Interview: Enabling genuine participation in national climate policy

TO THE INTERVIEW ON jugendgerecht.de

The aim of the coordination office is to work with youth associations and organisations to establish effective dialogue and participation formats with the Federal Climate Protection Ministry (formerly the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK), now the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN )) so that the concerns of young people are more strongly incorporated into climate policy decisions. The youth participation format has been running since September 2023 under the auspices of the German Federal Youth Council.

Youth participation at federal level is very demanding - where does the coordination centre start with its participation projects?

In the view of the Federal Youth Council, youth participation must primarily start with young people and their self-organisations - in other words, bottom-up from within civil society. Youth participation only gains real legitimacy if the people involved have been democratically legitimised by young people themselves and the substantive issues have been negotiated by young people themselves in a democratic process. The participation of individual young people does not correspond to our image of the representation of "the youth". In addition, youth participation should be measured against the "Quality Standards for Child and Youth Participation", which the Federal Youth Council developed together with the Federal Ministry of Youth. For this reason, youth associations and organisations are involved in our coordination office, which contribute demands and positions through their representatives in our working groups.

Which topics are particularly important to the young people and youth organisations involved - does this coincide with the Federal Ministry for Climate Action?

More than 30 youth associations and organisations from very different areas are involved in the Coordination Office for Youth Participation in Climate Issues: denominational, trade union, social or helping. There is a great deal of diversity and it is by no means only organisations with a direct connection to the environment and climate that are involved.

Nevertheless, there is one common denominator: climate justice - within society and between generations, which is why we are focussing on the socially just design of climate policy - in other words, climate social policy. This topic also appears to be important to Federal Minister Schneider. He describes climate change as the "biggest social issue of our time" and is focussing on socially staggered transition aid. This creates points of contact in terms of content.

What does an effective participation process at federal level look like and how binding are the recommendations and positions of young people politically accepted?

A good example is our involvement in the national social climate plan as part of the EU Social Climate Fund. This is intended to cushion social hardship caused by carbon pricing in the transport and building sectors - for example through direct payments or investments to combat energy and mobility poverty. One of our working groups has drawn up a position paper on this and discussed it with the responsible head of department at the BMWK. We were also able to put forward our perspective at association meetings - in other words, where usually only adult representatives sit. One representative even presented our demands to the EU Commission in Brussels.

Whether our recommendations will ultimately be taken up politically remains to be seen. But the continuous question "And what about young people?" is effective. It gets political players thinking - and that is a start.

What has already been achieved and what challenges are there?

At federal level, political processes often take a long time and results are rarely immediately visible. The risk of fictitious participation is real - especially with one-off consultations. In addition, there are short-term time windows for participation, for example in the form of public consultation phases for submitting statements. As we are not an official body, our demands papers have to be supported and signed by the participating associations themselves - which takes time.

Nevertheless, we are being considered. The coordination office is informed by the ministry when statements can be submitted, is invited to stakeholder dialogues and takes part in events that are otherwise often closed to young people - such as the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue. The exchange also works well at the working level with our contacts in the departments - where participation is often most effective. And perhaps we even had a small influence on the fact that Robert Habeck is now on TikTok - his account went online shortly after our conversation with him in April 2024 ;)

How do you manage to make your voice heard beyond the Ministry of Climate Protection - and how are the findings on youth participation made visible to both civil society and political decision-makers?

Climate protection is a cross-sectional task - even if this has not yet been fully recognised in some departments. However, we are already in contact with cross-cutting departments, including those outside the BMUKN.

The specialist and coordination centre (FKS) for youth participation, which is anchored in the Federal Youth Council, picks up on findings and learnings on youth participation. It further develops youth participation at federal level - it works on methodological issues and revises the quality standards based on our experience. In addition, we liaise with other ministries within the framework of the FKS Youth Participation in order to present and initiate participation processes there. The specialist and coordination centre remains in close contact with other civil society organisations and strengthens networking in the field.

On 10 December, we invite you to the final event of our project to qualify the application of the quality standards for child and youth participation - with key findings and lessons learned from practice. In this way, we are providing impetus for genuine, continuous and quality-assured youth participation - far beyond individual departments.

About the person:

Friederike Heuer is a consultant for youth participation in sustainable development at the German Federal Youth Council. Together with her colleague Miriam Zubke, she is responsible for the youth participation format Coordination Centre for Youth Participation in Climate Issues and works cross-sectionally in the Youth Participation Expert and Coordination Centre, where participation formats are bundled, strengthened and better networked at federal level.