The Count Down 2030, 2060 and Beyond Conference kick-off

Today marks the beginning of our five day “Countdown 2030, 2063 and Beyond” conference with youth from over 20 countries. 

During the opening of this conference, the founder of Bridge it Sascha Müller said that… “the future is full of enormous challenges; mastering them will be our task for the century”. 

The conference is organised by young people from Cameroon, Benin, Burkina Faso, Germany, Malawi, and South Africa. 

Our aim is to amplify youth voices to join our involvement in order to critically engage, share and challenge political, social and economic issues. It also promotes ideas of sustainable development. 

It was stimulated by the “Brundtland Report” that was published in 1987, entitled ‘Our Common Future’ by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development. This report was a foundation of the global discussions on sustainability. 

Subsequently, there have been many movements and conferences based on the themes of environment, climate change and etc.   

Currently around the world, there is an atmosphere that is revealing in the face of the threat of climate catastrophe. As a result of climate challenges, the voices of Millennials through protests against a policy that is destroying their future is getting louder and louder. At the same time, the world is sitting on a 100 trillion-dollar bubble of investment in fossil fuels, despite having access to alternative technologies.

From the forest fires in the United States of America (USA) to the coral dying in the tropics and the increasing levels of social inequality, the dying of refugees in the Mediterranean, the ubiquitous populism that abuses this situation, the signs are crystal clear: the climate crisis, the crisis of human rights and the crisis of capitalism are global.

Now in human history, we have a choice between three possibilities: to die, to survive or to flourish. 

We plead that we flourish! We must rebuild our political, social and economic systems. We need to transform society to make it more sustainable, just and inclusive. We need to work together to face our challenges. And this is the background in which our conference takes place. 

Behind the backdrop of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Agenda 2063 frameworks, we will be engaging on different themes such as exploring and challenging the Agenda 2030 and 2063, sustainable consumption, and social innovation. This will be done through panel discussions, breakaway sessions, and interactive activities. 

Our purpose is to not only to start conversations but to think beyond Countdown for future generations. 

It is in our hands!