Climate, Energy and Resources - Education through SPARE

On November 6, Peterhof (St. Petersburg) hosted a meeting of SPARE-Russian regional coordinators at the All-Russian conference “Climate, Energy and Resources - Solutions for the Future” The coordinators shared the successes and challenges of the project in their regions and discussed the development plan for the School project on Application of Resource and Energy in the coming years.

The working meeting was attended by the SPARE coordinators of the Arkhangelsk, Bryansk, Irkutsk, Kaliningrad, Leningrad, Moscow regions, the Republic of Karelia, Yekaterinburg, Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug (Ugra), as well as partners from Norway.

Participants shared their work experience over the past year - which new partners and educational institutions are involved in the project, which areas of the project are developing most intensively in the regions, how actively the contest "Energy and the environment" and the Energy Saving Day are held.

Energy Saving Day - 2019 will be held on November 11 in Russian schools. This Day was introduced by the international project SPARE and is now celebrated in various government institutions. This year's Day is dedicated to saving energy by saving resources. Schools reports on the Day will be published on the webpage.

Discussion of development of All-Russian contest "Energy and the environment" – is the important part of meeting. Together with energy conservation and energy efficiency topic, in the coming years, special attention will be paid to the development of the topic of energy conservation through resource conservation and the creation of schools climate plans. Most often, schoolchildren’s projects in the direction of resource saving are devoted to the problem of waste management - how through separate collection and recycling of waste can save resources and energy, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The nomination "School climate plan" exists in the competition for the third year and is popular in all regions. The coordinators shared what approaches and features in the development of school climate plans they identified in their regions - close work with the school’s environmental council, small practical solutions at the school level, the active participation of schoolchildren in the development of climate planes, the presence of short-term and long-term planning. The coordinators discussed which aspects of climate plans are most important and once again indicated that the goal of the school’s climate plan is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy and resource-saving solutions at the school level, and it is important to calculate CO2 emissions in climate planes.

The coordinators familiarized themselves with the new international SPARE-book “Climate, Energy and the Environment”, developed by the Norwegian Society for the Nature Conservation together with Russian SPARE-experts. The manual talks about the problem of climate change, energy and its forms, methods of climate conservation, energy conservation and energy efficiency.

The SPARE coordinators were awarded with certificates and prizes that they will give to the winners of the “Energy and Environment” contest of the 2018-2019 school year in their regions.

In addition to the working meeting, the conference presented the SPARE project materials, launched the Energy Efficient Building exhibition, and presented the Energy Case, which was attended by participants and guests - more than 80 people from 30 regions of Russia.