CHILDREN’S SUMMIT ON ENVIRONMENT CONCLUDES IN JAPAN, CHALLENGES WORLD LEADERS

TO ACT ON ENERGY, BIODIVERSITY, WATER, RECYCLING

 

(Reissued as received.)

NAIROBI/NAGOYA, 29 July (UNEP) -- Six hundred children from around the world, who gathered this week in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, for the UNEP Children’s World Summit for the Environment, are challenging the world’s leaders to pay higher attention to energy, biodiversity, water and recycling.  At the same time they all commit themselves to environmentally friendly actions to make a difference for the future.

The Children’s World Summit was organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), with His Imperial Highness Prince Akishino of Japan as the Honorary President.  The Prince’s family, including two daughters, Princess Mako and Princess Kako, also took part in activities during the four-day programme.

The 600 delegates, 10 to 14 years of age, came from 65 nations, many of them from developing countries.  Learning and sharing experiences on important environmental issues was the main purpose of the meeting.

“We commit ourselves to saving energy and using renewable energy sources”, say the children in their Summit Statement.  They also challenge the world’s leaders in a petition, asking them to “create and enforce laws to improve efficiency in production, consumption and conservation of energy”.  They demand that the leaders set examples also on the issues of biodiversity, water and waste processing.

At the closing of the four-day Summit on Friday, UNEP Deputy Executive Director Shafqat Kakakhel promised that the children’s message would be delivered to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

He also assured the children that their message included on a 14-metre-long canvas will have a prominent place in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York to remind the world’s presidents and prime ministers who will be gathering at the World Summit in New York in September of the hope of the children for a better environment.

“It is difficult but not impossible to work for a green future”, says one of the delegates, 13-year old Marisa Tania from Indonesia.  In her home town Surabaya she says she cannot see the blue sky due to air pollution and the river Kalimas is badly polluted.

During the meeting in Japan she has learned about solutions on environmental issues from the many new friends she made.  It has inspired her to continue work for awareness in her ecology club at home, she says.  The Children’s Summit was held in the cities of Toyohashi and Toyota City.  Its programme included workshops, presentations and field trips, with each day focused on a different theme -- Energy, Biodiversity, Water, and Recycling -- and an entire day spent at Expo 2005, which is currently taking place in Aichi Prefecture, with the theme “Nature’s Wisdom”.

The Summit was organized by UNEP, the Aichi Prefectural Government and sponsored by the Toyota Motor Corporation, Suntory, the Chubu Electricity Company, Japan Railways, the AEON Environmental Foundation and the Kyocera Corporation.  It was supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank.

The Children’s World Summit is part of UNEP’s Tunza programme for children and youth.  “Tunza” means “to treat with care and respect” in Kiswahili.  It is part of a wide-ranging programme to involve children and young people in environmental issues.

During this final day of the Summit, UNEP announced that the next Tunza Children’s Conference on the Environment will be held in Putrajaya, Malaysia, in August 2006.  The 2008 Tunza Conference will be held in Stavanger, Norway.

The meeting in Japan has also elected new UNEP Junior Board members who represent the children for the next two years in conference preparations and take responsibility for preparing the messages to the world leaders.  New members are Ranjani Dharmarajan, Kenya; Oyatogun Oluwafumilayo, Nigeria; Jessie Mehrhoff, United States; Arwa Omary, Lebanon; Nikolas Theofilidis, Greece; Alejandro Posada, Colombia; and Angel Chui, China.  Malaysian Hana Azizan, Syaza Salen, Jes Ebrahim and Zainal Najeem will also join the Junior Board in preparations for the next Conference.

For more information, please contact, in Nagoya:  Eric Falt, UNEP Director of Communications at tel.:  +81-80-3810-6129, or Theodore Oben, Head of the Children and Youth Unit at tel.:  +81-90-7022-0472, e-mail:  theodore.oben@unep.org.

Additional information on the Children’s World Summit can be found at www.children-summit.jp.  Information on the UNEP Tunza programme can be found at www.unep.org/tunza.

* *** *

For information media • not an official record