“Youth of Today, Leaders of Tomorrow”
“We, the youth of today and leaders of tomorrow, face an unprecedented challenge and share in the responsibility to address global climate change.”
Before getting the agreement on this first sentence of their Declaration, youth delegates had the chance to experience the challenging process that official negotiators often go through at Conference of the Parties meetings each year.
“Getting the Declaration on time was challenging! We really thought we would never make it. After the first vote, we finished at 4:30 am!,” said Harro Van Asselt, a youth delegate from The Netherlands, who was a member of the writing committee for the Declaration.
Of the 100 youth participating in the International Youth Summit, 11 had the responsibility of organizing and structuring the final text of the Declaration. The first wave of the writing process consisted of 31 reports that led to a second wave of 12 reports. The final Declaration draws from these 12 agreed upon reports.
It is not the first time that youth have presented a Declaration to a United Nations meeting. In November 2000, in The Hague, the first Youth Declaration was presented during the 6th Conference of the Parties. It focused on public awareness and youth participation in climate change issues. Since that time, youth delegates have made their voices heard on other key related issues such as sustainable development and the enhancement of youth involvement in the international process.
When asked by the Deputy Minister of Environment Canada, Samy Watson, what the main challenges they faced in creating their declaration, the youth delegates all agreed that: “The language and cultural barriers as well as achieving a consensus on the final text were the most difficult.”
In the end, the youth delegates overcame the initial challenges they faced and agreed that, “Climate change is an opportunity to unite. The age of competition is of the past; the age of cooperation is dawning!”
For more information and to read the Youth Declaration: www.beyondkyoto.org
