The Regional Action Agenda Groningen is ready! And now Act...

In recent months, more than 40 YfCA climate ambassadors have worked very hard to write the Regional Action Agenda Groningen. It is in writing now. But we will not get there with writing the agenda. Time to Act & Adapt now!

The climate ambassadors are calling on local authorities to start working on climate adaptation immediately. In the Regional Action Agenda from Groningen, the YfCA climate ambassadors set out the urgency of their call to action and provide advice to municipalities, provinces and water boards. This makes Groningen - in the Netherlands - the first region with an action agenda on climate adaptation written by local youth.

Youth for Climate Adaptation Groningen (YfCA) wants to make the voice of young people heard through their action agenda and to answer the question: how can we as a society already adapt to climate changes such as heat and flooding? “This can be done close to home. For example, by planting more greenery and collecting rainwater. But much more is possible, ”explains YfCA ambassador Vera Santing (19). "We want to encourage local authorities to give this more priority."

The seven written recommendations

Below are seven recommendations that need to be addressed:

1. Establish youth councils to join in the deliberation on climate adaptation

2. Make young people more aware of climate adaptation

3. Encourage citizen participation

4. Municipalities, provinces and water boards: expand your network

5. Prioritize climate and climate adaptation and include these topics in policy

6. Include climate adaptation in education through projects and teaching materials

7. Set up actions

Curious about the full report?

You can download the PDF and read everything. Enjoy reading! And after that get ready to act & adapt!

What is a Regional Action Agenda?

The Regional Action Agenda is a call to action within the region, and in our case, that is Groningen in The Netherlands. We currently have 32 ambassadors, and we’re still in the recruitment process, we’re aiming to get 3 ambassadors per municipality in the province. In Groningen, we have twelve municipalities.

We provide our ambassadors with various masterclasses on climate adaptation and teach them different skills such as lobbying, presenting and also pitching. The end goal for us here is to provide our ambassadors with the necessary skills and make them feel empowered to discuss and suggest changes in their municipalities. And at the same time create a spatial adaptation strategy and an inventory on the plans for each municipality respectively.

“Think global, act local” is our slogan and guide to how we work towards our goal. Since the problem is global and Groningen being the first province that implements a Regional Action Agenda, we set an example to other provinces on a national level and to other countries and regions on a global scale.