The event of ‘Climate School Be.At’ was organised in the Sport, Culture and Innovation Centre Serafio in Athens and primarily targeted teachers and pupils. The organisers provided numerous games and activities at interactive booths. The goal here was to introduce the children to measures and small things they can do to help save energy and protect the environment.

Children got to know climate-protection measures in fun activities. Photo: (c) City of Athens

For example, the participants had the opportunity to admire an installation by artist Spyros Tsiknas in which electricity is produced using bicycles. A group headed by Stella Marinou, Rogdakis George and Konstantinos Apostolopoulos presented experimental results showing the consequences of climate change, focusing on droughts and catastrophic floods. A range of other organisations and institutions also presented themselves and their work.

One of the welcoming speeches came from the Mayor of Athens, Giorgos Kaminis, who praised the project and talked about other work in the city of Athens to boost climate protection. Maria Iliopoulou (Vice Mayor for the Child) and Constantinos Kontogiannis (academic coordinator of the project) then presented the content and activities of the project, which involves 200 teachers from 80 schools. Eleni Myrivili, Deputy Mayor of Athens, and Marianthi Liapi from the Technical University of Crete also presented climate protection initiatives.

Vice Mayor of Athens, Maria Iliopoulou, presented some of the project’s content. Photo: (c) City of Athens

The ‘Climate School Be.At – Open Societies and Schools in Climate Protection and Energy Transition’ project enables learning experiences thanks to the cooperation between Greece and Germany with regard to educational and technical issues. Components of the programme include training courses for teachers, field research, a climate protection awareness-raising campaign and the creation of a network of participating schools. The Municipality of Athens also plans to develop an action plan for strengthening environmental awareness in school communities. The project is being implemented by the Municipality of Athens, the social cooperative ‘Wind of Renewal’, the non-profit organisation ‘Respect for Greece’ and Germany’s Independent Institute for Environmental Issues (UfU).