The World Youth Forum in advance of the G8 Summit has just concluded; it was an amazing weekend for sharing best practices, planning for future campaigns and taking action on the spot. Organized by the Japan Youth G8 Project, A SEED Japan, and the Japanese Youth Ecology League, the summit brought together close to 250 youth – over 200 from across Japan and about 20 from overseas.
The conference was held in order to provide youth input into the upcoming G8 Meeting on climate change. The negotiations are anticipated to reinforce false solutions of CCS and all together ignore the need for mid-term targets, so the young people here felt it was essential to make our voices heard and encourage bold leadership. The statement adopted at the conference included calls of banning construction dirty energy facilities, supporting green employment, and recognizing human rights, but the most relevant point was:
In order to avoid dangerous and irreversible effects of climate change we urge the G8 to set a goal of stabilizing CO2 concentration at 350 ppm in order to avoid a global temperature increase of 2Cº above preindustrial levels. To achieve the above long-term target, it is critical that the G8 leads the world to reduce greenhouse gas emission by at least 40% of 1990 level by 2020. We demand Japan and G8 countries take us to a strong post 2012 agreement in 2009 under the UN Climate Process.
The statement was presented by an international panel of youth at a roundtable discussion with representatives of the Japanese Ministry of Environment and Foreign Affairs and it will be taken with the youth to the actual summit to be included in their actions and protests.
In addition to crafting and advocating for our statement, we took the time to learn from each other about our campaigns, so that we could share best practices and strengthen all of our efforts. We heard from Christian from the European Youth Alliance for Future Energy and Raju from Global Young Greens about their efforts to network youth from dozens of countries and organize coordinated campaigns. On the more local level, Midori from Eco-League Japan told us about what the 300 chapters of the organization are doing to promote campus sustainability. I had the opportunity to speak about the Campus Climate Challenge and Power Shift 2007, and everyone present was relieved to hear that the youth climate movement in the U.S. is thriving and pushing our government to finally take action on global warming.
With all of the hyperlinks above, you’ve probably got the sense that a global youth movement is brewing. Everyone at this summit was pumped to find ways to continue working together and we are thinking hard about how to coordinate grassroots action across seas to demonstrate the power of youth and our demands for climate solutions. We all felt the sense that if we come together, and work together, we will be stronger and more effective. The next couple of months will be dedicated to making it happen.
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Thanks for the report Whit, I’m glad the conference went well! It’s really exciting to see this movement become truly global in scope – let’s keep the momentum going!
this is greatest and on of the better conference which was recommended some very useful things.
Hello,
This is Taiwo Adeleye A student of International British institute in Cairo Egypt,i will like to know if i can be part of the forth coming international 2009 Int’l Youth Conference Tells G8 To Stop Messing Around as individual delegate, kindly get back to me with the registration requirement as soon as possible regards
Taiwo Adeleye
20187569542
Hello,
My name is Kepha Ngito. i work with Kibera Community Youth Programme, a youth organization working in Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya. i am interested in attending the upcoming conference. please give information regarding possibility of my attendance.
Kepha Ngito
+254720032052
respected sir,madam
am patrick agyei a polytechnic student in ghana and as such working for an NGO name service for peace.truly i have had interest in attending this youth conference taking place in japan.so please let me know the next line of action to be taking.
am sebastain from ghana an ict student
i want to know if it will be possible for me to participate in this coming conference.
Thanks
Dear Sir/madam
Jack Aliwa a resident of Kayole-Nairobi-Kenya. Currently working with the mines and geology department. I am interested and would like to know if I can be a participant in the coming youth conference in Japan. Please provide any information that may be neccessary. God bless you.
+254727859331
Dear sir, l am so exciting concerned your previouse comment on your event,my wife and l love to participate for the coming event.
thanks love to hear from you.
This is Narayan kc kafle from Nepal i am student of Mass Communication and journalism i would like to know about your conference and participate in the conference please give further information regarding possibility of my attendance.