UN forum: instead of the green transition, survival has become the primary consideration

By: STA Date: 2022. 10. 05. 11:20

If we don’t make the green turn, humanity has no future – pointed out the President of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday at the Hungarian-organized round table forum on energy, climate and green transition at the organization’s headquarters in New York.

(Photo: Pixabay)

Csaba Kőrösi emphasized that systemic problems must be answered with systemic solutions and changes. He explained that the war in Ukraine left a serious mark on the attitude towards the green transition, he rearranged the priorities, survival and victory became the primary aspect, everything else follows. However, he added that following the energy crisis caused by the war, there is a need to increase energy independence, which could increase the use of renewable energy sources and ultimately contribute to the green transition.

In addition to Hungary’s UN Youth Envoy, youth representatives from many countries around the world took part in the forum.

Among other things, Ziga Ciglaric, Slovenia’s UN youth delegate, spoke about the fact that young people are frustrated and many are not aware that the effects of climate change will not be felt in the future, but are already present today. As he said, in terms of climate awareness, the children’s generation is in many ways better than the parents’, but at the same time, young people do not know enough about climate change. Rodrigo Ballester, head of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium’s European Union workshop, explained that the fear of young people is justified, and some of them have lost hope for the future. A sign of this is that there are people today who do not see the point of starting a family or having children. At the same time, the EU specialist lawyer and former EU diplomat added that the youth’s fear turning into anger must be channeled towards a solution, because this anger becomes self-serving without solutions. Hubertus Ruel, a Dutch guest lecturer at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium and international relations expert, also pointed out the responsibility of richer countries. As he said, they did not fully fulfill their commitment made at the last UN climate summit, according to which 100 billion dollars will be set aside for poor countries to deal with the consequences of climate change. The richer ones must do more to help the young people of the poorer countries – he pointed out.

The round table conference held on Tuesday at the UN headquarters was preceded by an exhibition opening on Monday, which, at the initiative of the Hungarian UN youth delegate, Domokos Kovács, draws attention to waste management with the tools of art, under the title Art and sustainability at the UN headquarters in New York.

MTI