Together to inspire and get inspired
Six european schools from all Luxembourg gathered to present and discuss initiatives taken in their respective school to reduce their carbon footprint. This was the second edition of this school climate summit organised by European School II in Mamer under the direction of Mrs Angela Piccolomini.
Simulating a COP, UN Climate Change Conference, Teams of eco-delegates from each school had been given the mandate to represent their respective institution as "an independant nation". The goal was to negociate commitments, funding, and action plans to sign a binding Inter-high School Climate Accord. It involved six schools, to come up with an objective of One agreement and 4 pillars of actions.
Like for a proper COP, the Roadmap to the Accord included a preparation phase, the first phase, that had been conducted prior to the event by the delegation assembly and school audit of each high school. The second phase during the event itself, was the time of discussion in commissions divided in specific specialized working groups (4 pillars). The third phase was the summit itself ,which included plenary sessions and negociations. And finally the fourth phase was the one of the ratification, during which each school formally signed the Inter-High Schools Climate Accord 2026.
Eco-delegates teams, had prepared a brief summary of the outcome of their shool audit in terms of carbon footprint and a designated speaker presented it to the audience. Each of them detailed the audit results first in terms of profile (location , number of students and age of the infrastructures; then in term of energy & infrastructure; third in terms of transportation used to get to schoolsplitting modal between bike, bus, car; and finally in terms of current habits: waste sorting, rainwater reuse, vegetarian options at the canteen, auto-light switch.
Comission A: Energy & building discussing on heating and insulation, lighting efficiency, Energy Intensive equipement
Commission B: Waste & Canteen discussing feasible actions to reduce wate and increase vegeratian and bio alternatives
Commission C: Mobility & Transport looking at daily commute, school trips and faculty transport.
Commission D Awareness & Student life looking at how to mobilize the community, i.e. considering the communication strategy, the workshops, and the cultural change needed.
Rules of engagement were shared at the beginning to ensure the summit could work properly. Eco delegates discoverd and experienced how collectively "nations" can come to a consensus. Raising hand, making short and dynamic interventions of max 30s. to 60s, no "no" but suggesting alternatives or compromises, stating constraints, questioning respectfully, building alliances, listenning and not interrrupting, agreeing on 2 to 4 actions, and getting a concensus or a majority.
On June 8th, for the first edition of the BNE Awards, the E-FESOL Schools Climate Summit won the "Jury Special Prize", rewarding the talents. creativity and coordination efforts that contributed to make this project in favor of climate a real success.
