1st World Youth Sustainability Summit 2013 - May 10-20 Berlin

My impressions of the 1st WYSS - Relja Stepanovic

I was one of the participants of the 1st World Youth Sustainability Summit in Berlin, held on May10-20, 2013. The summit was organized by  German NGO called Youthinkgreen.

During this time, I had the great honor to listen to lectures held by many scientists and activists including Prof. Dr. Claudia Kemfert, Wolfgang Gruendiger, Arved Fuchs, Prof. Dr. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsaecker, Hannes Jaenicke, Prof. Dr. and Dr. HC Hans Joachim Schellnhuber.

In addition, I have been able to exchange ideas, experiences and develop projects with more then 160 participants from 31 countries. This has enabled me to broaden my horizons and knowledge on sustainable development and come back to Serbia with many new ideas for new projects for raising awareness of our society on global issues concerning our environment.

We are the future. Therefore, we ask ourselves how we want to live in the future and how we want to create the future!

Our current ways of living pose problems for our future. We know that we have to rethink and change. As young people from around the world, we have different perspectives to offer which, when shared, can lead to concrete solutions.

We need to determine the kind of world in which we want to live now and in the future, and what part politics, economics and the social society take.
Coming from around the world, experts, representatives of sustainable ways of living and young people will come together to draft a common position paper on the topic “Youth and Sustainability in Everyday Life – Challenge, Rethink and Revive Global Ways of Living”.