
Under the slogan “Reshaping our future through a green Economy and sustainable lifestyle”, The Tunza international conference for youth and children aims at creating the Bandung Declaration as the youth position for the Rio+20 meeting on sustainable development.
“States need to feel the pressure”, says Ben Vanpeperstraepe from Belgium. “The Rio + 20 meetings are in less than a year. Nobody knows about it and nobody cares about it. Before the COP 15 in Copenhagen, States felt they had to deliver something. There were public demonstrations. The general public doesn't know about Rio+20. If people are not aware, there will be no demonstrations.”
Mr. Vanpeperstraepe is the co-founder of the website www.rioplus20s.org. Rio+twenties is a completely volunteer-based organization which strives to create a platform for active youth participation in the UN Conference for Sustainable Development (Rio + 20). The organisation is led by young people in their 20's.
The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development will take place in Brazil on 4-6 June 2012. “We expect a blueprint on how to move forward for the next 20 years”, says Mr. Vanpeperstraepe. “We have failed in the last 20 years.”
The co-founder of the Rio+twenties is not delusional. “That conference is only during three days. The complexities are too much. The conference will not find a solution to anything”, he says. Nevertheless, the PhD student from Belgium expects the governments to “set measurable goals” and to achieve them.
During the plenary session, another speaker, Professor Michael Dorsey from the United States reminded the youth that “they are the catalyst of hope” saying “Martin Luther King was in his 20's when he began fighting”.
Michael Dorsey is a professor of environmental policy at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. According to him, the future is bright because “the Green Economy is growing despite the worldwide depression”. “Green jobs are growing, not at a huge rate, but they are growing”, he said. Mr. Dorsey wants a rethink of the whole economic system. “There was an apocalyptic crash in 2008. The system is not working and we need something else”.
The African American professor endorses the Green economy saying “it gives us the opportunity to move away from bad technologies, from polluting technologies. Unfortunately, countries like my own don't take climate change seriously. We haven't ratified the Kyoto Protocol. Climate change is real. Now, the question is: How bad is climate change going to be?”
Under the Clinton administration, Professor Dorsey was a task force member of the President's council on sustainable development. Even though he was also part of the campaign team on energy and environment for Senator Obama, he is very critical towards the first black American president's administration: “George Bush tried to kill the Kyoto Protocol. It looks like Obama will”.
Professor Dorsey is totally opposed to the U.S. $13 billion Keystone Pipeline Project which spans from Alberta (Canada) to Illinois (USA). “We are fighting climate change, why are you building a pipeline?” he asks Obama.
The other institution Dr. Dorsey had some harsh words for is the World Bank. “The World Bank is doing a lot of evil. They invest $20 in all processes that drive climate change (dirty energy) and they give only $1 for solar energy. The sad part is that there is no plan to reverse that discrepancy. That's lunatic management.”
The professor also reminded the youth to keep ethics in mind whenever they're conducting business. “Green jobs have to be humane jobs, decent jobs”, he said. “We can produce organic products using slavery, but that's not a green job to me.”
The Tunza international conference for youth and children is organised by the Government of the Republic of Indonesia and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). More than 1400 young people from 100 countries are participating in the event. This year, the Unep Tunza conference is focusing on the Green Economy. “It's not about a green economy, it's about a green and fair economy”, rectifies Mr. Vanpeperstraepe. “It's not just about environment; it is also about social equity”.









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