LES JEUNES VS LES POLITIQUES ! | LIMIT (CONFERENCE REDIF)

Opening of the LIMIT conference dedicated to youth and climate, featuring a tribute video tracing school climate strikes launched in 2019 by Anuna De Wever and Adélaïde Charlier.

• 2023 is a record year for greenhouse gas emissions (41 billion tonnes of CO2) • The warmest year in approximately 125,000 years, averaging +1.46°C • 81% of the global population affected by heat waves • Canada wildfires: 2.5 times the size of Belgium burned

• Rising electric vehicle sales and cleaner global electricity mix • Amazon deforestation down 61% • Announced end to deep-sea fishing by the European Commission • Recognition of ecocide as a crime, with Belgium the first country to enshrine it in law

Call to challenge leaders ahead of European and Belgian elections, demanding concrete action rather than promises.

Adélaïde Charlier reflects on the 20 weeks of marches in 2019, collaboration with the climate panel, and the shift from militant activism to deeper, collective activism.

• Success after 2 years of mobilization in getting Total Energy to withdraw sponsorship from Brussels 20km • Less successful mobilization against the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), deemed still too intensive

Video message taking a more radical stance, denouncing links between colonialism, capitalism and climate crisis, and calling for broadening the struggle to other movements (including the Palestinian cause).

Both activists call for continued mobilization in the face of rising far-right politics and the temptation of a European regulatory 'pause'.

Architect Léo Van Broeck presents the 9 planetary boundaries, 6 of which are now exceeded, and explains that 80% of biodiversity has already disappeared even before climate change worsens.

• Belgium would need 4.1 planets if everyone lived like a Belgian (overshoot day March 26) • 99.9% of vertebrate mammals are humans or livestock, representing only 1% of living carbon • The 8 richest people own more than 50% of the poorest

Land use and the capitalist economic model are identified as the main causes of biodiversity loss, more so than climate change alone.

• Growth in national parks and site rewilding in Belgium • Reduced land conversion in Flanders (from 5 to 3.8 hectares/day) • Citizen renewable energy cooperatives like Ecopower

• It's real: warming is measured and visible • It's us: human responsibility is clear • Experts have agreed for nearly 30 years (IPCC) • It's serious, but there is hope through known solutions

Explanation of the direct link between CO2 concentration in the atmosphere (rising from 315 to 425 ppm) and temperature rise, through thickening of Earth's thermal insulation layer.

Global emissions must be halved repeatedly until reaching net-zero by 2050 to have any hope of staying below 1.5°C.

Screening of a poem-letter personifying the 'climate system' addressing the COP28 president, demanding elimination of fossil fuels and end to net deforestation by 2050.

Aurélien de Thibault (French-speaking Youth Forum) and Simon Sterckx/Dane Vanenberghe (Vlaamse Jeugdraad) present the role of youth councils in political representation.

• Consultation of many young people through workshops and surveys (minimum 1000 opinions to publish a statement) • Expert consultation to support science-based recommendations • Internal debates then broad media communication and action

• Lack of environmental education in schooling • Intergenerational inequalities: a child born today will experience far more heat waves • Need for a just transition that doesn't forget vulnerable groups

Presence at COP28, the Unicef pre-COP, and during Belgium's EU Council presidency to bring youth voice to decision-makers.

A participant regrets the limited focus on concrete solutions (mobility, insulation) compared to problem description.

Representatives stress dialogue with relevant sectors rather than technical expertise, and a collective rather than individual vision.

A speaker, chair of Brussels' climate committee, emphasizes that indirect emissions (imported) are 80 to 100 times higher than direct emissions counted.

Applause for young speakers before lunch break and visit to the Animalia exhibition at Train World.

Kate Raworth presents the 'donut' economic model: leave no one below the social foundation while respecting the ceiling of planetary boundaries.

She critiques the obsession with growth inherited from the 20th century and calls for regenerative and distributive economies rather than degenerative and unequal ones.

Shift from an era of private luxury to an era of public luxury and private sufficiency, with more shared common goods.

She honors Jean-Pascal van Ypersele's lifetime of work for climate, marking the close of his active academic career.

Belgium must accelerate climate action; current policies stabilize emissions but don't cut them enough to reach net-zero by 2050.

• Urgent decarbonization of electricity, transport, and buildings • Significant effort also needed in industry and agriculture • Necessary combination of technological measures and behavior/society changes

More companies are committing through initiatives like Science Based Targets, despite current political pressure to slow environmental regulation.

The transition to net-zero emissions is broadly job-creating for Belgium, despite necessary sectoral retraining.

The 2019 marches led to major change: European target shifted from -40% to -55% emissions for 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050.

• European Green Deal: 12 legislations adopted (Fit for 55) • Next Generation EU: at least 37% of 750 billion borrowed directed to ecological transition • EU decision to hold firm despite COVID and conservative pressure

• Not against us: account for different impacts on vulnerable populations • Not without us: need for genuine democratic dialogue processes • Not just us: differentiated responsibility between countries and social classes, international solidarity

• Increased ambition: -95% by 2040 • True inter-federal national energy-climate plan • Housing-energy, mobility and 100% renewable energy planning pact • CAP reform, just transition, massive investment, policy coherence, international solidarity

Jérôme Meessen explains the European green taxonomy, a technical tool for directing financial investment toward activities truly compatible with the Green Deal.

Debate on lower protest numbers compared to 2019, with explanations about diversified activism forms and the risk of over-burdening youth.

Nicolas Van Nuffel defends civil disobedience necessity while denouncing attempts to criminalize social protest (anti-vandalism law, obstruction of traffic).

Discussion on initiatives like 'Sign for my Future' and the importance of climate-friendly business leaders having greater influence in their representative organizations.

Progress on Green Deal (expanded carbon market, renewables, carbon border tax, end of gas cars by 2035) but setbacks on green taxonomy including gas and pesticides.

Projections show possible right and far-right majority in European Parliament, with risk that far-right seeks to abolish the Green Deal.

Need for a climate social fund (87 billion euros planned from 2026) to prevent transition from burdening the most vulnerable.

Call to vote and mobilize, citing recent victories (Total Energy sponsorship withdrawal, resolution against deep-sea mining).

• Risk of global shift if Donald Trump is elected in 2024 • Systematic arbitration favoring 'end of month' over 'end of world' • Banalization of ecological discourse that loses its activist character

Denouncing media-prominent researchers who transform ecological messaging into personal business, eroding its credibility.

• More coherent and clear ecological action • Stronger collective commitment to IPCC-defended causes • Greater use of legal means (climate litigation)

Call for strong mobilization for European elections, the only lever he sees to counter right-wing shift and rejection of collective climate constraints.

Climate change and biodiversity loss are presented as two expressions of the same unsustainable consumption system, to be treated together.

Presented as the EU's most ambitious response, linking environment and social concerns for the first time, based on scientific knowledge and -90% emissions target by 2040.

• Record profits for major oil companies (200 billion $) against difficulties finding 100 million for climate fund • Need for circular economy (refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, rethink)

Citing Jean Monnet, he affirms preferring determination to optimism or pessimism facing climate urgency.

Definition of eco-anxiety (legitimate concern about climate disruption) and solastalgia (nostalgia for already-suffered losses), presented as healthy emotions to listen to.

• Instinctive survival program driving ever-greater consumption (dopamine) • Internal dissociations between reason and emotion • Cognitive dissonances and double binds creating resistance to change

• Business as usual / denial / greenwashing • Passivity by leaving responsibility to experts • Collapse and survivalism • Course change: collective engagement and hope

• Develop emotional intelligence and self-empathy • Practice Joanna Macy's 'work that reconnects' in intergenerational groups • Act in three spheres: resistance, building alternatives, consciousness change

Musical moment allowing political party leaders to join the room before the main debate.

The singer performs a song about climate and hope, with a participatory refrain ('Home') repeated by the audience.

The song evokes young people in the streets, the urgency to act together, and the idea that the future is within each of us.

Friendly and festive moment before the political debate, with active audience participation.

Presence of representatives from many Belgian parties (PS, MR, Ecolo, Les Engagés, Défi, CD&V, Vooruit, Groen, Open VLD, PVDA), moderated by Béatrice Delvaux and Nick Balthazar.

Questions prepared by about fifty young people that same afternoon, mixing yes/no questions and timed open questions.

• Climate ambitions versus electoral concerns, climate refugee status, binding citizen panel • Kerosene taxation, day commemorating climate victims, SUV restrictions • Civil disobedience, climate and social justice, company cars, climate litigation

Unanimous or near-unanimous agreement on several questions (kerosene taxation, commemoration day, removal of company cars); sharper disagreements on binding citizen panel.

Aurélien de Thibault and a Youth Forum representative thank present politicians and stress the urgency to act, citing a climate victim and adoption of commemoration day.

Screening of a video tracing Jean-Pascal van Ypersele's journey from childhood astronomy passion to climatologist career and IPCC vice-president role.

• Talent as mediator in international negotiations (COP) • Commitment to social justice and against harassment at UCLouvain • Belief that 'the future is not destiny'

Marc Dubrulle, co-founder of Inter-Environnement and Ecolo, honors Jean-Pascal van Ypersele as embodiment of humanistic commitment to the planet, before the evening's festive part.