How can Saudi youth be active contributors to the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 through sustainability advocacy, education, and technology?
Under the key theme of ‘Thriving Together’, on June 19 around 300 students from the Kingdom’s universities, as well as 150 impact supporters, attended the Saudi Youth for Sustainability Inaugural Conference (SYS2022), held at KAUST, to explore this question.
With young people currently representing around 70% of Saudi Arabia’s population, the conference discussed the role of the youth in realizing the Sustainable Development Goals and their instrumental capacity to ideate, develop, promote and implement solutions to sustainability challenges in the Kingdom.
KAUST Provost, Dr. Larry Carin, told attendees that the university promotes sustainability powered by science and technology and that for more than a decade KAUST’s Saudi students have played a central role in driving the institution’s commitment to sustainability — on campus, in national engagement, and in global endeavors.
“The new Saudi Youth for Sustainability group is a natural evolution and reflection of the passion we see every day in not only KAUST students, but in the next generation of young Saudis across the Kingdom. KAUST is proud to support Saudi students’ vision for their future as we work together to make sustainability a reality accessible to all.”
SYS2022 hosted several key discussion panels, including: Leading Change Towards Vision 2030, The New Wave of Sustainability in Saudi Arabia’s Giga Projects and Young leaders in Sustainability.
Eman Alhajji, president of Students for Sustainability at KAUST, commented: “We aspire to expand this youth momentum to other local and regional universities. By establishing this society, we want to connect with other young change-makers from Saudi Arabia to develop novel approaches to tackle persisting critical issues and initiate a network that will unite our forces together. We need to act collectively now! Let’s thrive together for the better.”
Learn more about the Saudi Youth for Sustainability here. You can also watch the full event recording here.
