This Friday, 12 April 2024, young people from around Europe will gather at the kick-off event of the European Youth Week at the European Parliament in Brussels. The European Youth Week is an event organised by the European Commission every second year to celebrate and promote youth engagement, participation and active citizenship all over Europe and beyond. This year, it will take place on 12-19 April and the focus is on “Voice your vision”. The kick-off event will include a plenary session that will be livestreamed and three rounds of parallel breakout sessions on strategic topics of interest for young people (see detailed programme for the day). Participants in the kick-off event will also be able to learn about youth initiatives, policies and European Union programmes that concern young people at the 20 stands in the event’s marketplace.
The European Atlas of the Seas will be at the event’s marketplace at the stand managed by the Youth4Ocean Forum and the Education for Climate Coalition ! Amongst other activities, participants will be able to test their knowledge with the new Atlas’ quiz on marine litter.
The Youth4Ocean Forum and its Young Ocean Advocates will be involved in an exciting breakout session during the European Youth Week kick-off event. The session ‘Beating the plastic wave: stories of youth action and empowerment’, co-organised by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) and the Youth4Ocean Forum aims at showcasing examples of successful youth actions against marine litter, illustrating the #EUBeachCleanup campaign by DG MARE, while also highlighting ocean literacy as part of the solution. The session will feature:
- Inspiring presentations about Young Ocean Advocate projects;
- Group discussions on potential solutions and youth-led initiatives to counter marine litter;
- A quiz testing the audience’s knowledge about marine litter and sustainable habits.
If you are attending the kick-off event of the European Youth Week, make sure that you have registered to attend this breakout session and that you come to the Youth4Ocean Forum and Education for Climate Coalition stand!
If you have read past Maps of the Week, you have surely already learned about the work of Young Ocean Advocates. This is not yet the case? Dive into the Map of the Week to discover who they are and what they are working on! The Young Ocean Advocates are young project holders, aged 16 to 30-year-old. Their projects have been recognised and accredited by the European Commission, as making a meaningful and lasting change for the Ocean. In the map, they appear in orange. Click on the symbols in the map to access information such as the names and the categories of the projects, as well as the topics addressed.
Seems like you have also read about the Education for Climate Coalition before in the Maps of the Week? You are right! In 2022, the Education for Climate Coalition and the European Atlas of the Seas launched the challenge 'Be a scientist! Mapping climate change at seas & waterways' which invited schools across Europe to become data providers for a new map layer in the Atlas. The resulting map layer titled ‘Education for Climate: Water surface temperature measured by students’ – the first citizen science map layer in the Atlas – was published in the Atlas in 2023!
Wish to learn more? Wondering where you can learn more about the ocean and /or climate change in the coming days and weeks?
- Watch the plenary opening session of the kick-off event of the European Youth Week 2024 online and find out what activities are organised across Europe during the European Youth Week;
- Watch the daily livestream from the Ocean Decade Conference that is taking place on 10-12 April 2024 in Barcelona;
- Register for the OceanICU Webinar on Ocean Acidification and the Global Carbon Cycle that will take place on 24 April 2024;
- Find out about the online Policy Forum 2024 on ‘Climate Resilience: Preparing for the Future’ that will be organised by the Education for Climate Coalition on 17 April.
Wish to get involved?
- Learn about the Spring Call for Young Ocean Advocates on the United Nations Ocean Decade and submit your application before 28 April;
- Take part in the Citizen of the Ocean 2024 workshops;
- If you are interested in supporting Young Ocean Advocates in their projects, join the Mentoring Programme!
The data in this map is provided by the Youth4Ocean Forum.