On July 24th, TEMA Foundation representatives together with other environmental NGOs and representatives of local organizations visited the Embassy of France in Ankara. The visit was organized to present the results of the public consultation regarding climate change initiated by the government of France and was organized by TEMA Foundation within Env.net project on June 6th in Istanbul in cooperation with Boğaziçi University and World Wide Views. The presentation of the event and results were followed by a brief discussion on energy investments by French companies in Turkey, local effects of climate change in Turkey and organization of the UNFCCC COP 21 in Paris in December.
Results of the public consultation which was attended by 98 people representing different sectors in the society clearly indicated worry about climate change and a call for a divestment from fossil fuel plans. 82.9% of participants indicated that they are “very concerned” about the the impacts of climate change and 63.8% voted that the world should decide in Paris to do whatever it takes to limit temperatures exceeding 2 degrees Celsius warming. 90.6% of participants consider that their country should take measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, even if many other countries do not take measures and 57.4% of participants think that exploration for all fossil fuel reserves must stop.
Within the project “Development of the ENV.net in West Balkan and Turkey: giving citizens a voice to influence the environmental process reforms for closer EU integration”, Advocacy Training & Resource Center (ATRC) with support from European Environmental Bureau (EEB) conducted training “The Role of CSOs in decision making process and advocacy tools” in Prishtina on 23-24 June. More than 30 representatives from CSOs including institutional officials were present in the training.
The main objective of the course is to get a better understanding of the role of civil society (dealing with environmental issues) in environmental decision making process and in implementation of EU Directive for Environmental Information and Aarhus Convention, as well as forms and ways in organizing themselves with the aim of improving environmental situation (advocacy, lobbing, networking, etc.). The training also provided information to the participants on the Kosovo perspective in the above mentioned objectives.
Republic of Macedonia has been actively involved in numerous activities under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe) Protocol on Water and Health (hereinafter “the Protocol”), while preparing for accession to the Protocol.
The Protocol aims to protect human health and well-being by better water management, including the protection of water ecosystems, and by preventing, controlling and reducing water-related diseases. The 2014-2016 programme of work under the Protocol gives special focus on promoting equitable access to water and sanitation services for all members of the society as well as on supporting countries to improve the situation of small-scale water supply and sanitation systems. The Equitable Access Score-card is an analytical tool which has been developed to help Governments and other stakeholders to establish a baseline measure of the equity of access to water and sanitation, identify related priorities and discuss further actions to be taken through a process of self-assessment.
With aim to promote the actions, a two-day workshop titled “Assessing equitable access to water and sanitation and small-scale water supply and sanitation systems” was held on 16-17 June,2015 in Skopje, where representatives of ENV.net team from Macedonia took active part.
The launching workshop of the self-assessment of equitable access to water and sanitation was held on 16 June, 2015, while the consultation focusing on small-scale water supply and sanitation was held 17 June 2015. The self-assessment of equitable access to water and sanitation through applying the Equitable Access Score-card was launched and welcomed by participants. It was agreed that the equitable access self assessment will be carried out in the 3 following regions: Skopje, Veles and Kumanovo. The consultation with national stakeholders on the situation of small scale water supply and sanitation systems in the country highlighted the existing framework for the surveillance of small systems as well as a number of challenges faced for the management of small systems.
The workshop was organised by the Institute of Public Health of the Republic of Macedonia, in partnership with the NGO Journalists for Human Rights. It was co-convened with the joint United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe) secretariat of the Protocol on Water and Health.
For the World Water Day, Env.net partner TEMA Foundation organized 197 different activities at 124 different points in all 81 cities.
Activities consisted of 44 water awareness rallies, 66 stands for information activities where Env.net publications were distributed and 87 training activities, especially for children.
Nearly 40.000 people were reached as a result of these activities. Below video summarizes the day. Thanks to everyone for their support to make this day special all around Turkey and Western Balkans!
On 6 June, 2015, over 10.000 citizens representing a cross section of society in 80 countries met in their respective countries to make their voices heard in the international climate change negotiations leading to Paris, France this December.
Env.net team Turkey of TEMA Foundation and Bogazici University Climate Center cooperated with World Wide Views Alliance on Climate and Energy to organize the largest ever global citizen consultation on climate change.
98 citizens from various sectors in the society including teachers, clergy, farmers, academicians, students attended a half day event to deliberate on some of the most important issues facing the world today: climate and energy.
Participants were introduced to 5 different thematic issues; Importance of tackling climate change, Tools to tackle climate change; UN negotiations and national commitments; Fairness and distribution of efforts and Making and keeping climate promises on 5 sessions. A information booklet was provided before the event about pros, cons and views on different climate and energy policies, targets and measures and videos were presented at the start of each session on the following topic. Then the participants were divided into 10 differenr groups where they discussed issues of climate change and vote on an identical set of questions.
The results from the voting was published immediately on http://climateandenergy.wwviews.org/results/, making it possible for everyone to follow live the discussions. Preliminary results from this unique event were then presented at the June sessions of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) taking place in Bonn, Germany in advance of the UN climate conference (COP21) 2015.
* The project was coordinated by the Danish Board of Technology Foundation, in collaboration with Missions Publiques and the French National Commission for Public Debate. It was co-initiated by the UNFCCC Secretariat and implemented by partners in the World Wide Views Alliance.
On the occasion of World Environment Day, students and teachers of the primary school “Cyril and Methodius” in the village Dabile joined the action that took place in this village, organised by the environmental organisations “Planetum” and “4x4x4 Balkan Bridges “Skopje – ENV.net partner for Macedonia.
Students and other participants in the action cleaned up the park in the village. As part of this action, there was an outdoor exhibition of photographs taken in the flooded areas in the Strumica region this spring by the photographers Tome Hristov, Maya Ismailov, Stole Angelov and Alexander Donchev.
The exhibition was a reminder of all the bad moments experienced by citizens from the flooded areas in the Strumica region, where numerous households and agricultural areas were badly affected. The message sent has the purpose to have a more serious approach towards climate change as a global problem.
The award (Tablet 7) for best photography chosen by all the participants in the action was given to the photographer Stole Angelov. Also all students that took part in the action were given a small present: a tea cup and a book on ecology. These awards were provided by DUPOP PAKOMAK Skopje, the first and biggest collective handler for packaging waste in Macedonia.
At this event participated representatives from the local community Dabile, organisation “Rural Coalition” from Kumanovo and Association of greenhouse producers from Vasilevo. The event was featured by several local and national print and electronic media.
The action is part of the project “Development of the ENV.net in West Balkans and Turkey: giving citizens a voice to influence the environmental process reforms for closer EU integration”, supported by the European Commission.
As a part of the celebrations of the World Environment Day, on June 7, 2015, in Gornji Milanovac cycling event was organized by ENV.net partner from Serbia, Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development, together with elementary school “Momcilo Nastasijevic”. The objective of this event was promotion of the environmental values in the Gornji Milanovac municipality and promotion of the need for a healthy lifestyle, especially among school children. Participants were school children (and their teachers and parents) from 15 schools from the Moravicki District (municipalities of Gornji Milanovac, Cacak and Ivanjica). 45 students participated in a competitive part of the event, monitored by 1-2 teachers and one professional from Auto Motorcycle Association of Serbia. Event was secured by Red cross volunteers and local Ambulance.
ENV.net partner from Serbia, Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development, in cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia, organized the Regional conference “Environment to Europe EnE15/ENV.net Conference”. The conference was held in Belgrade on the World Environment Day, on June 5, 2015, and it was UNEP registered event.
About 150 experts and stakeholders in the field of environment and sustainable development were able to gather together with the idea of promoting adoption of the EU standards. Thematic areas this year was Horizontal Legislation: Methods, Standards and Tools toward EU Environmental Values. The Conference was an opportunity for institutions, organizations and experts to present their research and exchange view points regarding methods, standards and tools toward EU environmental values and challenges on the road to EU. Scientific papers that were present at the conference were published in the form of the Conference Proceedings CD.
‘Let’s clean Kosovo’ initiative in cooperation with Association of Journalists of Kosovo organized a two day training on “Importance of media reports for environment”. There were 30 participants from Kosovo media representatives, Association board members, members of the team ‘Let’s clean Kosovo’ team members as well as UNKT representatives. During the training it was agreed to form an online platform dedicated only to news about environment. Though this platform citizens will be informed about the environmental situation in country and also about the activities taken to improve it. Also the association committed itself to establish a group of environmental journalists within the association. This important training was supported by ATRC and Touristic Organization Ulqin. The training was also reported in all local media main news.
‘Let’s Clean up Kosovo Campaign’ on the 09th of May, Europe Day, organized cleaning campaign and cleaned streets and squares in Prishtina in cooperation with NGOs and public institutions in Kosovo. Hundreds of volunteers, private companies, and citizens joined this activity. Tons of garbage was collected during this activity. During one day many areas of Prishtina looked different, looked transformed and turned into clean and healthy areas for citizens. Among many partners in this activity was also ATRC within the project Env.Net. ATRC cooperated closely with the campaign during the entire phase of the project.
