10th Economic and Social Council Youth Forum: A Decade of Action: Building a Resilient Recovery - Side Event at the ECOSOC Youth Forum
On 6 April 2021, UNEP-UNESCO and UNICEF hosted the Youth Regional Workshop for the Planet: Tools to achieve the SDGs.
The consumer power of generation Z is estimated at 100 billion dollars, a budget that is similar to the costs necessary to meet the targets of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 on Clean Water and Sanitation. For this reason, empowering the voices of today’s youth is necessary to support tomorrow’s sustainable consumption choices.
Each day people’s habits, decisions, and daily consumption have an impact on our planet. If current rates of consumption continue, by 2050 society would need 2.5 planets to support the projected nearly 10 billion people (considering global average consumption). The way people eat, decide to wear, how they travel and transport, the way they use their money, and how they decide to have fun are decisions that are made each day, and if it fuels a movement, it can shift the needle towards a sustainable and more just planet.
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), UNICEF and UNESCO have a common mandate to ensure the protection of a healthy environment for children and youth, as well as to contribute to the development of capacities towards education for sustainable development and to ensure the adoption of sustainable lifestyles. With the COVID-19 crisis, the need to rethink our relationship with nature has become evident. Humans and nature are part of a connected system, showing a clear relationship between healthy ecosystems and human health. The prospect of extreme events such as floods and droughts are critical. Actions taken today, or not taken, will impact generations to come.
There is the need to address the triple planetary crisis: climate, nature, and pollution, with the common threat of unsustainable production and consumption. In this matter, UNEP’s initiative Global Opportunities for Sustainable Development Goals (GO4SDGs) aims to strengthen regional solutions in sustainable consumption and production, supporting governments, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and youth. With the focus to amplify youth voices and empower them to embrace sustainable lifestyles.