On June 4, eve of the UN World Environment Day, British Council marked the completion of the first year of Challenge Europe and the launch of its second year on board a ship anchored on the Danube River in our capital Bratislava.

The event, called, Climate Change: Challenges for Slovakia, brought together current and potential Climate Advocates, project partners, the Ministry for the Environment, NGOs that are active in related fields, media, teachers and young designers.

Climatologist Prof Milan Lapin gave the invited audience a professional presentation on climate change in Slovakia, explaining what the main issues for our country are. The UNEP office based in Vienna provided information related to climate change and the British Council Challenge Europe team presented their project.

Slovak Climate Advocates reported on their activities and achievements in the first year of this project to the audience and the winners of the competition to design T-shirts capturing the gravity of climate change were presented with their prizes by Katka Koscova, who together with Prof Lapin is a patron of Challenge Europe in Slovakia.

The inspiring programme ended with a presentation of certificates to the Climate Advocates who had successfully completed the first year of Challenge Europe.
 

In early July, 20 Advocates from Scotland, England and Wales converged on the Eden Project in Cornwall for their second meeting and with the aim of deciding on four challenges to take forward this year.

Team GB came up with more than 70 ideas at their first meeting and despite working together virtually to research the feasibility of the various ideas, they still had 20 ideas on the table by the time of the event. Whittling these down to just four was an enormous task, therefore.

Advocates took it in turns to champion their project ideas and decisions were then made on them by the group as a whole. Critical feedback was also provided by a panel of experts, including Eden staff members, an Environmental Lawyer, a journalist and also experts from Christian Aid and the South West England Regional Development Agency. This feedback enabled the Advocates to reflect on and refine their ideas.

The four ideas that merged from the weekend were; (i) Carbon Retreat (provisional title) – design a course aimed at providing positive engagement on the issues of climate change; (ii) Charge of the Light Brigade – aim of highlighting to businesses how they waste energy and offer constructive advice to save energy and empower and engage them in personal action on climate change; (iii) Lorax - produce an education pack that accompanies the "Lorax" book for teachers to discuss the perils of unsustainable consumption with children; (iv) project to engage / educate Community Councils on ways to combat Climate Change.

Teams have been formed around these ideas and roles are being established. The Advocates are continuing to work together virtually throughout the summer to develop the ideas further.

 On June 7, a rainy summer Sunday, the staunchest residents of Vilnius gathered for a European Street Fair organized by the European Commission. The Fair took place on the bridge of Žirmūnai, which was closed to traffic for to the occasion. The topic of the Street Fair was climate change, and the British Council decided to invite one of the Lithuanian Challenge Europe Projects – the Eco Lab – as participants.

One of the Climate Advocates, designer Mantas Lesauskas, was demonstrating to Fair visitors and other participants how something new and useful could be created from old, throw-away automobile tyres. The artist decided to demonstrate, how to make “a sports motorbike” from a pile of old tyres and precisely cut tyre pieces. The “motorbike” can be used in a playground for children or as a design piece to decorate a garage or any other place.

On Friday 12th June and Saturday 13th June 2009, the British Council held its Launch Event for Year 2 of the Challenge Europe project at the British Council office in Manchester and the offices of the Manchester Environmental Resource Centre Initiative. By the end of the event, not only were the Advocates inspired and enthused by the project but as a team they had generated lots of ideas to take forward and consider as potential projects.