Victim or changemaker? Step into Climate Action!

Victim or Changemaker? Step into Climate Action! 20.02.2025. 2:00-6:30 PM | online roundtable discussions

The effects of accelerated climate change are marked by the heat waves and droughts that dominate our summers, and the disappearing seasons that are profoundly reshaping both rural and urban life. We can be part of this process, either as silent observers or as active shapers.

RurALL (Rural Active Citizenship Labs) international project supports the participation and activism of rural residents in relation to climate change in 5 European countries and regions in Hungary, France, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain.

On 20 February, in two roundtable discussions, we will explore the actors and the tools which shape and thematise our attitudes to the changing climate and provide best practices on local and global level both for action and education.

The programme is recommended to all those who are looking for community pathways to climate action and are open to learning from the practices of other European regions. Youth policy makers, leaders, project managers are especially welcommed as the topic has a specific impact on the youth generations. 

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm Principles, beliefs, approaches - Finding Common Ground in Understanding Climate Challenges

Live streamed roundtable discussion in Hungarian with simultenaous English interpretation you can follow online

The participants of our first discussion are representatives of deep adaptation, climate communication, degrowth and human ecology and seek answers to questions such as:

How do and how should we talk about climate change today, when both global political events and news reporting natural and human habitat destruction underline the worsening situation?
How do the different trends view the scale of climate change and what solutions, individual and collective actions do they propose? What can be the platforms for collective action? Is there a common understanding and vocabulary?

Participants of the roundtable discussion:

Krisztina Csapó - representative of Deep Adaptation Hungary
Bálint Forgács - psychologist, ELTE PPK
Alexandra Köves - economist, university professor, one of the Hungarian representatives of the degrowth movement
Levente Pribéli - biologist, human ecologist, Biodiversity Campaign Officer at Greenpeace Hungary
Gábor Vasárus - geographer and researcher in spatial and urban development KRTK RKI_HUN-REN

Moderator: Károly Nagy, journalist, radio presenter, editor, writer

16:20 - 18:30 The Climate Activism’s Toolkit – Change Your Mindset for Change!
online roundtable discussion in English with Hungarian simultaneous interpretation

Our second discussion will bring together international participants, academics, practitioners and European green policymakers who are shaping thinking on climate in different fora and through different means. In a discussion on possible forms of engagement, we will explore questions such as:

How can climate activism be reconciled with political thinking and decision-making?
How to strengthen participation, local action and representation?
What are the tools of a climate activist?
How can a local climate change activist become a climate change actor on a larger scale?

Participants of the roundtable discussion:

Miriam Ureta Garcia, PhD in Political Sciences, lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication, University of the Basque Country
Simona Jurovata, representative of the initiative Youth for Climate, youth worker focused on environmental topics in Slovakia
Eka von Kalben, Vice President of the Parliament of Schleswig-Holstein and chief negotiator of the local climate law in Germany
Maurício Umman - permaculture farmer, ecological architect, co-founder and teacher of the O Fojo Education Centre

Moderator: János Kendernay, politician, environmental activist, head of the City Diplomacy Unit of Budapest, Capital of Hungary

The workshop is free of charge, but registration is required here: https://forms.gle/3K7UeYQSCVHBhZqK9

The event is organized in the framework of the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme, RurALL- Rural Citizen Labs project.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.