At Youth Summit Environmental Issues are a Prime Concern for Millennials

The biggest global youth diplomacy event is currently taking place in the U.S. capital of Washington D.C.. Young environmental ministers from around the world were chosen in each delegation to speak at the conference; everyone is trying to put forward the ideas of their respective countries.

All the young political leaders should move forward with the ideas they think to be important, and hopefully they will. The world is currently facing the worsening of large environmental problems: water scarcity and biodiversity loss. Of course, there’s also the existance of the global financial economic crisis and its aftermath. A period of great uncertainty lies ahead, with a slowdown in both the developed and developing countries.

“Informal” committee negotiations are currently piecing together a plan of action that the Summit will adopt. With each point in the so-called “ping-pong discussions”, the key issues to be addressed by the Summit are becoming clear. Today much of the focus is on water.

First, is the issue of water governance. The Russian delegate put forward the core solution to many issues discussed: education.  All the delegations felt comfortable with this concept, as it can mean different things to different people. 

The united committee intends to tie the rights to water to human rights, which will then be controlled on the national and regional levels. By making the right to water a human right, it ensures more people have this fundamental right. France thinks that sometimes the regional aspect is of little effectiveness.

The second major issue at stake today is related to the G20 technologies and their sharing in agriculture. Developing countries are more comfortable with calling for the innovative techniques expressed by cultural collaboration. The EU representative also brought up the controveerisal pesticide issue; it will undoubtedly take much time to come to a consensus.

Since there is only less than one day left before the final communiqué, it is most likely that agreement can be reached on many but not all questions. It is more likely that the Summit will not settle on details but instead focus on working out the indicators necessary for reaching them.