youth.
The event takes place over three days and it allows participants to experience several different forms of citizens’ engagement. This special edition will be open to young people aged 15 to 35 and its goal is for them to reflect upon and propose both individual and collective solutions on how to tackle climate change.
We wanted to extend our heartiest congratulations to Claire Tauty, Director of French association Echanges pour une Terre Solidaire. Claire was recently awarded the very coveted French state distinction of Chevalière de l’Ordre National du Mérite, which she received at this year’s Festival de la Terre Solidaire, an event taking place in Picardie, north of Paris!
Founded by Claire in northern France in 1997, Echanges pour une Terre Solidaire seeks to promote a healthier diet for all and make healthy eating more accessible to people. To do so, Claire and her association tackle four major challenges:
🌿 Healthy eating coupled to social outreach, especially important in this region of northern France (Picardie), where the unemployment rate is higher than the national average.
🌿 Healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle, again of particular relevance in a region where, in 2012, 20% of the population were suffering from obesity, a health risk that affects those in a socially precarious position the most.
🌿 Improved access to fresh produce, in a bid to allow everyone to consume fruit and vegetable products that meet certain standards, especially important in an age where industrial foodstuffs are becoming ever cheaper to obtain.
🌿 Reducing food waste, which is fast becoming a major concern in France, where 10 million tonnes of still edible foodstuffs prematurely wind up on the rubbish heap from one year to the next.
To combat all of these issues and work towards a healthier lifestyle for all, Echanges pour une Terre Solidaire has taken on the mission of helping to develop a more sustainable agricultural model. A model that is both healthier and more just, by respecting both the land cultivated and exploited for such purposes, as well as the people who inhabit it.
As part of its actions, in 2016, Echanges pour une Terre Solidaire raised awareness among 5000 students at both primary and secondary level, engaging them on the topic of seasonal produce and the necessity of consuming fruit and vegetables, thus promoting the benefits of a healthy diet all-round 🍎
With this in mind, we wanted to thank Claire once again for her commitment to this project over the past 30 years. A special thanks to her and her team for their promotion of a socially conscious approach to healthy eating, and one that is mindful of major issues like climate change, biodiversity and people’s well-being! 🌿🌏☀️
Local and organic, it’s a matter of life and death!
What role for youth in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and in particular Integrated Water Resources Management? Read the vision of Asma, our Co-president, in the UN Chronicle:
In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution “Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”1 This new development agenda propagates an all-of-society engagement and partnership as a main driver for transformation. It is a collective action plan that unites State and non-State actors, whereby adequate opportunity and space is given to all major groups in society.
YES, youth has a role to play for climate action! Congrats to Vivien, our Co-president, for his nomination as Global Youth Climate Network (GYCN) Climate Ambassador for 2019! 🇫🇷🤗🇪🇺
The Global Youth Climate Network acts as a catalyst for youth throughout the world. It helps youth to work together for the development and implementation of initiatives raising awareness on climate change adapation and mitigation.
As part of the French government’s citizens’ engagement initiative, which allows citizens to raises specific topics and propose questions for debate in the French parliamentary chamber, we decided to shed light on the efforts made by farmers to better preserve biodiversity, and how this should be certified and recognised (check out the question we fielded here).
We’re happy to report that our contribution was selected for discussion!
A big thanks to MP Matthieu Orphelin, from the Maine-et-Loire region, for taking an interest in the topic we raised and for helping to publish our question in the French parliament’s official gazette. This is the question in its official guise:
Mr. Matthieu Orphelin would like to draw the Minister for the Environment’s attention to the greater recognition of efforts made to protect biodiversity. This question has been fielded on behalf of youth movement Les Climat’Optimistes via the governement’s citizens’ engagement platform.
Many farmers have taken a multitude of initiatives in order to better preserve our natural heritage, through the cultivation of flowering fallow land for instance, the planting of grass strips or indeed the implementation of hedge lines close to their own agricultural land. Efforts such as these allow for the protection of everyday birdlife in rural areas, the safeguarding of beehive activity, as well as that of earthworms and smaller insects, not to mention the preservation of flora and fauna that is vital to the replenishment and maintenance of local ecosystems.
That being said, such efforts are not currently well highlighted, and consumer awareness of such initiatives remains minimal. Indeed, by and large, consumers are poorly informed of the efforts made by producers who go to such great lengths.
One way in which this could be remedied is to indicate more explicitly on food labels that such actions have been taken, thus educating consumers on the existence and benefits of such initiatives and raising consumer awareness about such preservation efforts generally.
To this end, we would like to know what measures could be taken in order to better promote such initiatives, and we would like to explore the possibility of creating a label or certification to this effect, which might very well be represented by the image of the poppy or other wildflowers.
Check out or question on the website of the French parliament (only in FR)
Launched by Surfrider Foundation Europe, the consultation allowed us to tell what should be the priorities for action to protect the oceans, and notably as regards marine pollution and renewable – or not so renewable – energy.
As part of the French government’s citizens’ engagement initiative, which allows citizens to raise specific topics and propose questions for debate in the French parliamentary chamber, we decided to shed light on the efforts made by farmers to better preserve biodiversity.
According to the Greenflex 2017 survey, the second greatest reason for environmental concern amongst French citizens is the loss of biodiversity. As such, many local producers are already strongly committed to protecting our natural heritage, going to great lengths to play their part, by planting flowering fallow land for instance, or setting up protective hedgerows near their agricultural land.
Such efforts allow for the preservation of rural birdlife, the safeguarding of beehive activity, as well as that of earthworms and smaller insects, not to mention the conservation of flora and fauna that are vital for the replenishment and maintenance of our local ecosystems.
That being said, such efforts are not currently well highlighted, and consumer awareness of such initiatives remains minimal. Indeed, by and large, consumers are poorly informed of the efforts made by producers who go to such great lengths.
To this end, we would like to know what measures could be taken in order to better promote such initiatives, and we would like to explore the possibility of creating a label or certification to this effect, which might very well be represented by the image of the poppy or other wildflowers.
The question was fielded by Vivien, our Biodiversity and Health Officer.
Four months on from World Cleanup Day, we were at it once again, once more heading out to Paris’ Martin Luther King Park in order to gather and collect discarded waste.
After all, even waste that is improperly discarded as far inland as possible, when carried by the wind, will end up in the ocean at some point. Marine life will then be at its mercy, as it will be mistaken for a food source. A plastic bottle will be mistaken for a squid, a balloon for a jellyfish, and so on. And we all know the damaging effects that can occur as a result. Lire plus – Continue reading “World Cleanup Day, 4 Months On!”→
