Delegates from the Permanent Committee of the Alpine Conference came together for the 76th time over the course of two sunny days in Radovljica, Slovenia. From 21 to 22 June 2023, the discussions centred on the climate priority of the Slovenian Presidency of the Alpine Convention and other issues in preparation for the next Alpine Conference in 2025. This was the first meeting of the Permanent Committee under the Slovenian Presidency.
The Presidency gave an update on its two-year programme with the three priority areas: quality of life as the main topic, environmental education with an emphasis on climate change, and biodiversity. Slovenia took over the presidency from Switzerland at the XVII Alpine Conference in Brig at the end of October 2022. Since the beginning of 2023, the Slovenian Presidency has been active in carrying out its presidency programme.
Under the priority of environmental education, the Presidency is organising an international conference “Schools for climate action in the Alps” from 28-29 September 2023. The conference will take place in Bohinj, Slovenia, and will focus on formal and informal school educationon climate change mitigation and adaptation for youth aged five to nineteen years old.
A discussion on the implementation the corresponding priority area of the Multi-Annual Work Programme 2023–2030, “taking ambitious climate action”, was also on the agenda of the Permanent Committee. The delegates outlined their ongoing activities that contribute to the achievement of the MAP climate priority and exchanged on the biggest opportunities and challenges for implementation.
Quality of life in the Alps is also the topic of the 10th Report on the State of the Alps and the ad hoc Working Group gave delegates an update on the elaboration process. The structure of the report was also adopted at the 76th Permanent Committee. The final report will be presented at the XVIII Alpine Conference in January 2025. On behalf of the Working Group, the University of Ljubljana is conducting a survey on quality of life which will contribute to the report and is open until 31 July 2023.
The Permanent Committee also received an insight into the recent work of the Youth Parliament to the Alpine Convention (YPAC). This year’s YPAC session took place in Sonthofen (Germany) and YPAC delegates from the ten participating schools worked on “Quality of life in the Alps”, the priority topic of the Slovenian Presidency. Students from the Rudolf Maister Grammar and Secondary School Kamnik presented the final resolutions at the meeting.
Finally, the members of the Permanent Committee had the chance to hear from a delegation from the Andean Mountain Initiative. The Andean representatives presented their ongoing work and exchanged with the Alpine Convention delegates on issues of transnational mountain cooperation and governance.
