**Childcare will be provided

Climate change affects countries and communities in the Global South particularly strongly, while they often have fewer resources to respond to its impacts. This seminar explores how climate change is connected to agriculture and food systems, renewable energy, poverty and global inequalities. We will look at how communities can build resilience, how the transition to renewable energy is changing global power relations, and how climate change can deepen existing patterns of poverty and inequality. Together, we will discuss questions of climate justice, international responsibility and fair cooperation, and explore possible pathways towards a more just and climate-resilient future.

Healthy Minds, Just Futures – Education and Mental Health Worldwide

*event will be held in English

**Childcare will be provided

Education is often considered separately from mental health and global future challenges. Yet young people spend a large part of their daily lives in educational institutions, places that not only provide knowledge, but can also play a crucial role in emotional well-being, participation, and future prospects.

How can education, mental health, and sustainable development be thought together? What role do digitalization, global educational inequalities, and international cooperation play in this context?

Together with experts, students, and practitioners, we will focus in particular on people who are disadvantaged due to poverty, discrimination, or forced displacement, and explore how education can create spaces that empower, stabilize, and open up future opportunities.

Green Beauty? Unmasking the Dark Side of the Cosmetic Industry

According to Euromonitor, sales of premium beauty products were expected to reach 151 billion US dollars in 2023, compared to 100 billion in 2021. The beauty industry is booming like never before. While awareness of the precarious production conditions in the textile sector seems to be steadily increasing, there are hardly any reports on the working conditions and production processes in the cosmetics and beauty sector. Yet cosmetic products are constant companions in our daily lives, often packaged in plastics. However, plastic frequently ends up in the wrong bin, which means it is not recycled and can take up to 500 years to decompose. It finds its way into forests, rivers, agricultural land, and even into food as microplastics – and ultimately into the human body. According to Zero Waste Europe, 120 billion packaging units are produced annually for the global cosmetics industry.
In this seminar, we want to explore the opportunities that Fairtrade-certified raw materials in cosmetics and personal care products can offer – for example, helping producers to increase their Fairtrade sales and access new markets. Many of the Fairtrade raw materials already available could also be used in beauty products, such as shea butter, honey, or sugar. Working conditions, particularly regarding health protection, are significantly better on Fairtrade-certified plantations than on non-certified ones.