GEYC 2006 concludes with a call to share solutions across borders

The convention, a global gathering of more than 600 students, and their teachers and mentors from over 40 countries of the world, including 100 participants from the UAE, had commenced on Saturday.

The convention, participated mainly by students in the age group of 15-18 years, deliberated on global environmental issues with multi-faceted perspectives and methods.

Mohammed AbdulKareem Julfar, Assistant Director General of Dubai Municipality for Finance and Properties Affairs and chairman of the organizing committee, who addressed the closing ceremony called on the students to carry of their passion for environmental awareness and take up much serious assignments to fulfil their commitments to their societies in general and to their environment in particular.

He hoped the discussions held in the convention during its five days of activities that included workshops and project presentations would be useful for the students to take further steps on the path of environmental awareness.

More than 1,700 students had registered for the online course Young Masters Programme (YMP) on preventive environmental strategies in the "Road to GEYC Dubai 2006."

The programmes in the convention included project workshops, learning and interactive workshops for students and teachers, study visits, field works and special stage events, in addition to distribution of awards to Best Conducted Projects, Most Active Teams in Young Masters Programme, Best Presented Project and Ultimate Online Learner.

Julfar, who is also chairman of the organizing committee of the convention, told the gathering that it was the best opportunity to learn about the cultural and social differences between people of various nationalities, and hoped that the convention will be the right platform to transcend the borders between participants and they would get to know each other.

"Your environment is what you create. The way you keep your surroundings reflects profoundly on your character and to a great extent on the level of your awareness about the environmental issues as well as your social commitments," said Julfar.

Birgitta Norden, Director of Distance Education, GEYC and YMP gave the welcome address for the first plenary session on Global Change and Leadership for the Future, which was chaired by Mikael Backman of IIIEE.

She said the youth as stakeholders outside the universities challenge the academic world and offer a unique opportunity for dialogue about the role of higher institutions in an overall societal transition towards sustainable development.

"The networked learning in the YMP is very important to the Young Masters as individuals and as members of both the local and the global society. In the YMP teenagers explore a learning space with the new ICT-mediated ways of communication including global interaction with ideas and descriptions, and the trans-disciplinary approach focusing social, economic, ecological and ethnic dimensions," said Norden.

The first key note address of the first session was delivered by Dennis Pamlin, Global Policy Advisor, World Wildlife Fund, who spoke about the emerging economies of China and India and the biggest challenges of our time, the climatic changes.

He pointed out that the amount spent by the developed countries for cosmetics and other luxuries a year is enough for providing the bare necessities for the entire world's poor. Pamlin, who stressed the need to have local experts for designing sustainable projects, said ecological footprint, growing population, aging population, urbanization, changing income distribution, changing geopolitical situation and diverging trends are the challenges of today.

The second keynote address of the day was delivered by Dr. Maryam Shenasi, Professor at the University of Sharjah. She said learning is not sufficient for future leaders, but they have to increase their skills afterwards.

She advised the students to create new positive outcome for all challenges they face as future cannot be predicted, but to be prepared for. Shenasi added that the three main steps for leadership are vision, execution and inspiration.

The plenary session was followed by project sessions on different themes such as energy, food and agriculture, mobility, poverty, production and consumption, waste, and water. In addition to that parallel workshop sessions were also held in the afternoon.