On July 9, Eco Forum Global Guiyang 2023 - International Youth Forum on Green Development kicked off at the Guiyang International Eco-Conference Center. Dong Jialu, Deputy Governor of Guizhou Province, Shapkat Wushur, Head of All-China Youth Federation, and James George, Deputy Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme in China attended and addressed the opening ceremony.

Over 100 young people representing China, Sweden, Poland, North Macedonia, Zambia, the Philippines, as well as international organizations such as UNDP, UNICEF, European Youth Forum, and International Hydropower Association were present, discussing strategies for global green development from the youth perspective, exploring ways for the youth to engage in global ecological civilization, and showcasing the role and contribution of the youth in green transformation and development.

This forum was the first youth-themed sub-forum set up since the Eco Forum Global Guiyang was held, and it was part of serial dialogue of the World Youth Development Forum. Under the theme “Empowering Youth Action for Low-Carbon Development” the forum aimed to facilitate international youth exchanges and cooperation, call for global youths to pool consensus on green development, and shoulder responsibilities and take concrete actions to that end.

Shapkat Wushur stated, “Youth are an effective force for driving humanity towards a sustainable future. I hope young people could actively exchange views, share experience, forge friendship, and achieve win-win outcomes. Let us work together to inherit green development concepts, practice green lifestyles, explore green technological innovation, and promote green international cooperation, so as to pool the strength of youth to building a beautiful world and a better future.”

James George emphasized that, “Worldwide young leaders are emerging, demanding urgent action on the climate crisis and calling for unity in the pursuit of green development. Faced with current ecological challenges, we are committed to harnessing the energy, creativity and ideas of the youth to ensure we can jointly and effectively tackle global challenges and help envision, design and advance sustainable development.”

During the keynote speech session, many experts and representatives made remarks on topics such as “Global Climate Change and its Impact”, “Hydropower Empowering a Net Zero Future”, “Development of China’s Carbon Market”, “International Cases on Youth Empowerment in Climate Action Platform”, “Experience about Enterprises’ Low-carbon Transformation under Ecological Civilization Development”, and “Climate Action and Youth International Cooperation” sharing their experience and achievements in promoting ecological civilization.

On the forum, Wang Yi, the Executive Director of the Secretariat of the World Youth Development Forum, introduced the “Action Plan for Global Youth Development”, which aims to collect 100 Excellence Actions for Global Youth Development worldwide. The plan will conduct capacity-building, exchange and practice, and project promotion for outstanding young high-calibre personnel in sustainable development, advocating for the youth to take practical actions for implementing the Global Development Initiative (GDI) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.

In the youth dialogue session, young representatives from the UNICEF, China, Zambia, the Philippines, Poland, and international organizations took the initiative to exchange views on topics like “How to contribute youth power to green development”, “How to cultivate green development skills for youth”, and “How to mobilize more youth to participate in green development”. They discussed their achievements in international youth engagement in ecological civilization and explored effective ways to promote global green and low-carbon development in an in-depth way.