A spontaneous kick-off

Today, on December 2nd, 2019, the Ministry of Environment of Chile - Carolina Schmidt - is launching the UN Climate Change Conference COP 25 in Madrid. Given that demonstrations in Chile’s capital have not come to an end, Spain offered to host the 25th Climate Change Conference under the motto #TimeForAction one month ago.

The challenge

In Madrid, the representatives of the UN members will focus on the mechanisms that have to be put in place to achieve the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement – that are at the moment far from being achieved. According to the UN, in order to limit global warming to +1,5°C, CO2 emissions should be reduced by 7,6% per year until 2030. However, this is hardly achievable if China, the United States and also Europe do not step back from their current energy policies and production patterns and take severe measures for cutting down CO2 emissions.

It is going to be a long week for the 197 signing countries of the Paris Agreement (2015), especially after the alarming Report of the IPCC, which told us that it is very likely that the limit of +1,5°C will be exceeded between 2030 and 2052 if emissions keep increasing at the current rate.

Is there still hope?

On the wave of the Fridays for future movement, young people are demonstrating all over the world against climate change, calling on their governments for immediate action. A boost to this conference will be given by the intervention of Greta Thunberg who is on her - ecological - way to Madrid.

Learn more about climate change in the Alps:

Climate Change in the Alps: Protected Areas Fight Back

What’s the Alpine School?

The Alpine school is a label that schools interested in an innovative educational approach can adopt after fulfilling certain criteria. These criteria are strongly linked to the approach of education for sustainable development, adapted to mountain specificities. In order to explain the Alpine School and its theoretical background, ALPARC elaborated a promotional video available in 5 languages. 

The choice of the doodling style allowed for flexibility and schematisation that grasped the very nature of the approach of the Alpine School. A lot of attention was paid to details, and inspiration was taken directly from the activities carried out in the Pilot schools and the protected areas working with them. The result is a 2-minute representation of the Alpine School, its main characteristics and objectives. In English and the four Alpine languages, the video is the perfect way to get a first general overview of the Alpine School. The ‘premiere’ of the video took place in the cinema Pathé Chambery (FR) during the project’s final conference in October 2019. The video is available here: What’s the Alpine School?

A Brand-new Website Dedicated to the Alpine School

Even though the YOUrALPS project, which provided the framework for the Alpine School, ended in October, some motivated partners decided to put one last effort into the Alpine School, creating a mini website for it; one of the main outputs of the project. 

Here you can see the result. A simple, intuitive and captivating website presenting the Alpine School, its theoretical basis, its characteristics and all the materials that have been developed around it. The website contains a lot of freely accessible guides to implement outdoor activities within the model of Mountain-oriented Education. The Alpine App and the Alpine Toolkit for outdoor lessons are also available for download and constitute the perfect complement to in-class lessons. 

Discovering the power of witches, outsmarting evil spirts and finding magical remedies in the mountain wilderness… Mountain educators and guides used these elements of fantasy to immerse the almost 600 young participants across 40 destinations in the Alps and Carpathians in an imaginary world to reconnect them with nature as part of the 5th edition's common theme “Myth and Mountain Legends”. 

Video produced by Ouvrez l'oeil 

YOUrALPS came to an end on October 10th and 11th by celebrating young people's participation and contribution to the project. A certification ceremony  was the perfect occasion to do just this, as the first 8 Alpine Schools and their partners were thanked and rewarded for their commitment to the implementation of the Alpine School Model.
Political representatives, students, educators and other people involved in the project took to the stage to speak about their perspectives on the mountain environment and the importance of Mountain-oriented Education.

To conclude the first day of celebrations, a beautiful live concert was held. The second day of the event featured thematic excursions and a workshop on the future of the international network OurAlps.

The press release is availabe for download in the following languages: English, French, Italian, German, and Slovenian.

For further information:
Check out the latest video of the project presenting the Alpine School
Visit the project's website
Learn more about the OurAlps Network
Follow the project on Facebook