YUVA STRIKES A CHORD
‘YUVA’ stands for Youth Unite for Voluntary Action. The 1st YUVA meet was held on the 2nd and the 3rd of February, 2009 at the Vishwa Yuvak Kendra (also known as The International Youth Centre), in Chanakyapuri, Delhi. Its prime motive was to actively involve youths by creating awareness among them on the issue of climate change and global warming. It comprised of various distinguished personalities from all over the world who shared their views on the global concern of climate change. YUVA was organised by TERI (The Energy and Research Institute), headed by Dr.R.K.Pachauri, who is also the head of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) which recently won the Nobel prize.
This meet also had a debate competition which elicited active participation of undergraduate as well as postgraduate students spanning the country, which served as a diverse amalgam of views under a single roof. There were 147 participants segregated in groups of two per team. There was one individual participant as well.
The debate was on the following topics:
1. Adapting to the changing climate- a call for well thought solutions.
2. Rendering your neighborhood green-local efforts to curb climate change.
3. Indigenous knowledge about climate
4. Climate communication for a planet in crisis.
5. Green jobs- past, present, and future.
This debate was held on Feb 2, 2009 and the results were announced on the subsequent day. The best team on each topic was selected. Apart from this 12 students were short listed from the participants and were asked to speak on the topic of their choice, the topic which they felt was very pertinent and was the need of the hour in context of climate change. One student out of these 12 was awarded the Best Speaker and three others were anointed a sub-ordinate s p e a k e r s . So a total of 14 students were awarded cash prizes and cer t i f icates by Dr. R.K. Pachauri in person on the 3rd of February. These 14 students were sponsored by TERI at the DSDS (Delhi Sustainable Development Summit) 2009, which was held between the 5th and 7th of February, 2009 at Hotel Ashok, in Chanakyapuri, Delhi. A. Vivek Anand, 2nd year, B.E. Mechatronics student from Shastra University, Tamil Nadu and Arjun Mahalingam, 2nd year B.E. Mechanical student from Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi constituted a team and debated on the topic - Climate communications for a planet in crisis. They were selected as the best team for this topic and Arjun Mahalingam was adjudged the Best Speaker at the event.These selected members also got a chance to interact with the chairman of UNFCCC (United Nations Federation Convention on Climate Change), Mr. Yvo de Boer on the 4th of February at Hotel Ashok. The DSDS’s theme this year was Towards Copenhagen: an equitable and ethical approach. It was inaugurated by Pranab Mukherjee. It witnessed active participation from many developing and developed countries from around the world which were duly represented by their Presidents, Ex-presidents, Prime Ministers and Members of the Parliament.
In this summit Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations was awarded the fifth Sustainable Development Leadership Award. It also showcased video conferencing with Kofi Annan, John Kerry, Tony Blair and the like. These leaders shared their views and discussed their policies and plan of action for combating climate change and reducing CO2 emissions. On February 5th, there was a concert performed by the wizards of classical music, Zakhir Hussain, Taufiq Qureshi and Niladri Kumar. Ensuing this was the Green Globe Award ceremony.
Four awards were given under the following categories :-
Youth: Arjun Mahalingam of Delhi College of Engineering. The Green Globe Trophy was awarded to him by Anote Tong, President of Kiribati and Dr.R.K.Pachauri.
Design and Architecture: Karan Grover, architect from Karan Grover and Associates.
Business Enterprise: Ms. Naina Lal Kidwai, Group General Manager and country head, HSBC India.
Media: Darryl D’Monte, Chairman, Forum of Environmental Journalists of India.
The summit ended on the 7th of February on a high note.