Citizen Climate Adaptation Awards presented to students aged 15-24

On Friday afternoon, April 16, students from the CSG Bogerman College from Sneek and students from the University of Groningen and Van Hall Larenstein received the Citizen Climate Adaptation Awards (CCA Awards). UG/Campus Fryslân and Wetterskip Fryslân challenged young people between 15-24 years with a competition to think about a society in a climate-proof Netherlands. The climate prize is awarded once every two years to young people who come up with innovative ideas for climate adaptation.

"At Campus Fryslân climate adaptation is an important theme. Therefore we developed together with the Center on Climate Adaptation a Massive Online Open Course called Making Climate Adaptation Happen. Next to that we will start a specialization Climate Adaptation Governance under the Master Cultural Geography. By offering these we are not just looking at what is happening, but actually taking action through education. This Citizen Climate Adaptation award also contributes towards taking action and therefore we are thankful for joining Wetterskip Fryslân in organizing this event." says prof. Andrej Zwitter of Campus Fryslân. Dijkgraaf Luzette Kroon of Wetterskip Fryslân: "The climate is changing; we often have to deal with extreme rainfall and periods of drought. Innovative ideas about climate adaptation are needed more than ever. We like to challenge young people to think about the choices we have to make today for the solutions for their future".

Presentation

The CCA Awards were presented by the chairman of the jury and former dijkgraaf Paul van Erkelens and jeugddijkgraaf Merel Fiets. Prior to the award ceremony, the candidates briefly presented their project idea to the jury. They could choose from two competitions: "the climate-proof city" for young people between the ages of 15-18, and "building a future-proof Netherlands" for young people in the age category 19-24.

Winners

The winners of 2021 have become in category 1 (15-18 years): Jasmine Pasha Fahri, Afke Marij van der Goot and Amarins Tjalsma (1st prize), Sanne-Fleur de Jonge and Luna de Jong (2nd prize), Sjoerd Jan de Jong, Thijs Dijkman and Nemo Ding (3rd prize). And in category 2 (19-24 years): Filip Jankowski, Paolo Parboni and Anthony Simpatico (1st prize), Aline Wemmenhove and Judith de Hollander (2nd prize) and Hugo Mohr and Gijs Verkooijen (3rd prize).

About the price

The Citizen Climate Adaptation Award, in honor of the work of former dijkgraaf Paul van Erkelens, has been made possible by Wetterskip Fryslân and UG / Campus Fryslân. It is a citizen science prize that will be awarded once every 2 years from 2021 to young people aged 15-24 who contribute innovative ideas about climate adaptation. With the aim of creating awareness around the theme of climate adaptation and encouraging young people to explore solutions.