.
In the context of global environmental challenges, solutions toward a Green Economy can provide employment opportunities for the global youth. Besides expert proposals, democratic discussion among the youth can provide lively and rich ideas, based on as many stories of successful sustainable development projects to be shared among delegates from across the world.
With the onset of such preliminary discussions, we offer the following recommendations to be discussed by the youth of the world and to be hopefully included to the preparatory work of the COP22 organisation committee.
We highlight three set of measures to be undertaken.
1) South-south and South-North Co-Innovation is to be promoted. Using the global youth collective knowledge, assets and creativity cannot be over highlighted as necessary to growing the green economy. Balanced participation from northern and southern countries is felt to be a need regarding adaptation and mitigation in response to global climate change. Stakes pertaining to co-innovation between northern and southern countries are high. We must look at how technology and knowledge at local levels can coordinate to create new capacity and know-how for adaptation and building resilience. We must be collectively imaginative to create new methods to address global environmental, economic, and social challenges.
2) Youth Skill-Building and Training is to be supported. As a starting point for youth participation to Green Economy, we recommend initiatives that provide training for youth to gain valuable skills sets in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This will require participation from developed countries to ensure that resources and knowledge can be shared with developing nations. Training youth will increase human capital and the capacity to implement technical projects.
3) Adopting an Ecological Economic Model is urgent. An Ecological Economic model should be adopted by countries and actors. The current economic model does not take into account the excessive extraction of natural resources, leading to unsustainable practices across projects and businesses that operate under the traditional economic model. A new model should require, in particular, that any development projects and businesses consider their environmental impact and seek ways to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and reduce waste. For example, businesses must reconsider what their products are made of (materials), how they are manufactured (process and emissions), and how they reach the consumer (transport). This will require life cycle analysis efforts to truly understand the full socio-environmental impact of a given enterprise or project, to be done in a pro-active manner and without waiting for regulations.
We advocate for three additional shared vision shifts across actors.
4) Seeking Sustainable Funding. Our collective perceives that leaders who are running green projects often have difficulty gaining investment from banks. Therefore the need to locate sustainable funding mechanisms is critical to ensuring that sustainable development projects can be implemented. This involves informing banks and investors about the long-term advantages of sustainable development and how the initial investment will often yield a large return over time. Returns may be seen monetarily, but the more visible gains will likely be in the form of positive social, economic, and environmental impacts.
5) Policy-making. In terms of discussion at the international level, sustainable development policies should remain overarching to ensure that these can be inclusive of the specific needs of each country and their various sectors. This further ensures that when policies are written at the national and local level, the plans and strategies are aligned across all levels of public policy.
6) Gaining local and community knowledge. Youth should take the opportunity to connect with members in their community who hold experience in sustaining themselves and their families on limited resources. For many youth, this will mean reaching out to parents and elder generations. Gaining local and community knowledge is important in order to gather stories about places, practices, culture, and values. These lived experiences, often in the form of traditional ecological knowledge, provide the foundation for youth to learn the collective wisdom of a place and adapt it to the modern day to more effectively address sustainable development challenges.
Lastly, with the many ideas shared at our workshop, we understand that the specific “lessons learned” and success stories from other places cannot necessarily be applied broadly everywhere. Successful policies and initiatives can be adapted - and then adopted - to meet the needs of specific needs of a particular community or country. Opportunities shall not be a silver-bullet, but manifold in a world rich with its diversity.
This article is based on the 4th International Youth Forum, held under the patronage of HM King Mohammed VI, on July 11-14, 2016, organized by the “Association d’Etudes et de Recherches pour le Développement” from Morocco and the Dakhla Open University in association with the Forum of Young Moroccans for the Third Millenary, the Youth Forum from Hawaii, the Confederation of African Students and Interns in Morocco. The 4th International Youth Forum was attended by over 250 young people from Morocco and abroad to discuss issues related to sustainable development, green economy, and youth employment, with policy makers, representatives of regional and international institutions, and researchers and experts in sustainable development issues. This paper conveys the debates of parallel working session number two, on “Green Economy – An opportunity for youth employment.”
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
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Green Economy: An Opportunity for Youth Employment
Green grass and little white flowers on the field. Beautiful summer landscape. Soft focus
September 9, 2016
In the context of global environmental challenges, solutions toward a Green Economy can provide employment opportunities for the global youth. Besides expert proposals, democratic discussion among the youth can provide lively and rich ideas, based on as many stories of successful sustainable development projects to be shared among delegates from across the world.
With the onset of such preliminary discussions, we offer the following recommendations to be discussed by the youth of the world and to be hopefully included to the preparatory work of the COP22 organisation committee.
We highlight three set of measures to be undertaken.
1) South-south and South-North Co-Innovation is to be promoted. Using the global youth collective knowledge, assets and creativity cannot be over highlighted as necessary to growing the green economy. Balanced participation from northern and southern countries is felt to be a need regarding adaptation and mitigation in response to global climate change. Stakes pertaining to co-innovation between northern and southern countries are high. We must look at how technology and knowledge at local levels can coordinate to create new capacity and know-how for adaptation and building resilience. We must be collectively imaginative to create new methods to address global environmental, economic, and social challenges.
2) Youth Skill-Building and Training is to be supported. As a starting point for youth participation to Green Economy, we recommend initiatives that provide training for youth to gain valuable skills sets in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This will require participation from developed countries to ensure that resources and knowledge can be shared with developing nations. Training youth will increase human capital and the capacity to implement technical projects.
3) Adopting an Ecological Economic Model is urgent. An Ecological Economic model should be adopted by countries and actors. The current economic model does not take into account the excessive extraction of natural resources, leading to unsustainable practices across projects and businesses that operate under the traditional economic model. A new model should require, in particular, that any development projects and businesses consider their environmental impact and seek ways to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and reduce waste. For example, businesses must reconsider what their products are made of (materials), how they are manufactured (process and emissions), and how they reach the consumer (transport). This will require life cycle analysis efforts to truly understand the full socio-environmental impact of a given enterprise or project, to be done in a pro-active manner and without waiting for regulations.
We advocate for three additional shared vision shifts across actors.
4) Seeking Sustainable Funding. Our collective perceives that leaders who are running green projects often have difficulty gaining investment from banks. Therefore the need to locate sustainable funding mechanisms is critical to ensuring that sustainable development projects can be implemented. This involves informing banks and investors about the long-term advantages of sustainable development and how the initial investment will often yield a large return over time. Returns may be seen monetarily, but the more visible gains will likely be in the form of positive social, economic, and environmental impacts.
5) Policy-making. In terms of discussion at the international level, sustainable development policies should remain overarching to ensure that these can be inclusive of the specific needs of each country and their various sectors. This further ensures that when policies are written at the national and local level, the plans and strategies are aligned across all levels of public policy.
6) Gaining local and community knowledge. Youth should take the opportunity to connect with members in their community who hold experience in sustaining themselves and their families on limited resources. For many youth, this will mean reaching out to parents and elder generations. Gaining local and community knowledge is important in order to gather stories about places, practices, culture, and values. These lived experiences, often in the form of traditional ecological knowledge, provide the foundation for youth to learn the collective wisdom of a place and adapt it to the modern day to more effectively address sustainable development challenges.
Lastly, with the many ideas shared at our workshop, we understand that the specific “lessons learned” and success stories from other places cannot necessarily be applied broadly everywhere. Successful policies and initiatives can be adapted - and then adopted - to meet the needs of specific needs of a particular community or country. Opportunities shall not be a silver-bullet, but manifold in a world rich with its diversity.
This article is based on the 4th International Youth Forum, held under the patronage of HM King Mohammed VI, on July 11-14, 2016, organized by the “Association d’Etudes et de Recherches pour le Développement” from Morocco and the Dakhla Open University in association with the Forum of Young Moroccans for the Third Millenary, the Youth Forum from Hawaii, the Confederation of African Students and Interns in Morocco. The 4th International Youth Forum was attended by over 250 young people from Morocco and abroad to discuss issues related to sustainable development, green economy, and youth employment, with policy makers, representatives of regional and international institutions, and researchers and experts in sustainable development issues. This paper conveys the debates of parallel working session number two, on “Green Economy – An opportunity for youth employment.”
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
