Why is Student Energy hosting this dialogue?

One of Student Energy’s main goals as an organization is to break down the communication barrier between young people and influential actors in the energy system, with the goal to have more honest conversations on areas of disagreement, create pathways for true accountability, and identify ways of working together in an equitable way. We also recognize the increasingly short timeline we have to decarbonize and transform our current energy system to address the climate crisis, and the urgent need to mobilize all actors in the energy system to support this transition. As young people are leading the movement for climate action around the world, we hope that creating an opportunity for honest dialogue between youth and energy companies can help accelerate this transition. We often do this by bringing diverse young people into spaces and dialogues where they historically have not been represented — with national and international governments, energy companies, and other powerful institutions that influence our global energy system.

Our approach to hosting an equitable dialogue

We know that simply inviting young people to share space with decision-makers isn’t enough. We need to actively address the inequities that young people often face in being able to participate in these processes, whether they are cost barriers, insufficient access to information and context, or inability to participate in the agenda-setting process so they can have the conversation on their own terms.

To address these inequities for this particular dialogue, Student Energy will be providing comprehensive coaching and support to the 2-3 youth moderators who will guide the discussion, including our training on public speaking, group facilitation, sharing and owning personal lived experience, and asking critical questions. We believe this coaching process will help ensure that young people feel more confident in asserting their knowledge and articulating their perspectives regarding Canada’s energy system and Cenovus’s ESG targets.

About Student Energy

Student Energy is a global youth-led organization empowering the next generation of leaders who are accelerating the transition to a sustainable, equitable energy future. We work with a network of 50,000 young people from over 120 countries to build the knowledge, skills, and networks they need to take action on energy. Student Energy collaborates with governments, companies, and organizations to facilitate meaningful youth engagement and mobilize resources to support youth-led energy solutions. 

About Cenovus

Cenovus Energy Inc. is a Canadian integrated oil and natural gas company. It is committed to maximizing value by sustainably developing its assets in a safe, innovative and cost-efficient manner, integrating environmental, social and governance considerations into its business plans. Operations include oil sands projects in northern Alberta, which use specialized methods to drill and pump the oil to the surface, and established natural gas and oil production in Alberta and British Columbia. The company also has 50% ownership in two U.S. refineries. Cenovus shares trade under the symbol CVE, and are listed on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges. For more information, visit cenovus.com.

Links to donate, petitions, and anti-racism resource guides can be found at the bottom of this post.

The widespread activism and collective organizing in the United States, Canada, and now globally over the past several days has brought racial injustice to the forefront of digital media and discourse. This movement is not new: Black activists and organizations, particularly young people, have been organizing for decades to dismantle and rebuild inherently racist and unjust legal, educational, and governance systems that give rise to police brutality and state violence. However, this moment calls for all organizations regardless of sector to learn, support and amplify movements led by Black activists, and to encourage their network to do the same.

While systemic racism and police violence in the United States may dominate news media coverage, we cannot ignore that systemic racism and state violence are prevalent in Canada as well. Ongoing violence against Black and Indigenous communities in Canada is something we must address even after this moment, even in spaces or situations where it may not be comfortable to do so.

In the energy industry and in the energy and climate advocacy space, there is an underlying, and often unnamed issue: While some organizations do advocate for justice and equity as an integral part of a sustainable energy future, there are countless others whose advocacy is limited only to technological and policy solutions to reduce emissions and achieve economic growth. These incomplete approaches aim to address the climate crisis without explicitly addressing the systemic racism and injustice present in the energy system, in the climate crisis, and in the environmental movement. As Student Energy’s vision is to empower young people to create an energy future that is both sustainable and equitable, it’s extremely important to start this conversation with our fellow organizations in the energy space.

Student Energy’s Theory of Change outlines our values as an organization, and these values are centered on listening to and empowering young people and embedding equity and climate justice as an integral part of the energy transition. Recognizing that we are often in spaces where we are one of few youth-led organizations represented, raising critical questions on justice and equity in relation to the energy transition and climate change is an important part of our daily work. Here are some immediate and long-term actions we are taking as an organization to ensure that we are also explicitly incorporating anti-racist principles and advocacy to the work that we do:

• We are researching and developing a framework to embed anti-racism and equity into how we design and collaborate on programs with our partners. This framework will serve to increase the accessibility of our programs to BIPOC youth, resourcing for BIPOC youth-led sustainable energy initiatives, and support youth-led work with direct impacts on human rights in energy such as universal access, health and safety, energy in disaster responses, anti-discrimination in energy, community and Indigenous rights, and the relationship between conflict and energy.

• We will be adding additional anti-racism resources to our Communicating Justice and Equity in the Energy Transition training that is a part of staff onboarding. This resource is an introduction to the concepts of energy and climate justice, and explores historical and ongoing inequity across all aspects of the global energy system. For a condensed introduction to energy justice, including a case study of anti-Blackness in the energy system, please see our social media resource here.

• The impacts of climate change, the economic downturn, and the long-term effects of COVID-19 will be disproportionately felt by BIPOC communities. As we are an organization based in Canada, we will be advocating for Canada’s climate plans and COVID-19 recovery efforts to address systemic racial and economic inequity and include plans on how the future clean economy will not just be sustainable, but equitable.

Read more about what it means to have a just recovery from COVID-19 here.

• We will continue to seek out, work with, compensate and recommend Black-led organizations, speakers, and service providers.
• We will hold space in the workplace far beyond the next several weeks to continue to learn together about what anti-racist advocacy looks like for Student Energy, for the global climate movement, and for our team as individuals.

Finally, we want to emphasize that Student Energy’s conversations on equity and anti-racism in the climate and energy space will continue well beyond this current moment. We are committed to ongoing learning as an organization, and taking action to address anti-Black, anti-Indigenous and other forms of racism in the climate and energy space. We are committed to addressing economic and power inequities for young people globally and at an intersectional level, whether that means reducing barriers to access leadership-development and educational opportunities, accessing decision-making spaces, or being better equipped to implement appropriate climate solutions for their communities.

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If you are able to, one effective way to take action no matter where you are is by donating to support directly affected individuals, community organizations, and frontline organizers. On Instagram, we shared links to donate to the following organizations and fundraisers that are seeking donations at this time:

•       Black Lives Matter
•       NAACP Legal Defense Fund
•       Black Visions Collective
•       Reclaim the Block
•       Official George Floyd Memorial Fund
•       Justice for Regis GoFundMe

Please see the following lists for more organizations to support and ways to take action – these are continuously updated:

•       Support funds, anti-racism resource guides, petitions and ways to take action (includes Canada-focused actions)
•       Support bail funds and organizers
•       Support harmed Black-owned businesses

December 2nd marks the start of COP 25, led by the Chilean Presidency, but held in Madrid, Spain. Student Energy has 4 team members on the ground this year, and we are closely following the negotiations, while advocating for meaningful youth inclusion and youth-led energy solutions to play a central role in countries’ efforts to tackle the climate crisis. The last-minute change in venue from Chile to Madrid has also left many young people unable to attend, so Student Energy is even more committed to amplify the youth voice at this year’s conference.

Our Mission at COP 25: Set the Stage for Youth-Led Solutions

• Amplify the youth voice, and highlight young people’s leadership in transforming the energy system.
• Put the wheels in motion for an unprecedented level of global youth leadership and intergenerational collaboration at next year’s critical COP26. 
• Communicate progress on countries’ and non-state actors’ goals to decarbonize their energy systems, and their efforts to involve youth in that process.
• Advocate for stronger leadership from government and industry decision-makers in the energy sector to implement energy solutions that are just, equitable, in partnership with young people.

We’ll be sharing what we’re seeing and learning, and how we’re taking action, on our social media. Join us: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

CONTEXT FOR COP 25

The world is not on track. But there is a crucial window of opportunity.

Throughout 2019, we’ve seen (and been a part of) the rapidly growing global youth movement calling for stronger climate action. Young people are not only sounding the alarm on the climate crisis, they are ready and driven to implement cross-cutting solutions to address the challenge at the pace it requires.

So it is all the more frustrating that as a global society, we are not yet on track to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions quickly enough to keep global heating to below 1.5C. The latest Emissions Gap report paints a devastating picture of where we are and where we’re going — toward a 3.2 degree warmer world if we don’t accelerate action now. UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierres noted today that we are set to produce more fossil fuels than is consistent with a 1.5 degree pathway. 

How can we change course?

“COUNTRIES MUST INCREASE THEIR NDC AMBITIONS THREEFOLD TO ACHIEVE THE WELL BELOW 2°C GOAL AND MORE THAN FIVEFOLD TO ACHIEVE THE 1.5°C GOAL.”

(Emissions Gap Report 2019)

Next year, COP 26, will mark five years since the signing of the Paris Agreement, and parties will be expected to strengthen their NDCs, or Nationally Determined Contributions, which are the tangible efforts put forward by countries to reduce their emissions and adapt to climate change. In order to bend the emissions curve downward, countries will need to drastically strengthen their NDCs, particularly in regards to transforming their energy systems. And we know this can’t be done without the active and meaningful engagement of young people around the world.

About Student Energy

Student Energy is on a mission to empower young people around the world to accelerate the sustainable energy transition, by building the important skills young people to take action, while mobilizing resources to support youth-led energy solutions. Our global network of 50,000 young people come from 150 countries, from all academic and professional backgrounds, with a shared goal to create their sustainable energy future.