In April 2021, SUNx Malta launched an annual SEYS - Strong Earth Youth Summit, attracting some 650 young activists from around the world, to promote a vision and action plan for Climate Friendly Travel (CFT). We held it on the 29th April, Maurice Strong ́s birthday.
This year's event follows similar patterns with a tribute from Achim Steiner, Under Secretary General UN and Head of UNDP, very much as he delivered at the opening of the 2015 Paris Climate Summit, and showing the immense contribution that Strong made to the foundations of today’s Global Climate and Sustainability “Code Red“ Agenda.
This will be followed by a keynote from Professor Felix Dodds founder of the UN Stakeholder Forum, on 50 years of Global Environmental Action – celebrating the 1972 first Earth Summit, where Strong was Secretary General. Mirian Vilela will talk about the Earth Charter that Strong introduced in 2000, with Mikhael Gorbachev former President of USSR, and which she has been directing since. The Earth Charter was a landmark first covenant between the People and the Planet , with a very heavy focus on equality, equity and social justice and nature based approaches. Many of its ideas can be seen in the Terra Carta introduced by the Prince of Wales in 2021. Professor Arthur Dahl of ECPD will follow, on a book “Remembering Maurice Strong“ that will be given to all Summit attendees.
Finally in this session we will get a Code Red Climate update from two of Tourism’s top climate scientists Professor Daniel Scott from Waterloo University in Canada and Professor Susanne Becken from Griffiths University in Australia.
After a short break, when we will be showing some more of our “Dodo” cartoons that were so popular last year, as well as special climate action videos from Award winning artists Alston Koch and Lyona Boyd.
Next we will hear how SUNx Malta is helping to deliver on Climate Friendly Travel, with an overview from Chairman Leslie Vella and President Geoffrey Lipman. Jin Feng Zhou of CBCGDF will talk about the expansion of our Diploma into China. We will also deep dive into the increasingly important issue of Climate Resilience with SDG 17 partner Risklayer, led by Bijan Karzai. And Hans Friederich, the Registrar of SUNx Malta’s CFT Registry, will explain how joining the SUNx Malta community can really help companies and destinations to greatly enhance their Climate and Sustainability Plans as well as deliver on them.
We will again be profiling our Strong Earth Awards for students with a presentation from Joceline Favre Bulle from our SDG 17 Partner Les Roches.
Finally, after a brief introduction from the CEO of ITS Pierre Fenech, a group of our Diploma Students will be discussing what they learned from the SUNx Malta CFT Diploma, why they enjoyed the Course and how it should help them in their future careers and lives.
SAVE THE DATE - 2nd STRONG EARTH YOUTH SUMMIT (SEYS) - April 29th, 2022