Young voices are leading the climate crisis fight – how the Hong Kong Sustainable Development Goals Summits empowers high school students to take action
- Across the world young people are leading the fight to enact change at the grass-roots level, with the Canadian International School Hong Kong hosting the second annual SDG summit
- The event virtually welcomed 600 students from across Asia to hear from key speakers including Green Queen founder Sonalie Figueiras and Youthophia co-founder Melati Wijsen
The Canadian International School Hong Kong (CDNIS) hosted the second annual Hong Kong Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit on March 12. In a world full of negative headlines, the 2022 SDG Summit was a breath of fresh air, and a sign that Asia’s youth is focused on making positive change.
Hosted by the CDNIS Global Goals Council (GGC), this was the city’s second student-led virtual SDG summit and featured more than 600 students from Hong Kong and other parts of Asia, as well as an array of prestigious keynote speakers.
“This year’s summit was originally planned as a face-to-face event with an afternoon of direct community engagement for 200 participants, led by our four partner NGOs, but with the current government-imposed restrictions this was no longer a possibility,” explained Matthew Schulte, a Local & Global Engagement Coordinator and GGC adviser.
The climate crisis is the single biggest threat facing humankind and it affects every aspect of our lives, from food and land to fashion, energy and fertility. On a grass-roots level, we need to build more awareness on how acute the crisis actually is.
Schulte, who was heavily involved with the organisation of the summit, said the council was committed to ensuring the event went ahead in a virtual format, regardless of the situation.
“Young people in Hong Kong have missed so many important educational opportunities over the past two years with school closures and extracurricular activity cancellations, so the HK SDG Summit has provided a new opportunity for community engagement, education and collaboration in these uncertain times,” he said.
Highlights from the event included a keynote presentation from Sonalie Figueiras, the founder of Green Queen, as well as Forbes’ “30 Under 30 Asia” social entrepreneur Melati Wijsen, who co-founded the youth empowerment project Youthopia. Expert panel discussions and workshops featured some of Hong Kong’s most prominent NGOs, including the Crossroads Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, the ITS Foundation, Christian Action and Feeding Hong Kong.
“The SDG Summit and other similar events are incredibly important as they galvanise youth voices. What we need more than ever is youngsters to organise and fight against the lethargy and apathy of previous generations in averting the climate crisis,” said Figueiras.
“The climate crisis is the single biggest threat facing humankind and it affects every aspect of our lives, from food and land to fashion, energy and fertility. On a grass-roots level, we need to build more awareness on how acute the crisis actually is.”
