ECRAN Environment and Climate Forum: Climate Change and Policy
Date: 23-24.04.2015
Place: Zagreb, Croatia
Organizer: ECRAN Secretariat
The EU accession process provides wide-ranging opportunities for civil society involvement, but there
is often lack of complex understanding of the process and missing technical knowledge and know-
how in many areas of the environmental and climate acquis. There is also relatively high fluctuation
of the people in the NGOs and many newcomers lack understanding of the scope and opportunities
for the civil society involvement.
To address this problem, the project team works closely with EF NGOs in designing and
implementation of the capacity building programme. The list of up to 10 priority areas and topics
relevant for the NGOs in the region, and in this stage of the development, was identified early in
2014. Based on the list, the ECF prepared Training Needs Assessment (TNA) questionnaire and
subsequently conducted in depth assessment of the training needs under the ten most prior topics
and areas based on which the NGOs Specific Regional Training Plan is prepared. The NGOs Specific
Regional Training Plan contains up to two regional trainings per year (in total up to 6 NGO specific
regional trainings). ). The TNA identified climate change as one of the priorities for training. Based on
this, Training module 2 is designed and developed, aiming to increase key NGOs capacities in the
climate change policies, practice and climate change science, technical aspects of the EU accession
process and to improve the knowledge base on scope and opportunities for civil society involvement.
Objectives of the meeting
Objectives of the meeting are:
- To explain and provide holistic picture on the EU climate change policies and practice, discuss role and responsibilities of the key actors;
- To improve the knowledge, know-how and skill of the civil society representatives in technical aspects of climate change negotiations, key policies and steps;
- To support better implementation of legislation, better information sharing and public involvement through professional non-state actors participation in process.
Expected Results of the meeting
Expected results of the meeting include:
- Strengthening the knowledge base of ECF NGOs on the EU and national bodies involved in the EU accession and climate change related processes, in-depth understanding of actors and potential conflicts, opportunities and threats;
- Complex understanding of the goals and objectives of the EU climate policies and scale of opportunities for the NGOs involvement;
- In-depth understanding of possibilities and potential challenges for non-state actors and how to campaign, monitor and influence policies and practice for climate change mitigation;
