Stockholm + 40

My name is Sofia Widén and I have been representing the YMCA-YWCA at the Stockholm + 40 Partnership Forum for Sustainable Development. I am new to the Y-Climate Action group. I will be writing about our work, my own thoughts and most of all, about the climate.

At the Stockholm+40 conference, political leaders, youth representatives and the international business community gathered to discuss sustainable development. Since the first United Nations conference on sustainable development, held in Stockholm in 1972, numerous climate deals, programmes and objectives have been agreed upon. Many more have not been agreed upon. Initiatives that have been launched have not been implemented fully. In this respect, the global youth movement, the YMCA-YWCA has a key role to play. We can help holding our leaders accountable and urge them to implement the policies that they have already committed to.

 During the Stockholm+40 conference, youth delegates from countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, Syria, Sweden, Egypt, The Netherlands, Brazil and many more were invited to take part in the discussions. Felix König, leader of the LUS (National Council of Swedish Youth Organisations) was one among several inspiring youth participants. Mr König spoke about the importance to involve young people in today’s decisions arguing that this is one of the essential ways to increase the legitimacy of political processes. I fully agree. I consider our involvement to be crucial in the aim towards establishing international, national and local frameworks for combating climate change. The only way politicians can make sustainable decisions is by ensuring already now that future generations will assist in the implementation of current decisions. Few decisions and frameworks will otherwise be sustained. During the Stockholm+20 conference, I met many young people ready to actively assume a role in this.

During the two days, Marcus Gustafson and I participated in the Round Table workshops during the first day and in the stakeholder dialogue with the ministers during the second day. The Swedish government lead by example: youth delegates were present on several panel discussions and attended the ministerial dialogue. However, there is a long way to go before we can be fully satisfied as youth representatives. Some of my fellow youth delegates expressed dissatisfaction after day one. We shared a feeling of frustration after listening to other, older people do most of the talking.

The voice of the business community still sounded much more loudly than our collective youth voice, although the stakeholder dialogue had intended a clear youth focus. In this way, our relative input remains weaker than other groups in society. From young peoples’ perspective, the future climate is ours to inherit and therefore financial strength of the organisation that you are representing should not count towards your ultimate impact on the final decision. A politician should not give a priori, more attention to a business representative compared to a youth delegate during these types of conferences. Naturally, the business leader may provide innovative and climate friendly products and services, steering the economic development towards sustainability. There is an equally likely chance that this is not the case however.

Young people have an equal right to be consulted as a member of the business, or even the research community. In the climate question, we have perhaps an even stronger right to be heard. IT IS OUR FUTURE. No financial capacity or research knowledge can weigh as heavily as the ethical consideration that young people will live longer into the future. Of course, expertise and finance are two crucial ingredients in making the necessary transition towards sustainability. Youth empowerment is a third, equally important ingredient.

This is why Marcus Gustafsson and myself raised the voice of the youth and attempted to shed light on current issues from a youth perspective in Stockholm. Together with other youth delegates at Stockholm+40 we were hopefully able to transmit some of the concerns that we, as young members of today’s society, share and want our politicians to change. As part of the Major Group for Children and Youth to Rio+20, we have called for several institutional changes in the current United Nations sustainability framework. Firstly, we call for “Youth unemployment to be reduced through the creation of green jobs with a living wage and the stronger consideration of the impact of employment policy on youth” and we would like to see an ”Ombudspersons for Future Generations Rio+20 who ”should secure collective commitment for the establishment, at the national level, of Ombudspersons for Future Generations. These independent institutions, working from the heart of government, should be mandated to provide an assessment of the long-term impacts of public policies and legislative proposals. They should also respond to citizen petition, investigating claims of environmental crimes and offences and engaging in either conciliation or litigation.” Copied from Major Group for Children and Youth to Rio+20 Contribution to the outcome document of Rio+20. These are only two concrete suggestions that we are calling for at this point in time. Hopefully, the ethical arguments concerning the right of youth can materialise in these types of concrete proposals.