Day: 24th February, 2023 | Wednesday
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm (IST) | Click here for time in your location
Venue: Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi

Context

'After all, tomorrow is another day': This concluding line of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by the American author Margaret Mitchell who wrote the novel, ‘Gone with the Wind’, provides impetus to rise above apprehension and doubt and develop plans to adapt and adopt sustainability measures, into our lives.

Building a better tomorrow is extremely essential, since global economies have built a world that has become unsustainable. There are several examples of how current production and consumption patterns end up exhausting or destroying ecosystems, and eventually compromise human health, development and wellbeing. Plastic waste accumulation, rising emission levels, pollution, deforestation, desertification, and several other related issues owe their origin to anthropogenic causes. Ecosystem degradation will take many generations until traces of plastics and other novel entities cease to tarnish landscapes, rivers, oceans, poison food chains and bodies of living species.

Rationale

If the maximum impacts are to be felt by the generations that will be present in future, then it makes maximum sense that decisions of today, should be made, considering viewpoints of our future citizenry along with consider of inter-species equity. Fresh and uninhibited perspectives around roles, responsibilities, competencies, and rights of youth in promoting a sustainability agenda is desired. It is with this intension that within the scope of the World Sustainable Development Summit, a Youth Plenary is being planned to:

• Inspire the next generation of youth leaders to design innovative and cutting-edge sustainable development and climate solutions.
• Disseminate experiences to instil multidisciplinary, collective action and solution-oriented values.
• Recognize youth contribution and motivate the citizenry of tomorrow.

TERI and EU have strong youth programmes, and this plenary session reinforces the relevance of such forums as a platform for youth to engage in constructive dialogue and push for action leading towards sustainable development and to address the global challenge of climate change.

Key Questions (speakers are requested to address all/ at least two questions)

Question 1: What are the proposals from youth on what needs to be included in a Green Development Pact, an envisaged outcome of G20?

Question 2: What are youth perspectives on expectations from climate change deliberations to take place at COP28 in Dubai?

Question 3: What sustainable development and climate solutions can youth advocate for upscaling?

Question 4: What platforms can be used to foster active dialogue between stakeholders across generations from the Global North and South?

Format

The session will involve a chaired/ moderated discussion, which will start with brief remarks by the chair/ moderator followed by brief addresses/ statements by the speakers. After the addresses, depending on the remaining time, the chair will pose 1–2 questions to the esteemed speakers based on issues emerging from the addresses. The chair/ moderator will then sum up the discussions. The total length of the panel discussion is 60 minutes. The addresses should be in the form of verbal interventions only. The WSDS Secretariat requests speakers to avoid using power point presentations. Strict time management is to be followed, for which there will be a timer/ buzzer.