
Dates
14 September 2024
28th Annual Conference of the International Environment Forum
A vision for a Sustainable Future - a Conversation with Youth
14 September 2024
On this event page, you find links to video clips with highlights from the conversation, a written report, and the biographies of the speakers.
Glimpses from A vision for a Sustainable Future - a Conversation with Youth
Segments from the conversation among youth and with a multi-generational audience
Video 1: The importance of community actions and social justice on the path toward an environmentally sustainable future
Video 2: The importance of education and the voices of youth to build an environmentally sustainable future
Video 3: The importance of systems thinking and a holistic approach to environmental actions
A question from the audience regarding alternatives to plastics resulted in a brief, but profound conversation.
Video 4 : The United Nations - the views of youth, and initiatives for progress toward a more inclusive and just global governance system.
Report by Diana and Tim Schaffter
Moderator: Khela Baskett
Panelists: Roya Meshki-Kataria, Lua Mbuzi, Ronit Mahapatra, Zayha Loyalka
Key Discussion Questions:
1. What example(s) do you see of people taking positive action for sustainability?
2. How do you see the future in terms of attitudes regarding the environment, sustainability, or global cooperation?
3. What actions can youth take without waiting for governments?
4. How can youth be agents of change toward the recognition of interconnectedness of humans with each other and with the natural world?
Some Key Points Raised in the discussion:
• There are often good initiatives on university campuses that young people can become involved with. There may be grants for people working on sustainability projects, but people need to search these out.
• It is important to encourage and support local initiatives in which people learn to come together and to consult and plan collectively how they can better meet their energy needs in a more affordable and equitable way, which builds social bonds.
• When communities work together to address energy needs, they often discover that they are able to collaborate together to help address other issues facing the community, and close social networks are also created.
• The Bahá'à House of Worship in Chile was an excellent example of creating an “energy community” that benefited local people living around the temple and involved close coordination with local authorities. The collaborative experience in which everyone benefited showed that joint planning and investments could advance the community's material and spiritual well-being. It is also an example of how a religious organization could participate in energy transformation.
• An example from Nigeria showed how local farmers become acutely aware of the impact of global warming and climate change and their effect on the ability to grow food. This led to people sharing stories about how things used to be and how they are now, and people gathering together to ask questions and to try to understand what was going on. This raised the consciousness of people and resulted in people pulling together to solve problems. It became clear to all that individuals could not solve the problems on their own, and that collaboration is necessary.
• It was noted that in the field of public health, there have been three historical approaches: (1) a focus on the individual, (2) looking at the individual within the context of the environment, and (3) looking at the environment in the society as a whole with a focus on equity as a key element of public health. The climate crisis has raised awareness of the importance of a more just society within an equitable framework in which no one is left behind.
• Young people can often experience climate change fatigue and become demoralized, falling into feeling “what’s the point when I look at the government.” Focusing on local action can keep people’s morale up, and people can see that local action can bring results. It doesn’t require a large group to have a meaningful impact in the community
• The Bahá'à community encourages local initiatives to develop the moral capacity of children and youth through an educational process in which they develop capacities and qualities such as trustworthiness, kindness, and love. They develop capacities for service, seeking knowledge, living and harmony with others, and consultation. These capacities are critical for young people to work together to solve environmental problems. Young people in the education program successfully initiated local activities, which often stimulate neighbours and friends to work together to address multiple social issues. Without the skills of consultation and working together, this would have been impossible. The young people in the program develop life skills so they can contribute to discourses in society and to build a community based on friendship and trust.
• One of the strengths of youth is that they have the energy and vigour to bring about transformation. It’s important that they also interact with older people. Youth can push the frontiers of change in society. It’s important to create spaces where youth can take charge, discuss issues of interest concerning the environment, and be protagonists for change. The educational process offered by the Bahá'à community equips youth to navigate the world around them and to help change the environment with a strong focus on the concept of hope and the ability to put ideas into action. The process involves study and action at the same time. The youth generate knowledge, go to the field to test their knowledge, and then reflect to see if changes are needed in the mode of operation.
• The youth need to read their local reality, identify the needs, and come up with practical solutions which are then put into practice. They need to involve others and to also bring in older people for support. Older people can bring their wisdom and youth can bring connections, vitality and technical skills.
• A project in the rainforest in Uganda highlighted that when there is community involvement and community education, there can be a serious impact in terms of protecting the rainforest. The key was for children to go to an outdoor classroom to learn the importance of local plants, and then children would talk to their families in their own local area about the issues they learned about, and this encouraged the adults to want to help take care of the local environment too. When youth banded together for environmental education, there was big impact on the whole community.
• In communities where the literacy level is low, people can still be highly involved in community action and transforming society. In these situations, the visual arts and songs can be used to reach people as they learn to read and write. The arts can unlock people’s hearts, and people can be empowered to contribute to changes in society.
• In grassroots action, it is important in the transformation process to have “the leaders of tomorrow involved with the decisions of today“.
• When looking at solutions, it is very important to think through very carefully all aspects of an action. When a new product is being made it is important right from the start to consider already the pathway from production to the final product and the eventual need for disposal of the product.
• It is important for people to learn to think in terms of systems and to look at the whole and not just at silos. People need to have a broad view so that no one is left behind in the development process and ensure equity. Systems thinking needs to be in young people’s vocabulary
• It was recognized that the United Nations needs further development and changes in its governance systems, such as the veto system, so that humanity will have confidence in it. Humanity does not always see just and equitable solutions coming from the UN. There is a need for large system changes, but it is also important to have small-scale initiatives.
• It’s very challenging for young people to have meaningful engagement with United Nations agencies because at the local level there often is nepotism and this relates to inclusion. It is very difficult to do an internship at the UN without having some connections. Often, the young people invited to UN conferences at the local level are not fully representative of the groups or individuals facing the environmental challenges themselves.
• There were suggestions that youth get involved in UN programs or clubs offered in schools or Universities and use their voice to share in discourses about the issues related to the environment.
Biographies of the Speakers
![]() Khela Baskett studied chemistry and computer science at UC Berkeley. She has worked in biotech at the Joint Genome Institute, and held software engineering and project management roles for academic, government, and industry projects. Her latest venture is an environmental retrofit start-up for residential customers. She is interested in bringing people together and collaborating on what we can do in our daily lives and communities to address the climate crisis. |
![]() Lua Janny Mbuzi is 31 years old. She is from Tanzania and lived in Zambia for 5 years for high school studies, served in Israel for 18 months and Bosnia for 1 month, lived in Namibia for university studies and work as a social worker, and is currently living in Abuja, Nigeria, with her husband and two-year old daughter. |
![]() Zayha Loyalka is 17 years old and lives in California, USA. She lived in Beijing, China, for 5 years before moving to the U.S, so she speaks Mandarin, although she is originally half Indian and half Caucasian. |
![]() Ronit Mohapatra is 21 years old. Originally born in Rhode Island, he moved near Montreal, Canada in 2013 for high school and to study biochemistry. Recently, he relocated to Baltimore, Maryland, to begin a PhD program in Environmental Health at Johns Hopkins University where he performs toxicology-based research for the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing. |
![]() My name is Roya Meshki-Kataria and I’m 25 years old. I grew up in Kenya with mixed Iranian, Indian, German and British household, and I love learning languages. I recently completed a masters in Global Energy Transition and Governance at CIFE in Nice, France, and I’m currently working as a research assistant, studying cases of energy justice around Europe. |