Students attend U.N. summit on sustainable development

Just before the start of the academic year, two University students, Kelsey Jack '03 and Dana Graef '05, attended the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The two primary goals of the summit were to improve the quality of life of people in poverty worldwide and to stop the destruction of the environment, according to the summit website. Those goals were set 10 years ago at a similar summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but never implemented.

Both Graef and Jack attended the summit through the Princeton Conservation Society and through a program called SustainUS, a national network of youth working on sustainable development issues. At the conference, the two were part of the youth caucus.

"The dynamic exchange of ideas between people was one of the most valuable parts of the conference," said Graef, who researched biodiversity in Costa Rica this summer. "It was a challenge, however, because a program that works in Sweden, for example, might not apply to the residents of a developing country."

During the summer, Graef and Jack attended preparatory meetings in New York and Indonesia, where they developed plans to present at the summit.

In these meetings, Graef led the biodiversity committee and Jack worked on lobbying strategies for the youth caucus. Through contact with other members of the caucus, Jack and Graef learned about the Johannesburg summit.

During the summit, Graef presented the youth caucus's position at a plenary meeting on biodiversity. Jack was elected coordinator of North American youth and prepared statements on behalf of the youth caucus.

On the whole, the summit was not quite as effective as Graef and Jack had hoped because the United States and other nations weakened the language of the implementation plan, said Jack, who is writing her thesis using research she conducted at the summit.

At the summit, many viewed the United States as the "bad guy," Jack said, and as North American coordinator, she was often seen in a negative light.

"At the summit, the United States should have taken the lead in the area of sustainable development," Jack said.

Assuming that role, the United States should limit the burden its overconsumption creates on the rest of the world and limit the power of corporations, she said.

"It's important for us not to view the summit as an end in itself, but as an opportunity to establish contacts and to have a starting point for projects in the future," Graef said.