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BB4CA

Raising Latin American and Carribean Youth Voices

Build­ing Bridges for Cli­mate Action (BB4CA) advo­cates for the strength­en­ing of the glob­al cli­mate move­ment. In this, under­rep­re­sent­ed groups are to be brought into the spot­light. Accord­ing­ly, 25 unique young cli­mate experts* from Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean (LAC) came togeth­er. This was done through a 5‑week online pro­gram. There they shared their knowl­edge and expe­ri­ences on the cli­mate cri­sis. They expressed their con­cerns about the cur­rent impact of the cri­sis. They also focused on the impact on young and future generations.

They also explained their demands and approach­es to cli­mate pro­tec­tion. All this took place in the con­text of dis­cus­sions with the polit­i­cal, sci­en­tif­ic, busi­ness and social com­mu­ni­ties in Germany.

BB4CA was orga­nized by young vol­un­teers from all over the world. The project was finan­cial­ly sup­port­ed by the Ger­man Fed­er­al Min­istry for the Envi­ron­ment and legal­ly sup­port­ed by the Kli­madel­e­ga­tion e.V..

Any ques­tion?
bb4ca-info@klimadelegation.de

Press inquiries here:
bb4ca-press@klimadelegation.de

What is the project about?

The cli­mate cri­sis is an urgent prob­lem that must be thought of glob­al­ly. Young peo­ple around the world have long been involved in a wide range of ini­tia­tives at all lev­els. In their work, they face var­i­ous chal­lenges that depend strong­ly on their envi­ron­ment and cir­cum­stances. This includes their ori­gin and eth­nic­i­ty and oth­er aspects.

Despite the fact that the cli­mate move­ment is a glob­al move­ment, some voic­es are under­rep­re­sent­ed — for exam­ple, those of youth liv­ing in the Glob­al South. These include young peo­ple of col­or and indige­nous youth (BIPoC). This is because their voic­es are sig­nif­i­cant­ly less present in media cov­er­age of the cli­mate crisis.

Yet it is they who are on the front line of deal­ing with the con­se­quences. As a result, they have the most expe­ri­ence and knowl­edge of what is hap­pen­ing and what needs to be done. There­fore, there is an urgent need to devel­op an aware­ness of the very dif­fer­ent real­i­ties of these young peo­ple. The fact that cli­mate con­fer­ences have been held three times in a row on the Euro­pean con­ti­nent is seri­ous. This is because it makes it dif­fi­cult to have equal rep­re­sen­ta­tion of key actors from the most vul­ner­a­ble areas of the cli­mate crisis.


 

What is the aim?

The 25 young cli­mate experts com­plet­ed a 7‑week prepa­ra­tion pro­gram. In this pro­gram, they pre­pared them­selves in groups for the vir­tu­al cli­mate jour­ney. Addi­tion­al­ly, they also fur­ther devel­oped their knowl­edge and skills and pre­pared project results. After that they com­plet­ed a 5‑week vir­tu­al program.

BB4CA aims to build bridges between Latin Amer­i­ca, the Caribbean and Europe — bridges for accel­er­at­ed aware­ness and empow­er­ment of ambi­tious, youth-cen­tered and glob­al cli­mate action. This is about the voic­es of young peo­ple liv­ing in the glob­al south and espe­cial­ly the voic­es of indige­nous youth because they get lost in the dis­course about the cli­mate cri­sis. There­fore, BB4CA is will­ing to con­tribute to a par­a­digm shift. By mak­ing vis­i­ble the knowl­edge, per­spec­tives and expe­ri­ences of those who have been ignored for too long. Thus, the project sets a sign of uni­ty, empow­er­ment and glob­al part­ner­ship to achieve the Paris goals.

BB4CA aims for a momen­tum of glob­al coop­er­a­tion and com­mit­ment for cli­mate action which is des­per­ate­ly need­ed: the inter­na­tion­al cli­mate pol­i­cy process­es have been post­poned and all eyes are on Ger­many and  the EU to lead the ambi­tion rais­ing process dur­ing the Ger­man EU Coun­cil Pres­i­den­cy and globally.

In con­clu­sion, the project high­lights the impor­tance of unit­ing action with­in the LAC region. There­fore, we believe that it is nec­es­sary to come togeth­er glob­al­ly and local­ly in order to act successfully.


I am thankful for the oportunity to participate.

My hope for BB4CA is that my sto­ry will be heard. I hope to learn from stake­hold­ers from oth­er parts of the world and put this into prac­tice in Hon­duras to inspire youth to take action.
Daniela Lar­ios
26 years old, Honduras

A lot of of bridges will definitly be built!

I hope that indeed through this project a lot of bridges will be built!
Being from one of the small­est caribbean islands, I know how impor­tant this trip is and how much it can pos­i­tive­ly affect my coun­try if I start a con­nec­tion of Montser­rat and Ger­many for ambi­tious cli­mate action. I can’t wait to get to work and speak to Ger­man deci­sion makers!
Ash­neil Jeffers
22 years old, Montserrat

We will make a new step with BB4CA!

This new step we are tak­ing with BB4CA, link­ing mul­ti­ple stake­hold­ers as allies, will be deci­sive in the indige­nous strug­gle for the defense of land and iden­ti­ty. In recent months I have seen the impact that the for­ma­tion of a sol­id inter­dis­ci­pli­nary team has had, the impor­tance of an inter­na­tion­al plat­form to make local prob­lems vis­i­ble. It will be a con­quest for many of us who are repli­ca­tors of leadership.
Vivi Vil­lafaña
22 years old, Colômbia

Legal Enti­ty:
Kli­madel­e­ga­tion e.V.