United Nations and Sustainable Development

Andy Stocchetti didn't hang around for his last two weeks of college. He missed senior week and those last precious days with friends. And, he missed all of this by choice.

Why? What opportunity would be so compelling to make him want to miss his final weeks on campus? An amazing opportunity, actually. Stocchetti was selected to serve as a youth delegate to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in New York City.

Following the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (also know as the Earth Summit), the United Nations set up the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) in December of 1992 to ensure the effective follow-up of the conference at local, national, and international levels. Since its creation, the CSD has had 17 annual conferences to review progress and implementation as well as create policy for local, regional and world-wide sustainable development.

May 4th marked the start of the 17th annual session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-17). The major themes at this year’s conference were Africa, Agriculture, Drought & Desertification, Land, Rural and Development, as well as Interlinkages & Cross-cutting Issues. By the end of the two week conference, representatives from countries all over the world had worked out a 52-page platform addressing the topics. Representatives from governments, major groups, and nongovernmental organizations swarmed the UN headquarters in Manhattan to voice their views on the future of sustainability. Stocchetti was involved with the youths, representing both the Youth Caucus (an international group) and SustainUS (a non-profit organization promoting youth involvement in sustainable development and youth empowerment).

Stocchetti's role at CSD-17 was to lobby. While he went to side events and plenary sessions, most of his time was spent reviewing the negotiating text finding ideas and phrases that the youth supported or disagreed with, or inserting ideas that were missing. These points were then adopted into a platform which was lobbied to the government officials who had the power to make changes (or prevent changes) to the negotiating text.

His days were long and busy beginning with an 8 a.m. Youth Caucus meeting where strategy was set for the day. He also attended SustainUS meetings, as well as plenary session on the major themes, during which government representatives argued, compromised and drafted the final document. Various environmental topics were discussed in side events with presentations from industry or specific demographic groups.

"Working with the Youth Caucus was an incredible experience," said Stocchetti. The caucus was composed of over fifty young adults (between the ages of sixteen to twenty-four) from all over the world. Stocchetti worked alongside peers from Rwanda, Kenya, Australia, Switzerland, Singapore, Ireland, Canada and many other countries.

"It was amazing to see how a group of youths, most of us still in college, were able to come together to make a statement about what we want our future to hold," he said. "It felt wonderful to be in a room with so many people my age, passionate about a sustainable global future."