In April 2024 CAN EECCA announced an open call for mini-grants. Aimed to enhance members’ capacity to influence climate policy and promote climate solutions, the program unfolded with selection of 4 grantees. Each receiving the amount 2000 EUR, selected grantees rushed to implement their ideas into action.
Let’s travel across the region and see how different actions can be taken to address climate challenges.
Belarusian NGO Green Network organised a Climate Leadership School. This online training aimed at raising awareness about the National Determined Contributions (NDCs) and preparing young people from Eastern Partnership countries to participate at COP29, which happened in Baku, Azerbaijan in November of 2024.
“The School of Interactive Workshops, held from July 1 to August 2, 2024, was a unique initiative aimed at empowering young regional climate leaders”, – said the organiser and activist Iryna Ponedelnik. Through a series of expert-led sessions, participants raised their capacity and gained professional skills to actively engage in international climate processes, particularly COP29. Regional activists were invited as program speakers, they shared their experience at COP participation and covered a variety of topics, like fundraising for COP participation, role of youth at COP, EECCA regional perspective and more.
The program attracted over 300 registrations, with 32 young people successfully completing the program requirements. One of the program participants, Georgian activist Mariam Kvaratskhelia won a scholarship to attend COP29 and represent the Eastern European youth.
The key achievement of the project was creation of 6 youth statements on NDCs, each representing an EaP country (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine). You can learn more about it here. The program also aimed at engaging a broader audience by covering intersectional topics like “Health and Climate Change”, “Migration and Climate Change”, “Social Justice and Climate Change” and “Gender and Climate Change” during Instagram lives. Combined these online sessions had more than 7000 views.
“The School of Interactive Workshops successfully fostered a new generation of climate leaders in the EECCA region. By bridging knowledge gaps and building networks, the program has empowered youth to actively contribute to international climate processes, including COP29. The initiative has laid a strong foundation for sustained youth engagement in climate advocacy” shared Iryna Ponedelnik.
Meanwhile in Central Asia, our Uzbekistani grantee Ekolog was organising another fascinating training for students studying journalism. The mission of this 2-day university training was to raise the capacity of aspiring journalists in climate communication. The project aimed to develop students’ understanding of global and local climate challenges, develop skills in writing articles, and doing resourceful content for social media.
“One of the potential challenges in raising awareness of young journalists on climate change issues is limited access to resources and expertise. Young journalists, especially those working in small media or regional publications, face limited access to relevant information, experts and training resources on climate issues. This hinders their ability to accurately and competently cover those topics and effectively communicate them with the audience” mentions Nargis Kosimova, the training organiser.
Each 2-day training was attended by 40 students in total, 20 from each partner university: University of Journalism and Mass Communication and Uzbek State University of World Languages, Faculty of International Journalism. Training schedule covered sessions on climate change communication in the media, climate change adaptation: international and national experience and how to work with information sources. Training also included works in groups where participants learned how to choose a topic for a media material.
Another initiative of Nargis Qosimova within the project was the development of a draft program on “Journalism and climate change” into the curricula of the above named universities in Uzbekistan. This program consists of 8 modules covering essential topics on climate communications and journalism is expected to be introduced into the educational program of the named universities in September 2025.
Artcom Platform joined CAN EECCA network recently, but immediately started building connections with members. The Kazakhstani collective organised Art Collider Balkhash x Almaty – an open interdisciplinary school of art and science, held in conjunction with the international exhibition “Intertwining Climate, Water and Communities”. The exhibition was organized by Artcom Platform and Balqashqa Qamqor (Artcom’s initiative to save the lake Balkhash) in partnership with Aspan Gallery.
The program explored the impact of climate risks and water scarcity on local communities, offering to rethink socio-natural relations and strategies for caring for ecosystems in Central Asia. The school reveals the interdependence of Almaty as part of the transboundary Balkhash-Alakol basin, water routes, cultural landscape, and the importance of citizen engagement in preserving the fragile ecosystems of Lake Balkhash.
During the two-day program, 14 speakers from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan made presentations on the environmental reality and current challenges of Lake Balkhash and Balkhash-Alakol Basin (BAB), the environmental history of the BAB, practices of transition to climate-resilient management of urban and rural water resources, practices of adaptation to climate change and mitigation of its consequences. Experts, scientists, academics and cultural figures talked about the current challenges of the region, shared experiences and practices in the pursuit of environmental and climate justice for sustainable futures.
You can learn more about the School Program here.
More than 60 people, representatives of civil society, cultural figures, researchers, professors and students of academic institutions became participants of the school. Organisers recall this event as an important step in uniting the efforts of civil society, cultural figures and representatives of academic institutions.
Explore articles about the event for more information:
- What could happen to Lake Balkhash: an interview with the curator of the exhibition “Intertwining Climate, Waters and Communities”
- An exhibition dedicated to water shortages in Central Asia
- “Intertwining Climate, Waters and Communities”: how artists are calling for the rescue Balkhash
West and further away Armenian NGO Khazer was getting ready to organise a transborder conference for its members and Georgian partners “Ecovision” and “Green portals”.
Khazer, being an Armenian veteran in the environmental movement, approached the project with a bold mission: to develop an innovative doctrine for combating climate change. The doctrine which will be based on a top-down approach, principles of a green economy and equal rights for all people to access climate resources on a fair basis.
In cooperation with partner organizations from Georgia – “Ecovision” (a member of CAN EECCA) and “Green Regions”, members have compiled:
- A comparative analysis of the state positions of Armenia and Georgia on climate change, mitigation and adaptation for compliance with the “top-down approach”, “ecological integrity” and ecosystem approach with a discussion of the possibility of introducing its financial mechanism for ecosystem services. Based on the findings, a concept for cooperation between non-governmental entities of Armenia and Georgia was developed. The European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities was used as a basis.
- An overview of intergovernmental activities within the framework of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, its Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement.
Considering the participation of some non-governmental entities of Georgia and Armenia in the “Low Emission Development Agreement” of the European Union, a joint review of the results of this participation was conducted in terms of compliance of the commitments undertaken by the municipalities of these countries with the national commitments of Georgia and Armenia on NDCs. Separate working discussions were held in three Aarhus centers in Yerevan, Gyumri and Gavar, as well as in Georgia.
“The current initiative was prompted by questions that seemed to come from the future generations who will bear the consequences of climate change due to the indifference or irresponsibility of previous generations of decision makers. Why cannot humanity solve this simple task: to jointly agree to influence nature so that it continues to provide natural living conditions for future generations on a fair basis? In order to find answers to this “why”, it is advisable to consider the problem from its roots: to thoroughly delve into the motivation and content of the above-mentioned agreements, identify systemic flaws, develop proposals for their elimination, and submit them for collective discussion and approval at the civil level” said the organisers.
A final in-person conference to be organized in Gyumri (Armenia) with the invitation of participants from Georgia, where the final draft of the innovative doctrinal concept will be presented and approved by participants.
“Our intention is to present the results of the project to CAN EECCA members with a proposal to discuss and join it. In case of approval, we would like to present the developed concept to CAN International with a proposal to launch a broader discussion. This part of the work will require a longer period of time (2-3 years). We called this plan “Towards COP31”, referring to the plans of the states-Parties to the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement to abandon fossil fuels by this date” concluded Khazer team.
CAN EECCA strives to support its members and be involved with their activities. Stay tuned to learn more about our members and don’t miss the upcoming open-call for 2025.
