Youth Forum 2009 Report:
Initiatives and Manifesto
September 2009, Geneva – In its just-released report of its annual conference in June, the Global Humanitarian Forum’s Youth Forum details exciting and innovative initiatives developed by participants to help mitigate and adapt to climate change. The initiatives range from biofuel extracted from algae to creating an e-platform for idea exchange.
The report also publishes the Copenhagen Manifesto, a list of demands from Youth Forum participants, communicating to representatives of their home countries their expectations of the UN’s climate negotiations in December in Copenhagen:
The initiatives are intended to be implemented over the next year by five project task forces. They include:
• Alternative Green Algae-Based Energy Initiative: Biofuel extracted from algae. The process, including cultivation, extraction, transportation and use in engines of the biofuel, is a carbon neutral process. The algae-based system utilizes a desert-like environment, salt water and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, empowering poor communities by giving them a chance to participate in the biofuel’s supply chain.
• Radio Information for Women and Children Initiative: Story-based radio programmes by and for women and children. The aim is to educate about the human impact of climate change in West Africa. Since TV is too expensive for the average family in West Africa, people gather around the radio to listen to their favorite programmes, continuing the region’s oral tradition of communicating.
• Seeds of Change Initiative: A programme to make it easy for consumers to change to green energy. In many countries it is still very inconvenient to change an electricity plan because it involves research, paperwork and phone calls. Under this initiative, people will announce that they want to switch to a 100% green energy plan and give the “Seeds of Change” team the minimal personal and contact details required to liaise with the electricity retailer.
• Raising Climate Change Awareness in Primary Schools Initiative: Workshops in developing-world primary schools, run by volunteers. The initiative further encourages schools to found climate change clubs, launch art projects and create incentives for sustainable behavior among students.
• I.D.E.A.S. Initiative: e-platform to realize solutions for alternative development pathways. The initiative proposes to provide a space for Youth Forum participants to collaborate on project ideas, whether the ideas are new or products of the June meetings. Participants will help each other find relevant expertise across different sectors and find funding, resources and contacts.
The Copenhagen Manifesto includes the following points:
We the young adults demand, that:
1. The leaders of nations as well as corporations should no longer justify the emissions caused by their acts, but rather should create policies that are to the benefit of all
2. Developed countries have to support developing countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change as well as create a renewable energy development fund
3. The Copenhagen conference has to result in an agreement that addresses the needs of all
4. Climate refugees must be given the same legal status as any other refugees
5. It is a human right not to suffer from climate change related disasters
6. There is more pressure on countries to meet their Kyoto commitments and that the Copenhagen agreement should drive fundamental systemic change
7. Negotiations are viewed through collaborative online media, to create complete transparency and openness
8. Climate awareness must be a part of every school curriculum
9. We move beyond self-interested concepts of nationalism to an integrated vision of one system: earth
The June meetings of the Youth Forum featured 100 participants from 44 different nationalities. Nine remarkable and successful young adults from business, science, communications, media and other sectors attended as guest speakers.
The programme included:
• A surprise visit from Kofi Annan, President of the Global Humanitarian Forum
• Four UNFCCC simulations facilitated by GIMUN (Geneva International Model United Nations)
• An interreligious plenary discussion on climate change – including representatives of Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism
• Five discussion groups on the human impact of climate change
• An Idea Fair with 12 international organizations, private companies and NGOs presenting their projects and efforts
• Several high-tech brainstorming sessions which were facilitated by Nextpractice, a company from Bremen that has designed an innovative tool to collect and link ideas
The Global Humanitarian Forum was founded in 2007 as an independent and impartial international platform. It arose from a study commissioned by the Swiss foreign ministry and carried out by the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies, Geneva, which identified ways of strengthening the links between international communities in Geneva. The Forum was designed to boost the performance of the humanitarian system as a whole while reinforcing links among wide-ranging international actors.
For more information, please see the Youth Forum’s page on this site, or contact:
Keith Collins
+41 22 919 75 48
+41 76 703 53 33
Keith.collins@ghf-ge.org
Annika Hartmann
+41 22 919 75 17
+41 79 500 35 17
Annika.hartmann@ghf-ge.org