GEF at the Green Days: On the Way to COP26

About the Event: 

The past year has taught us painful but vital lessons about our relation to nature, the importance of often underfunded public services, and other topics which the Greens have been highlighting for years. Yet as the green wave continues rolling, and with pandemic lessons fresh on our mind, now is precisely the time to refocus attention on key challenges like the climate emergency and to ensure that green-minded activists and politicians are ready to take responsibility at all levels.       

The annual Green Days conference is an important moment of learning and exchange for the green movement in Poland and beyond. GEF is hosting several sessions at this event – tackling important topics on the road to COP26. We will address the question of rare-earth metals, a crucial but challenging aspect of the energy and digital transition. We will also ask ourselves what feminist climate and foreign policy looks like, heading to Glasgow, as well as dive into local and regional recovery plans. Finally, we will host a session on agriculture – a sector that is at times particularly hard to reach in our pursuit of a climate emergency economy.

Context: 

These seminars are being organised as part of the transnational projects Climate Emergency Economy, Metals for a Green and Digital Europe, Feminists in the Climate Movement, and Cities as Places of Hope. For more information about each of these projects and the other partners involved, please check out their respective project pages on the GEF website.  

Speakers:

The extensive line up of speakers includes:

• Michael Bloss (MEP, Greens/EFA)
• Urszula Zielińska (Polish Green Party MP)
• Iwona Reichardt (New Eastern Europe journal)
• Tomasz Piątek (investigative journalist, expert on Russia)
• Joanna Maria Stolarek (Director HBS Warsaw)
• Thomas Simpson (Green Foundation Ireland)
• Jakop Dalunde (MEP, Greens/EFA)
• Jan Popczyk (Silesian University of Technology)
• Elżbieta Anna Polak (President of the Region of Lubuskie)

And many more!

Programme:  

Friday, August 27^th

11:30 – 13:00 “Agriculture friendly for climate, farmers, biodiversity, consumer health, animal welfare and future generations – utopia or necessity?”

• With Tomasz Kowalczewski (senior expert at COWI and author of the EC report “Carbon Economy – studies on support to research and innovation policy in bio-based products and services”), Thomas Simpson (Green Foundation Ireland), Dorota Metera (Forum for Ecological Farming), Justyna Zwolińska (Living Earth Coalition), and more!

15:00 – 16:30 ‘’Green Europe of regions and cities – recovery and climate challenges’’

• With Jakop Dalunde (Greens/EFA MEP), Przemysław Słowik (Green local councillor from Szczecin), Ada Colaou (Mayor of Barcelona), Elżbieta Anna Polak (President of the Region of Lubuskie), Miłosława (Miłka) Stępień (Akcja Konin/ Bankwatch), and more!

Saturday, August 28^th

9:30 – 11:00 “Europe and Poland in the new global geopolitics of recovery, climate and resources’’

• With Michael Bloss (Greens/EFA MEP), Urszula Zielińska (Polish Green Party MP), Richard Wouters (Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks, Tomasz Piątek (investigative journalist, expert on Russia), Dariusz Szwed (Green Institute), Joanna Maria Stolarek (Director HBS Warsaw), Małgorzata Kopka (former international policy coordinator at HBS Warsaw), and more!

11:30 – 13:00 – Digital economy and artificial intelligence – ethics, responsibility, human rights

Host: Kim van Sparrentak (MEP, online)

With: Anna Adamowicz (Polish technology philosopher), Sarah Chander (EDRI, online, tbc.), Maciej Józefowicz (Partia Zieloni) oraz Karolina Iwańska (online or video,  Fundacja Panoptykon).

• Lead by: Ioana Banach (Managing Director, Green European Foundation) and Kuba Bilski (Fundacja Strefa Zieleni Council/Partia Zieloni Council) 

16:15 – 17:15 “Women on the way to Glasgow – climate and feminist diplomacy and foreign policy”

• With Iwona Reichardt (New Eastern Europe journal), Małgorzata Kopka (former international policy coordinator at the HBS Warsaw), and more!

16:00 – 18:30 ‘Metals for a Green and Digital Europe (workshop – activists and experts will work on regional insights for GEF’s Agenda for Action)

• With Radosław Gawlik (EKO-UNIA/PZ), Urszula Zielińska (MP), Prof. Jan Popczyk (Silesian University of Technology), Dr. Krzysztof Dudek (Mining and Metallurgy Academy/PZ), Dariusz Szwed (Green Institute), Ewa Sufin-Jacquemart (Strefa Zieleni), and more!

Please note that this programme is provisional and subject to change. Some speakers will be joining online or via video message. You can access the full Green Days schedule – including more speakers and other sessions not organised by GEF – via this link.

Practicalities: 

The summer school will be taking place in person at the junction of three provinces: Wielkopolskie, Zachodniopomorskie and Lubuskie, in the Pestkownica settlement belonging to the Krzyż Wielkopolski commune, in the Drawska Great Forest – 200 km east of Berlin. Most sessions feature simultaneous translation in English and Polish.

There is no registration form in English. International participants and panellists who would like to take part in situ are asked to send the information to fundacja@strefazieleni.org with name(s) of participant(s), time and place of arrival/departure, and the relevant Covid-19 information (see details below).

Livestreaming will not be possible, but some sessions will be recorded in English and in Polish for later online viewing.

Transfers

We will have an autocar from the main rail station in Poznań (Poznań Główny) on the August 26th at 15:45 (we will wait however in any case for the arrival of the train from Warszawa, the planned arrival is 15:28). The same day at 22:00 we will organise a car transfer for a few persons. The nearest station is DOBIEGNIEW (25 km from the site) and we will organise transfers from/to there, case by case.

Price and Payment

The organisers offer all the conference logistics and the content, the participants pay the hotel, food and transport (except organised local transfers). The price of the full stay (2 nights with breakfast + 5 lunches/dinners) is 605 PLN (~ 140 EUR) that the participant will be able to pay directly on site if he/she needs an invoice, or pay by bank transfer before the event to Fundacja Strefa Zieleni, if he/she doesn’t need the invoice:

FUNDACJA STREFA ZIELENI, 01-822 Warszawa, ul. E. Schroegera 28, IBAN:   PL66 1020 1097 0000 7602 0237 0450  //  BIC/SWIFT:    BPKOPLPW, title: „Green Days + name(s) of participant(s)”.

COVID-19

Please inform us of the anticipated vaccination or testing status of each participant upon registration.

• The participant will be vaccinated with two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine
• The participant will be vaccinated with one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine
• The participant will not be vaccinated, but will have an up-to-date COVID-19 test (RT-PCR or antigens, done less than 72 hours before the arrival)
• Other situation (please explain)

These summer school sessions are organised by the Green European Foundation, with the support of Strefa Zieleni and the financial support of the European Parliament to the Green European Foundation.