Korean Youth on Climate Change
Jinah Gwak was a participant in the UNEP Youth Forum at the 2011 Gwangju Summit of the Urban Environmental Accords.
Gwangju used to be considered as one of ordinary, honestly boring, cities, having nothing special. But Gwangju has recently has been trying to be a better city in various aspects. Going along with that trend, the city has made strides to be a leader in environmentalism with environmentally friendly structures. Meanwhile, the 2011 summit of the Urban Environmental Accords was held in Gwangju. It was hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the City and County of San Francisco, as well as Gwangju. The summit was organized for four days from October 11 to 14 under the theme, “Green City, Better City.” The program book explained that the Urban Environmental Accords (UEA) were signed by mayors of 52 cities on June 5, 2005 on the occasion of World Environment Day in San Francisco, where they agreed on immediate fulfillment of 21 provisions across seven areas, such as waste reduction, natural ecology and others, as well as evaluation through the City Green Star Program on World Environment Day 2012.
Throughout the entire summit, there were several special sessions; UEA UNEP Youth Forum was one of them. I was fortunately chosen as one of the Korean participants in the forum, so I could experience the summit thoroughly. The main objective of the forum was to reach an agreement on environmental challenges facing the global community today. Youth must pay attention to current issues, and this was a great opportunity for me and other friends to think about such issues and exchange ideas. We were divided into five groups theme: Energy Efficiency and Climate Change, Waste Reduction, Smart Clean Vehicles, Water Demand and Quality Management, and Natural Ecology. Through thematic sessions, cultural exchange, field excursion and group discussions on environmental issues, we could face these issues more realistically and offer some of our own opinions.
Before the forum started and I met a bunch of great friends there face to face to talk about the issues as a group, I was a little bit nervous and worried about myself. To be honest, I was not that confident on my knowledge and capability to share ideas on the environment. Thanks to the friends around me, however, I could do my best and at least take my own role. Personally, it made me much happier that the summit was hosted by my hometown, Gwangju.
Above all, I could not help being impressed by other friends from various countries, who had a lot more interests and put effort into improving the environment. Some people had strong ideas and even concrete plans to deal with the problems we face today. They were very serious and far more realistic than I expected. Moreover, it was so amazing to meet friends from numerous countries and to stay with them at the same place. We had plentiful things in common to share together even though we had different backgrounds. All of them were so nice to be with. The cultural night was also lots of fun, showing each country’s traditional costume and introducing some traditional performances with musical instruments.
Three days can be considered short, but it was long enough for me to learn a variety of things intellectually and spiritually. On the first day, I was able to be at the opening of the Gwangju Summit of Urban Environmental Accords. It was a great honor to see diverse experts from different countries and fields and to know more deeply what problems we are confronting now, what efforts are being made for the planet, and what plans the experts are currently working on. Before this forum, I was just a normal student who was only interested in the environment, not knowing much information about it. I am probably just the same student, but at the same time, I have also changed. I am trying harder to learn more about the environmental issues and to be a better person who can be responsible to society. I guess this forum was a turning point for me. I have just started my journey in environmentalism, and have become more eager to study about environmental issues.
By Jinah Gwak