Daejeon (Republic of
Korea)/Nairobi (Kenya), 20 July 2009 - Emerging
leaders representing three billion people
- the children and youth of the
planet - will converge on the Republic of
Korea to voice their demands for action
on climate change at the Copenhagen meeting.
The Tunza International
Children and Youth Conference, in Daejeon
(Republic of Korea) on 17-23 August, will
be the biggest youth gathering on climate
change before the UN climate conference
in December.
This will be a key opportunity
for the more than 800 participants from
over 100 countries to demand that their
governments reach a scientifically-credible
and far-reaching new climate agreement in
Copenhagen.
By staking their claim
to a low-carbon, resource-efficient, environmentally-sustainable
future, the generation that will inherit
the planet will also remind the world that
they have the greatest stake in the creation
of the green economy of tomorrow.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General
and Executive Director of the UN Environment
Programme (UNEP) said: "The Tunza Children
and Youth Conference is an important gathering
of young people and an opportunity for them
to discuss and to prepare their positions
surrounding Copenhagen and climate change,
but it is more than that. It is a gathering
of the generation that will inherit the
outcome of the decisions taken in December
and beyond."
"For it will be
in the lifetime of the three billion children
and young people alive today that the glaciers
of the Himalayas will either persist or
melt away; that the sea levels will stabilize
or rise, swamping a third of Africa's coastal
infrastructure; that the Amazon will remain
the lungs of the planet or become an increasingly
dried-out and disappearing ecosystem, and
the polar bear will continue as the iconic
species of the Arctic or, like the Dodo
and the dinosaurs, merely an artifact in
the world's natural history museums,"
he added.
Some Highlights of the
Tunza Children and Youth Conference:
. A Global Town Hall
will use state-of-the-art technology to
link the gathering to hundreds of other
young environmental leaders who will be
meeting around the globe - from Nairobi
to Sao Paulo and from Stockholm to Bangkok
- to agree on a message to deliver to world
leaders.
. The Seal the Deal!
Global Debate will bring together high-level
figures from politics and green activism,
including Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-soo,
Maldives Environment Minister Mohamed Aslam,
Cameroon Environment Minister Hele Pierre,
UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner and
prominent environmentalists such as David
de Rothschild (who will sail to the Pacific
Garbage Patch in a boat made of reclaimed
plastic bottles), Roz Savage (who has rowed
across the ocean to raise green awareness),
and Luo Hong (who raises green awareness
through photography) along with young activists.
. The Daejeon conference
will also see the launch of Unite for Climate
, a global community of youth organizations
and individuals working collaboratively
to address climate change. The initiative
convenes actors from across sectors in a
common virtual space, enabling more effective
resource sharing and coordinated action.
Supported by Google/YouTube, Unite for Climate
will launch a series of YouTube global youth
debates leading up to the United Nations
Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
Learn more at http://www.uniteforclimate.org.
. The conference will
also feature the global Awards Ceremony
for the winners of the UNEP 2009 International
Children's Painting Competition on the Environment
.
The participants were
selected from thousands of applicants based
on their outstanding green achievements
on their home turf - and the impressive
range of initiatives illustrate just how
much today's children and youth understand
and want to commit to the environment.
Some of the striking
and creative projects started by young Tunza
participants include an award-winning original
rap video by two Canadian teenagers on how
to reduce your environmental footprint,
a drive to distribute 500 low-energy lightbulbs
in Nepal, a carpooling initiative in Samoa,
the creation of a 'Navajo Green Economy
Fund' to generate green jobs for Navajo
youth, a recycling project in Sierra Leone
and a river clean-up in Russia, among many
other examples. All the initiatives will
be put to a popular vote during the conference
to determine the best one out of the several
hundred on display.
The participants will
also take part in a host of activities from
the practical to the far-reaching, from
making natural soap to sharing ideas on
how to mobilize mass youth action for the
environment. Through workshops on key issues
including water, sustainable lifestyles
and endangered species, they will have a
chance to debate, discuss and share tips
on how to make the world a greener place
and take charge of their environmental future.
Other activities in the packed weeklong
schedule include sessions on green jobs,
a workshop on making a solar energy car,
the painting of a mural and a concert of
instruments made from recycled material,
among many others.
The Children and Youth
Conference is part of the global UN-wide
'Seal the Deal!' campaign being spearheaded
by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
to galvanize political will and public support
for reaching a comprehensive global climate
agreement. Over the coming months, the 'Seal
the Deal!' campaign will mobilize over one
million young people to march across one
hundred capitals and deliver to global leaders
their declaration of priorities on climate
change as agreed at the Tunza Conference.
Notes to Editors:
About the conference
The Tunza International
Youth Conference is being hosted by UNEP
and the UNEP National Committee for Korea
with the support of the Daejeon Metropolitan
Government and several UN entities including
UNICEF, UNFPA, FAO, WMO, UNESCO and UN/DESA,
as well as international youth organizations
like the World Organization of the Scout
Movement and the World Association of Girl
Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), and private
sector partners, such as the Bayer corporation,
the Hyundai-Kia Automotive group and Samsung
Engineering.
About the participants
The children and youth
taking part in the conference were selected
from 3,000 applicants on the basis of their
environmental projects and how active they
are on green issues. This year's edition
is the first time the Children and the Youth
are being brought together for the same
conference - the 'children' participants
are 10-14 years old and the 'youth' participants
are 15-24.
About the Town Hall
The Seal the Deal! Global
Town Hall will be facilitated by the Washington-based
nonprofit Global Voices, which has pioneered
the use of technology to convene large-scale
deliberations to impact policy making.
About the International
Children's Painting Competition
The top winners of the
18th International Children's Painting Competition
on the Environment will be announced in
Daejeon on 20 August. More than 2.4 million
children from around the world took part
in the artistic competition about the challenges
of climate change and what we can do about
it. The competition is organized every year
by UNEP, the Japan-based Foundation for
Global Peace and Environment (FGPE), Bayer
and the Nikon Corporation.
About Tunza
The Tunza Youth Strategy,
adopted in 2003 by UNEP's Governing Council,
is a long-term strategy to engage young
people in environmental activities and in
the work of UNEP. The word 'Tunza' means
'to treat with care or affection' in Kiswahili.
The Tunza initiative aims to develop activities
in the areas of environmental awareness
and information exchange on the environment
for children and youth. For more information,
please visit www.unep.org/Tunza/
About Unite for Climate
Unite for Climate is
an initiative empowering global youth action
and engagement on Climate Change. Supported
by leading youth NGOs and UN agencies, it
has three main components: an online community
of youth activists, a central communication
and media hub, and a global dialogue connecting
classrooms around the world.
Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson and Head
of Media
Theo Oben, Head of UNEP's Outreach Unit,
theodore.oben@unep.org
Climate Neutrality with Honours
