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Hi Youthgassers!

It has been an honour and a privilege to work right throughout our youth sector this year as Youth Representative to the UN. I really valued the partnerships I formed with many of you, and the stories of your organisations/ youthwork that you shared with me.

One of the many opportunities I have to convey the perspectives of young Australians to the world community and Australian Government is a statement to the UN General Assembly Third Committee, which I enclose below.

This statement was written based on the opinions of young people right throughout the country in a tour which engaged over 10, 000 young people across all States and Territories. This is a piece that belongs to all young Australians and so it would be greatly appreciated if you distributed it amongst your networks and to young people who would like to know how they are represented at the international level.

UNYA Australia, who manage the Youth Representative Program, are now recruiting our 2010 Youth Representative, and so I invite and encourage you all to support him/her when they are appointed early in the New Year.

I look forward to working with many of you again during my Report Back Tour in February 2010.

Many thanks,

Chris

“On February 7, 2009 I tried to resuscitate a man but could not. It was another day in the summer that would see days of record-breaking sweltering 45 plus temperatures. Everything was so dry. I spent that night hopelessly trying to defend my Flowerdale home and the homes of many friends from the merciless flames of the Black Saturday bushfires. Our homes and everything we had worked for were destroyed. We need to increase action against climate change so that our summers are not as hot, fierce and murderous.”

These are the words of a 17-year-old girl who was one of the many victims of this year’s Victorian bushfires.

Today I come before you on behalf of my generation of young Australians, feeling inspired by the courage of the young people who overcame the worst natural disaster in Australia’s history earlier this year, humbled to represent the youth opinion gained from my nation-wide consultation tour with our UN Youth Association and proud to commend young Australians to you all as leaders of my country, voicing today the sum of the stories and perspectives of more than 10, 000 diverse young people I have engaged as Youth Delegate.

From Brisbane to Bunbury, Darwin to Dubbo, Adelaide to Alice Springs, and Hobart to Hedland, the message was the same – climate change is having a detrimental effect on the lives of young people right now.

During my tour I met young people from the fire-affected areas such as Alexandra, Kinglake and Whittlesea who were amongst the 7, 500 people that were displaced, or worse, lost loved ones included in the 173 people who died.

In our discussions, these young people cited the science that says that a 50-year warming trend and the enhanced greenhouse effect are strong considerations for explaining the increased severity of the fires and the intense heat wave that preceded reaching 45 plus degrees Celsius. They feared more regular and extreme fire days as a result of rising temperatures. Around the country the feeling from young people was that the extreme weather events of our today are likely to become the normal weather events of our tomorrow.

Across rural areas like Mildura, I saw the anxiety in the eyes of young people whose families and futures are victims of our prolonged drought and the impact it is having on farming and water industries. In Queensland I was told of floods and of rising sea levels around the Torres Strait Islands. In New South Wales, I listened to young people from coal communities like the Hunter Valley encourage investment in green technologies and their new economic opportunities.

In schools I heard young people’s passion for a global education, one that arms them with a thorough understanding of how to tackle the unsafe climate futures we are to inherit. From student Social Justice Groups I heard youth concern for how climate change will impact the world’s poor – and how the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals must be at the centre of warming-mitigation strategies.

Throughout my travels, one thing was constant; the inspiration I felt from seeing the leadership young people were giving to the movements behind climate justice and poverty elimination.

In the week before the Climate Summit, an incredible 37, 400 young people united in an Australian youth vote on climate change called ‘Youth Decide,’ making it one of the world’s biggest youth climate actions. This vote, inspired by our Youth Climate Coalition and World Vision Youth, saw young Australians give a clear message - that we deserve a sustainable climate, secured by all member states at December’s Copenhagen Conference through an ambitious, fair and binding global agreement. The youth of Australia voted for this agreement to adopt a 40%+ emissions reduction target by 2020.

Ladies and gentlemen, history will define us in 2009 by the measure of our actions at Copenhagen to protect the future of today’s young people. Let the agreement forged be bold enough to respond to tragedies like Black Saturday by cooling our climate.

On my tour, I met young people who despite wanting to make a positive contribution to their communities and to causes like climate justice, lacked the right platforms and support to do so. Their barriers included feeling trapped within a cycle of discouragement or yearning for their cultural heritage to be accepted.

However I also saw how this was changing through youth – with community and Government support young Australians are working to break down these barriers to participation and develop the voice inside all young people.

In Sale, Victoria I met a 17-year-old girl named Krystal. Krystal had been living an unhealthy lifestyle until she got involved with a program called Youth Insearch, which facilitates at-risk youth supporting each other to build up their self-esteem levels. Through her involvement, Krystal is now actively shaping her local community and running programs to empower other at-risk young people to take control of their lives.

Recently I met a young Indigenous man named Jack who at just 22 runs a youth organisation mentoring Indigenous young people to achieve their full potential with their education. With community support, Jack’s organisation is growing across Australia, and is successfully developing young Indigenous leaders and achieving equality between cultures by building cross-cultural relationships.

Krystal and Jack’s stories show us that by encouraging and valuing young people as equal partners we help free youth from their barriers to ensure all young people can become influential leaders of their communities.

The stories I have shared today are ones I have heard as part of my collection of young people’s dreams for Australia that I will be presenting to my Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

We dream of a safe climate future for all, because if we can’t dream it, we will never achieve it.

We dream of a United Nations that facilitates the shared humanity it envisioned 64 years ago, and where every delegation has a Youth Delegate

We dream that in all decision-making processes young people will be celebrated, not tolerated; mentored, not ridiculed; included, not excluded; inspired, not disappointed.

The moment has come where you must decide how you will pass the baton onto us, the next generation and future caretakers of our planet. You can slow on climate change because of short-term pain and thus set us behind. Or you can surge forward and take the lead to give our run...our future...the strong start it deserves.