Global IssuesCLIMATE CHANGE: Youth Demand Action Now
Children and youth from 120 countries called on world leaders on Tuesday to pay heed to the looming climate crisis and act to prevent the natural disasters that are in store for the planet.
'World leaders must put the interest of future generations above their own,' Saghar Sedighi, a 14-year-old from Iran, told IPS.
'If they don’t listen to us, more disasters such as landslides and floods will happen,' said Iran’s Leili Sharif Bakhtiar, 14, referring to reluctance by the world's leaders to integrate environmental issues into development programmes.
Leili and Saghar are among 1,300 children and youth aged between 10 and 25 years of age attending the ‘TUNZA International Children and Youth Conference on the Environment’, being held this year from Sep. 27 to Oct. 1 in this city, provincial capital of West Java.
Tunza means 'to treat with care and love' in the Kiswahili language and the idea of the conference, hosted by the United Nations Environmental Programmes (UNEP) is to sensitise young people to environmental issues and teach them how to care for the Earth.
Participants at the Tunza, a bi-annual event, were selected from among 3,000 applicants based on environmental projects they submitted and their activities on green issues. Paintings by the participants depicting environmental destruction are on display during the conference.
The Bandung Tunza, themed ‘Reshaping Our Future Through A Green Economy And Sustainable Lifestyle’, was thrown open on Tuesday by Indonesian Vice-President Boediono.
In his keynote speech, Boediono said children and youth were masters of the future, while current leaders were masters of the present. 'The future belongs to children and youths and masters of the present must listen to masters of the future,' he said.
Conference participants will engage in discussions focused on renewable energy, sustainable development, alternative energy sources, eradicating poverty, and eco-friendly initiatives. Saturday, the closing day, will see the young people issue a declaration.
'Our message to the leaders is actually very simple: stop cutting trees and reduce, reuse, and recycle,' said Shamila Sabajo of Surinam. 'We will never stop giving the leaders these simple messages.'
UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said half of the world’s current population is below 25 years of age and therefore, youth must be taken into confidence when world leaders make public policies.
'It is the young people who have to reinvent our economy and the society and they are not powerless,' he said at a press conference after the opening ceremony.
UNEP has organised Tunza conferences for children and youth every two years since 1992. Steiner said this year’s event holds special importance as it is being organised ahead of the Rio+20 Earth Summit in 2012.
World leaders, civil society groups, youth, and children will converge on the Brazilian town again to secure political commitment to sustainable development, evaluate progress made in internationally agreed commitments, and address new and emerging challenges.
Steiner said the 2012 summit would be different as 'the size of the problem we are facing just keeps getting bigger — bigger perhaps than the previous generation ever imagined.'
According to Steiner, the world’s carbon dioxide has gone up by almost 10 percent since 1992 due to continued consumption of fossil fuels to run cars or make electricity. Over the same period, the average global temperatures have also risen by 0.4 degrees Celsius.
Steiner said that the area under forests has fallen by 300 million hectares since early 1990s and over half of the world’s fish stocks are fully exploited, compared to only 13 percent in 1992.
He, however, also pointed at several achievements of countries around the world. 'Protected areas have grown from around 8.6 percent in 1992 to over 12 percent,' he said. 'In 2010, 211 billion dollars were invested in renewable energy — more than in oil, coal or other fossil fuel.
'The world cannot wait another 20 years for a meaningful and game-changing response to the changes now emerging on planet Earth — it has to be now,' Steiner stressed.
Maximim K. Djondo, a participant from Benin, called on world leaders to pump more cash into environmental initiatives, particularly in implementing various international commitments.
'World leaders have signed various environmental agreements, but not acted on them due to financial shortages and because of lobbying by big corporations that see environmental initiatives as hurting their interests,' he said.
Djondo said governments must have the courage to go against the interests of big companies to save the environment.
Leili agreed with Djondo, but stressed that the youth should continue doing their share even if world leaders turned a deaf ear. 'Saving the environment has to start with ourselves in schools, families, or other social groups,' she said.
Daniela Karainova, 17, from Bulgaria, concurred with Leili, saying youth have to act now as environmental issues are becoming urgent. 'Environmental issues are very important and we all, particularly the youth, have to take action now,' she said.
© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service