BY ANINDITA GANGOPADHYAY, STAFF REPORTER
Mark the date; September 3rd ,2021 as this is the day when the third edition of the E3 Global Summit started and believe me when I say that it was a blast!
The summit addresses the issues regarding the Earth, Economy and Equity, thus the name E3 Global Summit. This time the event went on for three days starting on the third of this month. The summit team had put in a lot of effort in arranging this wonderful event and had succeeded in organizing 29 very engaging workshops, an SDG sandbox and lastly plenaries. The first day began with the plenary team introducing themselves. This introduction showed just how global the whole MUN Impact team is. We had Elias, one of the head plenaries who joined from France; Amaya from Sri Lanka who was another co-head of plenaries; next we had Snata, a part of the plenary team who joined from India.
The introductions were followed by an intra summit video put together by this very efficient team. The video consisted of the student leaders of the summit who gave us an insight into what was going to happen in the next few days and encouraged everyone to not just listen but think and take progressive steps towards making the changes that this world requires. There are a total of 17 SDGs, giving the young generation a vast range of topics to choose from to make change.
The summit officially started with a power- packed, fun-filled welcome speech by AY Young. AY Young is a producer, singer, songwriter, entertainer and entrepreneur who was also recognized as one of the 17 UN Youth leaders for SDGs. He is the only citizen from the United States to have held such a position. AY Young has done more than 800 concerts till date all powered by renewable energy sources. He is also working on a global goals album named Project 17. The album is in collaboration with some of the most prominent artists of the world who aim to produce one song each. These songs are to be related to any one SDG. As if these achievements weren’t enough AY Young is also the founder of the Battery Tour. He states that there are over a billion people around the world who lack access to energy. In his battery tour he aims to provide renewable and accessible energy to people around the world so that they too can have access to electricity, one of the most important resources needed in today’s world. His music seeks to spread love and positivity to the youth. In his speech, AY talked about how change comes from passion and taking a step towards it everyday, he believes that everyone is an outlet for change and that we all together need to move and take a step to bring about the change we all yearn for. He further encouraged everyone and said that one doesn’t need a million follower to make a change or do what they love to do. Young told us how he powered 8-10 hours concerts all using renewable energy in batteries, and this was even before he started the Battery Tour. Rather he says, that it was during one such concert that he came up with the idea of Battery Tour. AY Young has reached 17 countries till now and has provided energy to many. Further he continued by telling us more about Project 17. Through this project he asks everyone to support his tour, support the change and also take one action towards the change. Young believes that even a small step like turning off water while brushing teeth is also a big step towards making change. He also mentioned how artists like Lady Gaga and Lil Nas X cared about gender equality while artists like Kim Kardashian cared about peace and justice. He ended his speech on a fun note while also asking everyone to spread #battery_tour.
After AY Young left, one of the board members, Snata, gave a little speech. In her speech she quoted a quote said by the 35th President of the USA, Franklin D. Roosevelt: ‘We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.’ This quote wonderfully summarizes the essence of the purpose of not only this summit but also of MUN.
Next, we were joined by Mrs. Kehkashan Basu for the keynote. Mrs. Basu is an environmental and human rights activist, founder president of Green Hope Foundation, UN’s Human rights champion, winner of the 2016 International Children’s Peace Prize and also the winner of the first ever Voices Youth Legacy Award for Nuclear Disarmament. As if this was not a long enough list, she is also the author of a book called Tree of Hope. The book tells us the story of youth taking actions to mitigate climate change. Mrs. Basu talks about how we live in an unequal world where there are only a selected few who can progress and the majority of the population is even stripped of their basic human rights. We’re all aware that the world population is close to a billion now, referring to this Mrs. Basu says that she is worried that this may add to the inequity and this majority of people might not even receive the basic resources. The causes of this can be more than one she says. Dramatic climate change, war and strife and loss of biodiversity can be a few examples. She very rightly states that what we know of inequity is not the whole story, this is mainly because the media is controlled by the one’s in power. Many say that due to pandemic the balance is now being made. But is it true? No it isn’t. The pandemic has only played a bigger role in impacting the vulnerable communities and regions. It is indeed true, that during this time nations came together to help each other but all went down the drain when vaccines came into the picture. The developed nations had vaccine stockpiles amounting to seven dose per capita of its population, while there were nations in the South remain unvaccinated. What’s worse is that in these developed nations thousands of vaccines are going to the waste because they pass their expiry dates. Regarding this Mrs. Basu poses a very important question: Why in this age and era where we have high tech logistics are we unable to adjust supply chains so that excess doses don’t go to waste?
Another important issue she addresses is the splurge of the rich with space travels, where billionaires try to outdo one another while there are millions who starve for some mere food on their table.
These are a few issues the Green Hope organization works against. The organization has spread to 25 countries and has impacted over 2,25,000 people all over the world. Green Hope provides a platform of learning at ground level to create a just, equitable and sustainable future for all. The foundation has been linked with the UN for a long time under the UNEP and the UN convention to combat desertification drought but specifically they have a very close relationship with working for the SDGs.
Their main goal is to localize the SDGs by bringing together the 5 Ps of sustainable development. To address SDG 1 the foundation is working globally to reduce poverty. They also contribute to food security practices to work towards the second SDG. Just like this the foundation is taking steps to attain each of the 17 SDGs and playing a huge role in attaining Agenda 2030.
Mrs. Basu ended her session by very kindly answering questions asked by the attendees .
Overall, this first session was undoubtedly flawless and wonderful. AY Young and Mrs. Basu, both great personalities gave their precious time to encourage and guide the youth and made this session fruitful.