The UN celebrated International Youth Day with an event on sustainable consumption and production (SCP) organized by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA).
Speakers stressed that it is time to give youth issues more than “lip service” and start living up to commitments.
12 August 2016: The UN celebrated International Youth Day with an event on sustainable consumption and production (SCP) organized by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). Speakers stressed that it is time to give youth issues more than “lip service” and start living up to commitments. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 is to “Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.”
The event, titled ‘Road to 2030: Eradicating Poverty and Achieving Sustainable Consumption and Production,’ took place on 12 August 2016, at UN Headquarters in New York, US. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message to participants said young people can transform the production and consumption of goods and services, so they meet the basic needs of the world’s poorest people without overburdening ecosystems. He added that youth are already at the forefront of a shift to more sustainable buying patterns, limiting waste, and leading technological innovation to foster a resource-efficient economy.
Thomas Gass, DESA, stressed the importance of the 169 targets of the SDGs, urging participants to make sure that leaders “know that we know what they have promised.” He also highlighted the high costs for workers of low consumer prices, recalling the deaths of over 1,100 workers in the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh.
Ravi Karkara, UN Women, said half of the world’s youth are women, who make consumer decisions every day. He highlighted UN Women’s LEAP framework to promote young women’s leadership, the HeforShe campaign to engage men in gender equality, and the call for intergenerational partnership in the World Programme of Action for Youth. UN Women and DESA co-chair the Inter-agency Network on Youth Development.
Ahmad Alhendawi, UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, said youth issues have never been more on the rise, and “it’s time to cash in.” As innovators and consumers, youth can drive businesses out of market if they operate without a social conscience. As voters, they can drive governments out of office, and as mobilizers, they can bring awareness to neglected issues, said Ahlendawi. He stressed to the youth participants, “you are not the future – you are here right now and you are demanding actions today.”
Nadira Hira, host of the Youth Day celebration, illustrated the life cycle of plastic water bottles, from extraction and transporting of crude oil, to production of PET plastic, and shipping the bottles, all of which release greenhouse gases (GHGs) and consume water. Plastic bottles, 80% of which are not recycled, take hundreds of years to decompose in a landfill, or just float in the ocean, she reported. She urged participants to see that an item has “a whole life to live” after it is discarded, and said landfill should be considered “raw material.”
The event also featured presentations on each stage of the product lifecycle: extraction, production, consumption, and disposal/recycling. Youth Day is marked annually on 12 August. [Event Webcast] [UN Press Release] [Message of UN Secretary-General] [Youth Day Information] [Inter-agency Network on Youth Development Webpage] [UN Youth Envoy Website] [ILO Press Release]