The project "Let's Take Care of the Planet" (LTCP) aims to encourage citizen mobilization among young Europeans regarding the stakes involved in sustainable development. Through the construction of a space for dialogue and debate, young people are made aware of their responsibilities, and are led to reach a consensus at European level on shared responsibilities. Furthermore, the aim of this project is to offer young people the opportunity to make their voices heard from local political and economic stakeholders, but also from international bodies. The experience at European level strengthens their ability to act locally.
Youth engagement can take the form of collaborative documents drafting, stating either the responsibilities and actions that they have decided to take upon themselves, or their demands and wishes (charters, manifestos, open letters to policy makers). It can also express itself through the creation of educommunication tools: posters, videos, etc.
In June 2010, 350 young delegates from 47 countries met in Brasilia to attend the International Conference "Let's Take Care of the Planet". There, they developed an International Charter of Responsibilities with regard to socio-environmental changes, that they handed over to the President of the European Council and to the Secretary General of the Committee of Regions, in 2010, in Brussels.
In 2012, the 1st European Youth Conference “Let's Take Care of the Planet” was organized in Brussels, at the Committee of the Regions, bringing together 60 delegates (aged 13 to 16) and 10 facilitators (aged 18 to 30) from 15 European countries. Delegates, representatives of thousands of young people across Europe, co-wrote an Open Letter to policy makers, made posters and a video clip in order to communicate on their commitments. These collective achievements were brought to the Rio+20 Summit by 3 facilitators in June 2012.
Since then, the project has followed the following process spread over a period of two to three years.
The 2013-2015 process
The 2nd European Youth Conference “Let's Take Care of the Planet” (LTCP) was held in 2015, from May 19 to 23, at the Committee of the Regions' headquarters in Brussels. It gathered more than 150 participants, including 69 young delegates age 13 to 16 from 14 European countries, and 15 facilitators age 18 to 30 of 11 different nationalities.
The conference focused on climate change and was held in preparation for the COP21, the international climate negotiations which took place in Paris in December 2015.
The process resumed in 2015-2016 with conferences at local, regional and national level.
Within the framework of the 2015-2016 process, students and teachers can experiment two new lines of work: local development and European exchanges throughout the year.