 So many people have been speaking about the climate crisis but the real question is why is it that we're still not acting at the scale and speed that is necessary? For 150 years we built up a world based on the assumption that we can exploit the planet for free and it translates to very dramatic impacts happening right as we speak. The climate crisis is a threat multiplier which means it exacerbates existing inequities in our society. We need to remember we're on the same planet and this is the planet that we need to make sustainable for the whole of humanity. Making much faster progress toward all 17 sustainable development goals is the best pathway to adjust future for all and public-private partnerships will be absolutely crucial to this transition. We know that this transition will require a fast adoption of a lot of new technologies and the question today is how to find the appropriate way to find this technology. Younger generations are demanding a sense of purpose, they want to look at companies and say I am investing with you all for this reason. The solutions are there. What we need is governments to regulate, to invest and we need business to act with values. History will look at us, people, politicians, corporate leaders. These times require not only solutions but speed. There is nowhere else to look than the mirror. We are the ones that need to do this. Hello and good afternoon. Welcome to youth perspectives and calls to action. My name is Erica Viegas and I work at the World Economic Forum building strategic partnerships for next generation communities and I am so happy to be your host for today's session. We are here on the second last day of the sustainable development impact meetings. This year marks the halfway point of the 2030 agenda and as we know, progress towards the sustainable development goals has been slower than needed. In response, world leaders across business, government, civil society have descended on New York this week to revive that momentum needed to create real social, economic and environmental impact that will ensure a better future for us all. So in today's session, we are joined by three amazing young innovators and activists and organizers who have participated in this week's United Nations General Assembly and Climate Week. And together we're here to answer a pretty big question. Have our efforts been enough? We will look back on the activities of this week and share takeaways and commitments and also look for further areas where we can take action. So before we dive in and note about the inspiring change makers you're about to meet, each speaker here today is a member of the World Economic Forum's global shapers community. And that is an empowering initiative of young leaders between 18 and 30 who create positive and lasting change together. The global shapers community spans 17,000 members and alumni facilitating collective action in 500 city-based hubs around the world. Our members have led more than 2,400 volunteer projects and initiatives to date and they serve in their local communities supporting 2 million direct beneficiaries and engaging more than 12 million people in their changemaking and movements around the world. We can definitely clap for that. I am a very proud alumna of both the Edmonton and New York City hubs and I'm extra proud today to share the stage with three very inspiring fellow global shapers and to be part of this community that recognizes young people as key drivers to the sustainable development agenda and see us as valuable contributors and voices to this very important global discussion. So with that, let's get started. I want to welcome our three panelists. We're very excited to have you in the studio with us. And maybe just to kick things off if I can ask each of you to introduce yourselves to our audience and maybe share how you are contributing to the discussions this week here in New York City. So maybe Karan, start with you. Thank you Erika for having us. I'm Karan. I'm a global shaper from the Mumbai hub in India. I've been a shaper for about four years now and in my day job I work in philanthropy where I work with a foundation called Laudas. And our goal is really to tackle the crisis of climate and inequality and my focus is to do that in the fashion industry. So apart from that, along with another shaper this week, we launched an initiative around queering the climate movement and I'm excited to tell you more about that over time. But this week, the other way I've also tried to contribute is to center conversations around the fact that we have the solutions we need. I mean, we know this and there's young people with great ideas out there. We need governments. We need businesses. We need everyone, philanthropy, all of us to invest and contribute and make them scale and make them a reality. And so we've been trying to push that and tell everybody to do it. Love that. You're welcome. Thanks Erika and congratulations Karan. I can't wait to hear more. My name is Priyanka Jasongati in this fantastic community. I am the community champion of the Northeast Regions supporting 16 incredible global shaper hubs. Outside of my incredible role as community champion, I'm the co-founder of Girls FTW, a global mentorship program driving gender equality forward. In this week, I've had the privilege to sit in so many different conversations and spaces where I get to use my voice to uplift the lived experiences of the girls that I support. So Girls FTW supports in over 70 countries. So how do I take back what they're experiencing day to day and how do I bring it to the forefront so they're not left behind? So it's been an honor and really excited to be here with you all. That's very important work. Can't wait to dive into that a bit more. So I'm Karolina and I'm from the Stockholm hub and I'm here to follow science, policy and tech. So that nexus always of course looking at the climate solutions there. As you're saying, there's so many that are available and often it's the perspectives that are forgotten that we need to kind of repeat over and over again. So I'm kind of here to repeat some messages. I'll just say the same thing. Well, to repeat some of what you just said, maybe we start with you and so you work at the intersection of climate as you said technology, public policy and some of your work involves open source data for governments. So when you think about youth using their voices, how can they affect public policy and urban transformation? Yeah. So look, we talk a lot about how science should influence policy, but we talk very little about how that said policy should be implemented. And implementation is obviously all that matters. And this generation, our generation, we've taken the streets of cities to push for climate action. But what we are really saying is listen to the scientists. So there's not a mayor in the world who doesn't know that this is the call for action. Now luckily, there are also lots of cities that take these science based targets. And so the work that I'm part of is to move that chain from science to policy to implementation. And as you're saying, to make sure that there's a data driven approach in this digital platform that we provide where it's not only the sort of front end decisions that are made with data, but you actually publish this so that citizens can take part. And when citizens can take part of the same data that drives decisions, you're empowered. And as young urban leaders, as global shapers, we need to be aware of where to find that information. We need to know what has been implemented and not. And when we know, we can hold leaders accountable. So it's not just hearing people talk to us about what the scientists are saying, but actually really seeing the data. Exactly. Wonderful. Well, Priyanka, speaking of young people, hearing data, empowering them. You work a lot in empowering young people, particularly young girls. So you mentioned you were the co-founder of Girls FTW. I proudly wear one of your sweatshirts very often. And mentorship and moving gender equality forward is a big part of your work. So why is this such an important SDG? Such a great question. Thank you for always supporting, Erika. I just want to echo what you said, Cardian. It's all about implementation. And to give you context, if we think about gender equality in this gendered space, women all have been in position where they don't have equal access to power. And this is across the world. So to give you context, so when we first started Girls FTW, we really wanted to create a tangible way to support girls and women that's beyond signing a petition that may get lost behind the digital world. But we actually wanted to create a curriculum that really supported and empowered girls. But what we're realizing right now more than ever is that over the years we've seen a lot of climate-based events that are really affecting girls' ability to be front and center for them to live their lives to their full potential. So because of that we're seeing and hearing conversations where girls because of their unequal structures or gender biases are really affecting their ability to have. So I've heard directly from girls in which the flooding is turning their lives upside down. Unprecedented earthquakes in cities that truly have never felt earthquakes before have demolished their offices, have prohibited them from going to schools, have truly impacted them. So because of not only these climate-based events and when we also look at the unequal structures or in gender equality, we're not able to help them thrive. So because of that we can't make any progress towards STGs, especially STG-5. So much work has to be done. This is such an important cause to me because I hear directly from girls every single day about how this is truly affecting their lives. And it's really interesting climate affects gender, gender affects climate. And Karin, you can speak to that a lot. You already sort of talked to us about this huge movement that you've created around queer and climate this week. Inclusive communities, you're a really big proponent of that. How can all of these meetings, all of this work include more voices? It's pretty simple I think. Invite them to the table, right? But oftentimes I think we forget that just an invitation is not enough. And essentially what we need to recognize is that you need to hold space. And that's what Queering Climate is all about. As shapers, when we were at Davos, I think one of the biggest things that we saw was that there was an active effort made, especially by the global shapers community, to have us as youth, as queer people, as other sort of identities be present and be active in conversations. And I think that sort of move is what inspired us to sort of do something like this, where the idea was how do we hold space? How do we look at all of the great work that's happening and connect it to ideas of how queer communities have essentially, pardon my French, got shit done, right? And I think that's really where it's at. Give them a seat at the table, give them a voice when you're doing it and give them a reason to believe that what they're saying will actually be heard and done. And that's really where it is. I love that. So the seat at the table is super important. I want to talk about the seat at the table, because the global shapers community gives a platform. Carolina, you've had some really, really wonderful platforms to speak about climate action. So I know you attended Davos in 2020, you've spoken to the UN, the Council of Europe, you've really been a huge voice for climate action. Yes, click to that. But what about all the other youth in the world that maybe have never heard of these meetings? They don't have this platform. They're not invited to the table. How do young people still continue to affect climate policy if they don't have these huge platforms? Yeah, as you're saying, if you're not around the table, you're on the menu. On the menu? I love it. We don't want that. No. But I think that, you know, we're sitting here and we're talking, you know, we're saying things. And before we're saying, we're thinking. But behind that, what we need to listen to is the knowing. And we all have a knowing. So if we can have integrity around that knowing and let it out through messages, repeat that message, let it become your message. And as you repeat it, you will awaken that same knowledge in others. And that will create an alliance for you, formal or informal, but be empowered by that. And the good thing is that it makes you feel less crazy. Yeah. Yeah, that you're not alone. There's other people that believe the same thing. Yeah. And that sense of community is so important. So I want to talk about this community. For a very long time. Now you're an alum and you shared that you now support 16 hubs as the community champion. So what can this community do to help entrepreneurs drive the SDGs? Oh, Erica, such a great question. Honestly, they're already doing it. So I am so inspired by this global shapers community across the 500 different hubs and also inspire whether projects are leading. When I look at the work that they're doing in their local communities, local to global, I feel a sense of hope about the future and to share some of the inspiration that continues to drive me forward. I'd love to share it with you all. I've seen so many incredible hubs work with local governments to ensure that communities voices are heard and they're actually taking their concerns to local governments such as city council members. That's a huge project that's happening right now in the local community. I've seen other projects in which they're also working with local governments, but to also just to help connect the housing department to help them be more energy efficient. I've seen other local hubs who are really driving the force to really change the narrative around children's story books and helping change the narrative around representation. What does that look like when you see yourself for the first time in these books? I've also seen so many projects that really talk about intergenerational dialogue and what it means, especially around the world. I've also seen shapers learn so much from each other. These are just individual projects that have the opportunity to be replicated across so many different hubs. These shapers are on the ground, boots on the ground to really see what's happening and they're truly creating transformative change. The opportunity here is that we're not really in the system. We're not jaded and we don't feel defeated, but these are just a few of hundreds of projects that are driving change and a lot of these changes, whether they recognize it or not, are driving the SGDs forward. Yeah, I love that. And the projects are super inspiring. That's one very unique thing about the global shapers community, I think, is that each hub is tasked with the project to complete and so that means 500 projects at least are completed each year and they're all super inspiring. I think building on that, Karin, I know you talked about this a little bit too before, but you work in the circular economy, you work in fashion, you work in sustainability and a lot of projects I think that you've helped to spearhead are kind of around that intersection of fashion and sustainability. Do you have any examples of young people using the circular economy to influence sustainable fashion? I mean there's so many. And what can we do? There's so many examples and I think the first one I do want to talk about is I think one of sort of the largest projects I've been a part of as a global shaper which is shaping fashion. It's in partnership with Fashion Revolution and it was started by a lovely alumna now but from the Amsterdam hub and essentially we've now got more than 25 hubs across the world participating in this sort of movement where the idea is how do we as local communities and participants and as active citizens as you said be sort of proponents of sustainability when it comes to fashion in these areas. So some of the projects that we've organized locally have included like clothes swaps, accounting and auditing our wardrobes, looking at the climate impact of the clothes we wear. And then in partnership with Fashion Revolution every year during sort of the week, Fashion Revolution week in April, we activate every hub to share messaging with their communities around what is in your clothes, what does it mean for us to engage with a sustainable sort of mindset when it comes to fashion and it's actually sort of been extremely fantastic so that's one project shaping fashion. There's other projects that a lot of folks are doing and while they may be sort of allied with the global shapers community they're also just because people have seen and heard and realized that in their own ways they can contribute. So there's youth groups that work across India that do sort of swaps, that do sort of clothing drives, they collect clothes from their local sort of apartments and then send it to recyclers. There's waste management companies that are run by other youth young people, I'll say now, that essentially are looking at how do we create a circular economy with the perspective of the infrastructure that's needed. So I mean we can give our clothes to someone but it has to end up somewhere useful, right? Not in a landfill, not sort of incinerated and so how do these waste management companies then take our clothes, take them to an appropriate recycler and then actually channel them to ways they can become new clothes or ways they can actually be useful to other industries. And that's sort of a perfect example of a circular economy. The challenge comes when you have to scale it up but that's the sort of beauty of having more distributed networks rather than one large system. You have people doing it in their own local communities and essentially you create big impact with that. So small dots make a big picture. Small dots make a big picture. And I kind of see the global shapers community like that. Lots and lots of small dots, these 17,000 members and alumni that are each kind of creating their part and hopefully inspiring others to create their part. I'm just thinking about this week in general and the role of youth in this week. I'm curious for each of you are there takeaways that you have learned this week in New York that you want to bring back to your hubs and to the global shapers community? Well, one spontaneous takeaway now is that we should all brag when we are wearing pre-loved fashion. That's right. Yeah, this is my grandma's. This is pre-loved. We should say that more often. I love that you're wearing your grandma's pants. She had good taste. She did. And obviously, not fast fashion. Most pants have lasted enough for future generations to wear. That's amazing. I look forward to my kids having them one day. Yeah. So on a similar note, passing on messages between generations, if there's just one message that I have, then it's that enough about new commitments, just implement. Yeah. Wonderful. Priyanka, any takeaways for your 16 hubs and your communities? Just one. Maybe a few. We got time. Gosh, let's see. I think we're all aware that 2030 is around the corner and just like you were saying, we've seen so many different leaders, whether it's from governments to corporations to local actors, say so much with their words, but they're not really implementing. In order to drive change, we really have to lead with a new set of values and including the communities who have been a part, who have been actually left behind by the conversation and their lived experiences. So how do we do this in a way that we're not tokenizing them, but we're also giving them dignity and respect and for them to share their lived experiences and be decision creators, not just makers. They need to be a part of the process, otherwise no solution is going to be coming to fruition. Yeah. Yeah, it's not just the seat at the table for the sake of the seat, but to actually listen. And I think, Carolina, you were saying that a little bit earlier when we were speaking too. It's about what's being said, not the age of the person who's saying it, necessarily. Yeah. Karen, any takeaways for you? I mean, I don't know how they have only one. You know, good job. I have many, but I think I'll settle on maybe two or three, right? I think the first one is the fact that everybody, and Carolina said this earlier, you said this, I think we all know this, everybody recognizes that climate change is a problem. And I heard this earlier today from another youth activist. No one is actually talking about the fact that, well, climate change has its impacts, but why is there climate change in the first place? And that's where I think business and industry and governments have a role to play. They need to sort of, one, look at how we can incentivize the solutions. They need to look at how we can empower youth, people like us and others that don't have platforms like this to be given that platform, to say the things they need to say. I think we often look at activism as the bad thing, but what if we give them space and actually hurt them, right? Listen to the science, give them a platform, hear their problems, internalize them. So that's one takeaway. And I think my second biggest takeaway that I will be sort of maybe taking back to not only my hub, but other hubs in the region is the fact that we're slowly starting to recognize we do have some power. And that's important to sort of realize. I think the more you're in these spaces, you sort of see people wearing these big badges, wearing coats and like, you know, walking around from one building to another and, you know, they have access. And I think with access, slowly, we're starting to see we have access to and we can be given that access. So, yeah. If I can just add on to what you're saying, Kanan. Please do. See, I said you won't have just one. Oh, so hard, but I'm going to resist. Just one quick last thing just to add. I completely agree with everything you're saying. And right now we're all recognizing the impact of climate and we're seeing policies being created. But one thing is to urge and really highlight that we may create so many different policies, but without actually programming that's helping to shift mindsets and norms, we won't be moving the needle whatsoever because unfortunately in so many communities, there are deep-rooted beliefs that you may create any policy that are just not going to be implemented in. We won't see the changes that we truly do desire. Yeah. Sorry. Just go for it. Right? Like even when you think about other industries and when you think about policy implementation, like you said, no one, I mean, policy is great. Like you can say the words, put them on a page, but then to actually implement them requires sort of everybody to participate. And I think that's another important place where we need to recognize that these communities have a key role to play. Right? You can't just have a top-down thing. You need to know like both bottom-up and top-down. For sure. And the thing that strikes me too is that each of you is working kind of at an intersection that you might not necessarily link with climate. So like queer in climate, not necessarily something you would put together, gender in climate, not necessarily something you were mentorship in climate or technology in climate. And it's really interesting how kind of there is this cross where everything sort of affects climate change in ways that we don't necessarily think of, that don't necessarily come to mind. Yeah. Is that your key takeaway? That's actually one big key takeaway. Like I think of climate often not under these lenses and how many different areas of our lives, of our society are affected by it has really been eye-opening for me. That's my takeaway. Thank you for asking. So one thing that I feel like we often, or we should kind of articulate more is how nature used to move slowly and it was societies moving fast. Now it's nature moving fast and societies moving slowly. So how can we use the things that move fast? You know, like technology, like megatrends, like what are the things that we can speed up till we reach the same velocity as climate change? Yeah, very interesting point. Well, maybe one last question that I ask all of you and this is a real question about call to action. So there's different stakeholders, different audience members watching. What is your call to action for leaders around the world, whether they be government leaders, corporate leaders and young people around the world? What is your call to action around moving the SDGs forward? Oh, you want to start with me? I'm going to start with you. Okay, I thought we were going that way. Cool. What is my call to action? I think that I'm going to stick to it, right? The solutions exist. I mean, literally you throw a rock and you'll find an example somewhere, right? In fashion, I'll speak to fashion because that's like my area of expertise. But there's chemical recycling technologies that can take polyester and cotton blends. One of them just sort of got finalized as a finalist for the earth shot price, right? Really cool stuff. It's something that has never been done before and it's the hardest thing to do. But they need to be invested in to scale it up. There are sort of solutions that exist when it comes to looking at how can you take things like agricultural waste and create so many cool new things out of it. You can create fashion fibers. You can create plastics. You can create fuel. You can create furniture. You can create buildings. I mean it's endless, right? But it requires you to really rethink the way in which we extract other things that are finite and look at renewable sources. And so a call to action really is to say you recognize that there are solutions out there and you need to invest in them. You need to put money. You need to put time. And most importantly, you need to put trust. Without that trust everybody will be like, it's too risky. I'm not going to do it. Governments will be like, no one has tried it before. So if we trust in the solution and if we trust the science, we'll be able to figure things out. Priyanka. Gosh, you're only one thing again. I just want to talk to these, especially the ones that sometimes feel in so many different communities that their voice doesn't matter. When they're in the systemic areas and dealing with the systemic issue, sometimes hard to see is really a light at the end of the day. Their voice matters and call your representative. Learn what they're doing, what sustainability. Learn what they're doing, how to tackle the climate crisis. Make your voice heard. Actually get your local community involved to make sure that your voices are not only at the local level, but also at the federal level. There are so many ways for you to be plugged into government if you just seek and find. Wonderful. And Karolina. Yeah, about seeking and finding, I think that that's a good compass because if we seek the opportunities in the climate transition, whether they are economic or social or co-beneficial, we will find them. So that's kind of my cold action, just compass. Wonderful. So seek and find. Your voice matters. Have some trust. There you have it. Thank you to our three panelists. This has been wonderful. Thank you for joining us today. And thank you to all the global shapers who are making a difference around the world. These three are wonderful community members, but the global shapers community just represents 17,000 active members, 500 countries. So in parallel to this week's activities, there's global shapers around the world doing amazing work in the Caribbean. They've been accelerating accelerating equity and inclusion and bringing marginalized voices to the forefront of local solution building, which is wonderful to see. There's these little sparks everywhere that are happening. Looking ahead this weekend, actually the global shapers community across the Asia-specific region is going to be coming together to help catalyze collective action to promote economic and environmental resilience. And then in October, the global shapers community will convene across North America and the Caribbean region. I know some of you are going to co-create youth-led solutions and challenges in MENA for the MENA region. And that includes bringing youth to the forefront of integrating some thoughts around the upcoming COP 28. So we have much to be grateful for and proud about and a big thank you to all of our members worldwide for all the work that you're doing into those tuning in. If you are interested in becoming a global shaper, I'm sure our panel has inspired you. Please go to our website and look for your local hub city. If you do not see your local hub city, please write to us. We would love to include you global shapers at weftforum.org and you can propose anyone. Finally, if you are a global shaper like our wonderful panel here this month, you are invited to tangibly inform our work here at the World Economic Forum because each year we publish a global risks report ahead of our annual meeting in January. And this report explores some of the most severe economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal and technological issues that we face. And it features a lot of insights from diverse stakeholders and experts, including the very important insights of young people as we've talked about. So we want to know what are the risks that most concern you today, over the next 10 years, over the next 20 years, and global shapers are invited to take the survey and to inform our latest research and data. And you can find that in our next newsletter. So please look out for that. And all of our global shapers are also invited to join the launch of the report in January and you can share some of your insights there too. So please look for that. I just want to give one final huge thank you to our panelists for this incredible discussion. I've learned a lot and I'm sure that youth all over the world are learning a lot of ways that they can take collective action. And I just ask that everyone join us each month for the global shapers community LinkedIn account where youth all over the world can learn more about the community and where our amazing head of the global shapers community Natalie Pierce will be sharing talks from the World Economic Forum with our colleagues with global shapers and different constituents about the amazing work that they are leading to forward the SDGs. Go Natalie! Thank you so much for joining us today and enjoy the rest of your day.