LCOY Germany 2021

The conference started on Friday afternoon with a livestream on YouTube. It was opened with a welcoming speech by Svenja Schulze, current Federal Minister of the Environment in Germany. (see attachment). Followed by several presentations, discussion rounds and an interview with patron Shary Reeves, the livestream on Friday culminated in the first panel discussion.

During the following two days, more than 30 workshops were offered on the platform “Discord”. Each of the issues dealt with in the workshops was linked to one of the four main subfields “business”, “politics”, “science” and “society”. The workshops focused on imparting knowledge and enabling the participants to develop personal skills by showing them individual possibilities for action, among others. Speakers and participants exchanged ideas in lectures, discussion rounds and creative workshops. In addition to that, the participants were able to talk to and discuss with influential politicians from different German parties in 7 “Politics 1 vs. 1” rounds.

Parallel to this, the livestream programme started again on Saturday afternoon, this time with a welcoming speech by the Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet. During the rest of the day, the livestream again offered several discussion rounds and panel discussions, supplemented by broadcasts of selected politics 1 vs. 1 rounds. All the panel discussions were professionally moderated.

On both days, the livestream was complemented by several short interviews with committed individuals in the climate scene (e.g., Hannah Schartmann, G7 youth delegate) and by showing recordings of the LCOY video format “5 questions to”. The view audience was led through the livestream by a trio of LCOY moderators. By sharing their thoughts and questions in the chat, the audience of the livestream was able to actively participate in the livestream programme and the panel discussions. All in all, the livestream was watched by more than 1000 people each day and is now permanently available on the YouTube channel of LCOY Germany.

On the Discord server, there were several channels and formats offered which the participants could use for networking with each other as well as with the experts from the different workshops. These channels were especially used in the evenings. Even throughout the different workshops and seminars, the participants and programme contributors exchanged their ideas with each other, so that it was possible to create a platform for networking and exchange for young people during the conference.

The LCOY programme offered a high level of diversity throughout the conference. On the one hand, this was reflected by the diversity of issues dealt with, such as climate activism and climate communication as well as innovative technologies or security policy in the context of climate change, for instance. On the other hand, the conference also tried to pay attention to a balanced selection of guests in terms of gender as well as the inclusion of minorities and the Most Affected People and Areas (MAPA) in order to adequately represent the climate crisis as a global problem that affects people all over the world. In addition, the LCOY equally included all established political parties in Germany, that are in line with the LCOY's political principle.

Around 400 young people from all 16 federal states and abroad registered for the programme items. Thus, voices and perspectives from all over the federal territory, and beyond, came together at the conference.

The LCOY online 2021 was organized by a voluntary organizing team of 35 young people from all over Germany who invested over 5000 hours of preparation time. They were kindly supported by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety as well as by the BUNDjugend and the climate delegation.