Dear ECOS Community!

Here we go again – we are looking forward to meeting many of you at COP25 in Madrid and invite you to join our regular 10 am ECOS morning meetings between 2-13 December 2019 in Meeting Room 15 in the IFEMA venue. In case you won’t be in Madrid, you are welcome to join us here.

Please see the following list of events and happenings (Madrid time) organised/co-organised/supported/attended by the ECOS Steering Committee:

• Monday, Dec 2 – 14:00-17:00 Nordic (NCM) Pavilion – Kicking off a marine COP – facilitated by Viktor Jósa & Jonas Haller
• Tuesday, Dec 3 – 15:00-16.30 – Side-event: Contributions of higher education to climate action and the implementation of the PA
• Tuesday, Dec 3 – 16:30-18:00 Culture and climate action, panel discussion in EU pavilion – ECOS member Henry McGhie on panel
• Thursday, Dec 5: Climate Chain Coalition morning meeting on youth climate action innovation and supporting information systems with https://younginnovators.climate-kic.org/
• Thursday, Dec 5 – 12:30-13:00 – IAAI Press Conference: Youth Climate Action Innovation
• Friday, Dec 6 – 11:30-13:00 Room 4 – Side event: Action for Climate Empowerment: Connecting the global climate crisis, biodiversity and ecosystems
• Friday, Dec 6 – 13:15-14:45 Room 5 – ECOS Side-event: Linking NDCs to multi-sectoral development for community and biodiversity in Africa – moderated by Viktor Jósa
• Friday, Dec 6 – 16:45-18:15 Room 5 – ECOS Side event: CliMates x GYDI – Youth as important stakeholders in the enhancement of the NDCs
• Saturday, Dec 7 – 12:00-12:30 – IAAI Press Conference: Climate Chain Coalition
• Saturday, Dec 7 – 12-1pm – ECOS event in Nordic Pavilion –Curating climate change: museums as capacity builders for Action for Climate Empowerment
• Saturday, Dec 7 – 15:00-16:30 – Side event: Enacting ACE and Building Capacity: Communication, Conflict Management, and Public Participation
• Sunday (rest day), Dec 8 – 12:00-14:00 Madrid Hilton – Development and Climate Days – ECOS retreat day to socialize and recreate
• Monday, Dec 9 – 12:00-12:30 – IAAI Press Conference: Global Climate Action Data Center (Theater)
• Monday, Dec 9 – 19:00 – Climate Generation Webinar – cohosted by ECOS Steering Committee member Deb Morrison
• Tuesday, Dec 10 – 18:30-20:00 – EU pavilion Room Helsinki – Climate Education Office event 
• Tuesday, Dec 10 – Education Day (No 10am ECOS morning meeting
• Tuesday, Dec 10 – 13:00-13:30 – ECOS Press Conference – ECOS: Building the Knowledge Base for Global Climate Action
• Wed/Thursday Dec 11-12: ECOS Booth by Global Youth Development Institute
• Wednesday, Dec 11 – 12:30-13:00: IAAI Press Conference: Climate City Cup
• Wednesday, Dec 11 (outside COP) – Workshop arranged with museum in Madrid (in Spanish) for museum workers on Paris Agreement, ACE, to help empower museum workers and create legacy
• Thursday, Dec 12 – 13.00-13.30 – IAAI Press Conference: Climate Philanthropy Innovation
• Thursday, Dec 12 – 18:30-20:00 – CC: Learn – One UN Climate Learning Side Event

With COP25 on the horizon, sobering news about still rising emissions, and youth joined by their elders striking for climate action around the world, we want to take a moment to update you on what’s been going on behind the scenes with ECOS.
We were established in late 2016 when the UN Climate Change Secretariat recognized the need for a community of education, communication and outreach stakeholders and since then we’ve self organized, hosted meetings at the Subsidiary Body meetings and COPs and begun building our own capacity. At a retreat held at the Omega Institute in New York State, we began to map out plans for the coming months and years, building on the work we’ve done over the past year, including an Organizational Guide, which will continue to evolve. We continue to be volunteer driven but are developing a budget to cover some of the basics that will help ECOS grow, including travel support for those in need. 

We are also beginning to identify existing organizations and projects that are ready to be scaled up. We are exploring the potential for having ECOS serve as an umbrella organization for projects around the world which can be integrated together but are designed to meet local education, communication and outreach needs, such as professional development for educators. If you have projects and would like to be part of this collaborative effort, contact me and we can explore the possibilities.  
In the coming months, we intend to rotate the time of our ECOS core coordination meetings since our meeting times (usually 18:00 Central Europe Time) may work for people in the Americas and Africa but not so much for people in Asia and Oceania. Let us know if you have interested in becoming more involved with these coordination calls.  At COP25, we plan to have morning meetings as we have in the past– one hour gatherings to share information and learn about specific projects or issues. ECOS will have a number of folks attending, and if you plan to be there, let us know so we can keep you updated and, if you provide your Whats App number, we can add you to our list. We will update information through this email list, the Facebook group and our @ClimateECOS twitter account. 

If you are not able to attend COP25 in person, you can also stay current on developments through the Open COP, which will be updated regularly throughout the event, with summaries at 18:00 (6PM) Central Europe Time.  Visit the website for more: https://engage4climate.org/open-cop/

After COP25 we will be working on our recommendations for the Doha Work Programme Review for the ACE- Action for Climate Empowerment program, as well as preparing for Subsidiary Body 52 in Bonn, Germany in June 2020 and the big event, COP26 in Glasgow, which ideally will be the “Education” COP. 
Don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any questions, and please, if you have information or stories to share about your efforts in this arena, use this discussion list to share them.

All the best,Viktor & Mark Co-focal Points for ECOS