Discussion on the future with the youth: Csaba Kőrösi met UN Youth Delegates and the Brain Bar Ambassadors

The Strategic Director of Blue Planet Climate Protection Foundation, Csaba Kőrösi was invited by the Hungarian UN youth delegates, Annamária Wettstein and Widad Brimo, to participate in a discussion with the Brain Bar Ambassadors on the evening of 14 June. The topics were the development of the Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs), what has been achieved so far, the UN institutional structure, and the opportunities of the youth.

The young participants from Syria, China, France, and Hungary were particularly interested in how this set of objectives could be prepared and adopted by consensus, as what they see on the General Assembly is members telling or reading out their 3-5-minute speeches and then often leaving the room. How can a common position be reached in this manner?

“Multiple important rules were laid down in the open working group responsible for the preparation of the SDGs”, he said, “Instead of immediately starting to draft, first we wanted to understand the problems humanity faces. For this purpose, the language of common understanding was science and evidence. We invited world-leading scientists to shed light on these issues. It was also clear that instead of fixing stand-alone problems, we sought systemic answers to systemic challenges.”

Other topics discussed during the evening included the obstacles to delivering the SDGs, the reform of UN institutions, and the fact that it is not sure, indeed implausible, that a similar result can be reached in complete agreement in today’s society.

Finally, when asked how a former President of the UN General Assembly sees the role of the young people present in the future, Director Kőrösi answered, “Never before have we needed so many prepared professionals as we do today. There is much to do, so be ready and make your voices heard.” He also encouraged the delegates to share the opinion of the youth when being invited to negotiations instead of emphasising the need to involve young people in these processes.