YITING WANG

Just six weeks ago, could the seven youth delegates walking the halls of the UN have predicted what one desperate, unemployed young man in Tunisia would trigger across North Africa and the Middle East? Could we have imagined how the restless and forgotten youth would capture the attention of world leaders?

Where things had looked calm on the surface, underneath they were anything but...

Now, we are back here for another round of crucial discussions. What should we learn from the radical proliferation of our young brothers and sisters who are frustrated with a jobless and insecure future?

Is it all about getting a job?

According to a series of International Labor Organization reports, Young people (between the ages of 15 and 24) make up one-sixth of the world population and 965 million live in developing countries. Over 500 million survive on less than $2 a day. In Sub-Sahara Africa Africa, where over two thirds of those unemployed are youth, many more have chosen to drop out of the labor force.

The Middle East and North Africa, not surprisingly, suffer from the highest rates of youth unemployment—at around 24%. Two forces toppled Tunisian President Ben Ali: poverty in the countryside, and an economy that produces highly educated youth and few opportunities to compensate for their talents within Tunisia’s labor market.

It is in this context that we are contemplating a green economy.

Can this new vision heal the planet for its future inhabitants? Will it be enough to just generate more “green” jobs? Are we forgetting the broader social, political and environmental injustices that citizen groups have tried to draw attention to over the last 20 years?

When elicit capital flight by the old, powerful and corrupted—facilitated by Western banks and governments—is estimated to far surpass accumulated foreign aid into the whole African continent,

When a gerontocractic confrontation still persisting in many parts of the world between the old and young means the elder generations have not only borrowed and spent tomorrow’s resources at their will, but have also held on to their jobs as long as humanly possible;

When trade liberalization and unfair subsidies have invited the formerly marginalized into the world market, while simultaneously destroying these countries’ agricultural and industrial capacity to provide self-sustaining employment for its people at home;

When deficiencies in responsive vocational and entrepreneurial training—as well as an ever-tightening credit crunch—fail to support those who haven’t yet given up on employment but have turned to creating jobs for themselves,

What are we missing out on here?

Since the inception of “sustainable development” as a new world vision in the Eighties, and its global adoption at the first Earth Summit in 1992, the world—although still largely divided by one axis—has come to value the significance of social, economic and environmental pillars.

But what progress have we made? And what are we forgetting here?

The balance of these three pillars has proven to be precarious; that’s why we need to constantly caution against leaping too far in one direction. From Rio to Jo’ Burg, we have recognized the importance of social and economic development in order to protect  our environment.

Yet, amidst this renewed obsession with economic recovery and the advancement of international environmental governance, the environment itself again risks being lost in translation.

Therefore, all people—and especially the youth—need jobs now! The young and powerless need to fight for a just and present future that will not choke them to death.

How to bridge the local and the global?

While almost all the intercessional and PrepCom meetings for the 2012 Earth Summit take place in the U.S.—far removed from where the tensions are high—we cannot pretend that we haven’t heard what youth have entrusted us with to help envision a world for future generations.

The youth present here are feeling both hopeful and deeply troubled.

We hear that young people from Eco-Singapore have just organized a webinar to learn about ways youth can feed into the Earth Summit process; and young people from Ghana are organizing a regional meeting this August that will bring the discussion tables to the towns and villages of Africa.

We also see young people in Kenya, Togo, and Nepal opening up their own enterprises selling, installing and helping their customers financing improved cook stoves, biogas digesters and solar lighting systems.

We ask ourselves how we, having the privilege to be inside a UN conference hall, can help to usher in their concerns and their solutions. We would not tolerate anything but a just, open, and democratic social and political sphere—where everyone has an opportunity to be part of job creation for all who need it!