I attended the Young Citizens Assembly on Pollinators second session in Brussels with Rita. We are both members of Rise and Reflect which is a group for alumni of the Children’s Participation Platform.
The event started on a Friday with stakeholders sharing information about pollinators. They had a debate with members of the Young Citizens on the priorities to take forward. Pollinators matter because if these insects decline it is bad for biodiversity and that has effects for everyone. We had also talked about this at the General Assembly last year.
Our Call to Action which includes Climate actions
Getting to work
On the Saturday, when I arrived, we went to the main building of the European Commission and discussed more on pollinators. We introduced ourselves - I didn’t know much about pollinators but I was really happy to be there. People from the European Commission came to a meeting with experts from different external organisations in the morning.
There were two other young people from Ireland who had been working on pollinators projects from the Irish Young People’s Assembly on Biodiversity. We heard from four task forces - communication, artistic expression, follow up and monitor and review. We advised in the plenary session about what had been discussed.
On the Sunday, we were in workshops in our task forces groups. I was in the communications workshop which decided how and what they were going to post on the young citizens Instagram page. The best thing about it was I learned lots. I got to meet lots of people. I got to learn about pollinators. And it made me think about how to look after the planet more.