The fact that the Rio Summit was only a few days away when my name was added to the finalised official delegation list from Pakistan still amazes people. In my presentation on “Youth Perspective of Rio+20” at the National Consultation on the Green Economy held in Islamabad in May, just a month before the Rio Summit, I had emphasised that the youth of Pakistan (people between 14 to 25 years of age) must have a voice in the Rio process. That was the first step towards how I, a 15-year-old, was made an official delegate at the Rio+20 — the youngest Official Youth Delegate in an international conference hosting over 80,000 delegates and over 100 heads of states and monarchs.

At the conference I was invited by the United Nations Education Caucus to act as one of five international panellists to give a comprehensive overview of sustainable and green societies. I was asked to discuss young people’s role in a balanced and fair society that has its roots embedded in the idea of sustainable development.

I was also privileged to be the only youth delegate allowed to sit in the closed meetings of the G-77 Group of Developing Countries bloc, giving me an opportunity to trace the progress in terms of the text produced. Working together with the UN Major Group for Children and Youth, I regarded it essential that the text produced was not in conflict with youth interests.

There were two main issues for which we advocated, the first one being the inclusion of non-formal education for youth, which we considered as vital to be part of the text to ensure the sound physical and intellectual development of youngsters. The second one pertained to the appointment of a higher commissioner for future generations at an international level to make sure that political elements do not oppose youth empowerment. Together, I lobbied with important players of the international community including representatives from Venezuela, Brazil, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, USA, New Zealand, European Union and the UK. Unfortunately, the final resolution failed to address many of these fundamental issues falling under the vast umbrella of sustainable development.

Like most countries, Pakistan took the initiative in organising a side event on June 22 based on the theme “Sustaining resilience — development in crises”. The topic focused on the extent to which Pakistanis have been successful on the road to disaster management. The event had prominent speakers both from the government and civil service. I was also one of the speakers at the event, and asked to represent the stance of the youth. I stated that the youth’s role in disaster management in a sustainable way is the key to efficiency and cooperation.

So was Rio+20 a success? Well, Rio+20 was meant to guide the world on the path to sustainable development, to guarantee that the coming years will be defined by a switch to a green economy, and to ensure that the mantra of “grow-up today, clean up later” does not stand anymore. Did it achieve that? For me, no it did not prove to be that successful in terms of bringing about a global change.

The point concerning “green jobs” never appeared in the final document, thanks to forceful opposition by Middle East economies. There was great evidence that they regarded nothing wrong with the ‘business as usual’ scenario and their concern was solely to continue extracting the earth’s fossil fuel wealth/petroleum to use for their short-sighted economic growth and illusionary prosperity.

This was also not a “green” conference; I observed that the floor cover in one of the major pavilions in Riocentro (the conference area) was made from plastic sheets; the T-Pavilion was a maze of wooden rooms and worst of all, at many instances I witnessed the use of Styrofoam cups, which are absolutely non-biodegradable. The conference centre was also centrally air-conditioned, adding an additional burden on power resources and causing degrading emissions.

However, there’s a brighter side of the picture as well. And one of them is worth mentioning: countries did agree to promote the idea of a ‘green economy’, which is an abstract term and could lead to a totally novel interpretation by different governments.