Thanks to Lewis Merdler, artistic genius, for this image!
Posted by Kirsty Schneeberger
Today the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change opened a Consultation on how young people can be involved in the department’s decision making process! This is super-duper exciting and it means All Hands on DECC to fill out this 4 minute survey. And remember – try and fill it out as soon as you read this because you only have until 26 January.
Ever since I have been involved with UKYCC, this has been one of the most important issues to me. At every event I have been to – if I have been lucky enough to ask a question – they have pretty much been: ‘how is DECC going to engage more with young people, and let them be involved in decision-making; Or – will DECC include a young person in the official UK Delegation; Or- would DECC consider having a youth advisor/panel who can present youth perspectives to the Department.’ At most of the events Ed Miliband, has agreed to these ideas, but only informally.
So I was really excited when someone from the Department called to tell me that after all the great questions we have been asking at events like the Miliband LSE lecture, The Wave, and Youth Question Time (thanks to all of you for asking those questions too!) there is going to be a consultation on how to involve young people in the DECC decision making process!
So… Ta-daaaa:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=xG5zkLxchLkDydYPc/RZpIZk77wNuRU6km1ot%2biNZ6U%3d
If you are a young person who cares about being involved in the decisions that affect your future, then please do take 4 minutes of your time to fill out the survey. Please also do publicise it through your other networks and put it up on your websites so that we can have hundreds and thousands of young people replying to this! If you are involved with UKYCC, please also remember to affiliate yourself with UKYCC on the survey so we can show how many young people in UKYCC are engaged and care about this issue!
For what it’s worth, here are some thoughts on the main points – this isn’t the definitive answer, but just some ideas to help you think about what a ‘youth panel’ (or something similar) would look like in practice:
- Meeting as frequently as is useful with DECC in a range of forums; big conventions, as well as smaller meetings
- Big conventions should give young people a chance to present heir opinions, ideas and proposals to DECC;
- Strong online resources for all young people to utilise easily; especially those people who are in regions far out from London (like Northern Ireland and Scotland!) and for the outcomes of these surveys to be fed into DECC policy – such as a really swish DECC+Youth website and regular surveys to gather perspectives of Youth
- having a review of the ‘youth panel’ in 6 months – one year; to ensure that it is fulfilling it objective of including young people in the decision-making processes
In addition to these points, it might be nice to mention the following thoughts in the ‘any other comments’ box:
- A young person on the official UK delegation to UNFCCC negotiations, especially Bonn in June and future COPs
- A committee/Ministry that will concentrate its research and work on very long term strategies; such as by thinking ahead to 2050 and 2100 and ‘looking back’ to the see what policies needed to be in place in order to make it to the cleaner, brighter, low carbon world of the future
These are just some thoughts, and I’m sure you all have your own… So what are you waiting for?
It’s All Hands on DECC to show your leaders what you want YOUR future to look like!