CHILDREN’S PAINTINGS OFFER HOPE NEXT GENERATION WILL PROVE ‘FAR BETTER STEWARDS

OF OUR ENVIRONMENT’, SAYS DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL IN NEW YORK REMARKS

 

Following are Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro’s remarks on the opening of the International Children’s Painting Exhibition on the Environmentin New York, 5 September:

I am delighted once again to welcome you all to the United Nations.  I got a chance to meet you this morning from a distance.  Now I have the pleasure of being with you at a much closer range.  Let me express my gratitude to the United Nations Environment Programme and all the other sponsors who made this event possible.

This exhibition brings together the passion, imagination and talent of children around the world.  As you can see, these highly creative paintings capture with humour, drama and a sense of urgency, the environmental degradation caused by climate change, and its consequences for all living creatures on our planet.

These images speak better than words ever could about the fears and hopes the issue instils in children -– in the succeeding generations for whom our United Nations was created.

If we do not act decisively now against global warming, the cost will be borne by them.

That would be an unconscionable legacy; one which we must all join hands to avert.

Our generation has been careless in looking after our one and only planet.  But there is reason to hope that this is finally changing.  And as these pictures show us, there is every reason to hope that the next generation will prove far better stewards of our environment.

Thank you very much for your kind attention and enjoy the exhibition.

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For information media • not an official record