Click to go to… Day 1 / Day 2 / Day 3 / Day 4 / Day 5
DAY ONE – Monday, 30 May
After 15 hours of travelling, I’ve finally made it to Stockholm! Today was mostly spent getting to know everyone, collecting our badges, settling down, as well as last minute organising and preparations for the next few days. (And… writing my final essays.)
It’s been such a fun experience seeing people I’ve worked with virtually over the last few years IN THE FLESH!! Also very much appreciate the diversity here ☺️ I was honestly surprised to find someone else from Southeast Asia (Malaysia!) here, but even so SEA is still heavily underrepresented.
A key question that has come up for me: So many people are flying in from all over the world, including our extensive youth delegation. Many of us took more than one flight to get here. I wonder if it’s really worth all those carbon emissions. How do we justify our attendance relative to the environmental impact it took to get here? What value do we bring to these high-level events?
Hoping I gain some clarity about these by the end of this week!
Also, I have to be honest, Stockholm itself has been rather disappointing so far—probably because the hostel we’re staying at today (temporarily) is in the suburbs so there’s nothing much to see. Mostly just food and medical centres! Definitely not the Europe vibes I imagined… Also this hostel had COMMUNAL showers which was definitely a new experience for me lol
Ended the day rushing two essays and stayed up past 1am. After a whole year of going to bed by 11pm and waking up at 6am, this trip has really wrecked my sleep schedule 😭 But ngl I wouldn’t trade this experience for any letter grade!!
DAY TWO – Tuesday, 31 May
Woke up feeling like I’d barely slept (which is not far from the truth lol) but! Full steam ahead!
Morning started off with the UN Science-Business-Policy Forum, which largely revolved around economics, finance, and the implementation gap. Took lots of notes, still trying to find a way to summarise and share them for anyone interested!
A few thoughts about the forum:
- Diversity. For all their talk about inclusive and diverse representation, the event organisers failed miserably. The Future Economy in-person panel basically comprised 7 men; the only 2 female panellists were virtual. Plus I think 90% of panellists were white.
- Too little time, too many people who want to speak. Interventions at the U.N. are always squeezed, no one can really say everything they want to say. For the SBPF, one of the VIPs arrived late (from the airport) so the entire programme was delayed by an hour. The moderator had to cut panellists off multiple times.
- We’ve also faced many situations where we could pick only one youth speaker to make an intervention—which begs the question who should get to speak? The most ‘qualified’ person, or the one who hasn’t been given opportunities to speak before? What about gender and regional balance?
I also got to co-draft an intervention for the Future Economy session with Clara, who’s a Master’s student originally from Brazil. We called out the lack of diversity on the panel (which brought some cheers from females in the room) then brought the focus back to actionables—on how all the changes the panel discussed can actually be implemented, and the need to integrate environmental thinking into every level – and every field – of education.
Why is this talk entitled the “Future Economy” when much of what we are discussing today was already set in the vision 30, 50 years ago? But most of all, we need an economy that works in the present, because the one we have isn’t working even for the living generations.
Haven’t worn anything this formal in years!! I literally switched out of my heels and just wore sneakers for the rest of the afternoon 🤪
(On a sidenote, the SBPF was located in a central location so I got to do like 10 minutes of sight-seeing on my way there ✨ The architecture was beautiful—finally starting to feel like I’m in Europe! Also, navigating the train has been surprisingly easily despite the language barrier, Google Maps is a lifesaver.)
Afterwards, I rushed back to the Stockholm University to attend the afternoon sessions of the Youth Assembly. Super duper proud of Anjali who shared about her experience starting a non-profit Recycle FAN (she’s only in high school!). We also had a dialogue session with the Sweden Minister of Environment Annika Strandhall. First impression is that she seemed really genuine, but I guess that’s what politicians are supposed to be good at… Also some of the youth from Stockholm said that she isn’t really great at her job..? 🙂
Also attended a session where I learnt about the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. Essentially the Treaty has three demands: 1. No more expansion of coal, oil and gas. 2. Manage the phase out of fossil fuels. 3. Just Transition
This is SUCH important work because the Paris Agreement has no mention of oil, gas and coal emissions at all. An international treaty would help put even more pressure on governments to do the right thing. The speakers also brought up an important point: The Treaty Initiative is more of a means to an end. Even if the document itself doesn’t get encoded in legislation, the conversations it’s generating are so valuable and necessary. (That said, that doesn’t mean we should stop trying!! Over 52 Cities & Subnational Governments have already endorsed it—check it out here!)
In the evening I found my way to this very cool cultural centre called Kulturhuset Cyklopen to paint some signs / posters for Friday’s climate strike. Met some Fridays for Future activists and!!! Finally got to meet my friends Lara and Mitzi in-person!!!! THEN the one and only Greta Thunberg very casually showed up to join us. It was honestly a very surreal few hours and such a wholesome time just getting to know everyone and vibing together.
Finally, headed to the hotel (a new one! with no communal showers!), ate some Oreos, submitted my final paper for GOVT, proofread the Youth Policy Paper, and drafted one of the upcoming youth interventions. It’s 12.59am now and I was supposed to start working on my ENVS paper tonight but I think I’m going to crash on my bed RIP goodnight.
DAY THREE – Wednesday, 1 June
Okay I have clearly been late in posting updates, sorry y’all 😭 But here we are with day three!
(Post-breakfast thoughts: So apparently peanut butter is not a thing in Sweden?? Had to eat my toast with just jam, it was rather sad.)
1. Dialogue with UN Youth Envoy, Jayathma Wickramanayake
(For context: The Youth Envoy’s role is essentially to advocate for youths around the world—inform the Secretary-General of youth demands, fight for funding for them, etc. Jayathma was appointed to the role in 2017 at the age of 26 and has done absolutely incredible work since in creating spaces for youth input within the UN system!!)
This dialogue saw a lot of discussion about the issue of unpaid labour. I was absolutely shocked to learn that the Youth Envoy Office ‘doesn’t get a single dollar from the UN’. They have to fundraise for staff salaries, for all their activities and their work. Yes it’s ‘inspiring’, but let’s please NOT glamourise unpaid labour. Throughout my environmental journey I’ve met so many youth who pour SO MUCH time and labour into organising and speaking on panels but they don’t receive any remuneration for their work. Passion doesn’t pay the bills!!!
2. In the afternoon, my good friend Ayisha spoke on a panel about Inclusive and effective Youth Engagement within the UN system. This girl blows my mind with her courage and wisdom every single time she steps on stage 🤍 Some of the things the panel discussed:
- The language of change that the UN speaks is completely different from the language of change that indigenous communities and tribal people speak. One is about finance, economics, commodities. The other is about water, nature, the land—the language of the earth.
- The UN system (and so many other spaces!) is only accessible to people who speak English. There are already so many barriers for youth to come to international conferences like this (financial, lack of proper support structures to navigate the complex bureaucracy), and linguistic barriers only make it even more challenging.
- Distributing opportunities and passing the mic within the climate movement
3. Explored Stockholm!
After her panel, Ayisha and I rushed to another venue to catch a Youth Panel but we didn’t make it in time 😳 I ended up meeting up with Lara, Ari and Xiye and we decided to go do a lil sightseeing. It was honestly so great to take a break from all the conference stuff for a while; environmental work can get so draining at times. Had such a lovely time!!! So much love for this bunch ✨
DAY FOUR – Thursday, 2 June
The start of the actual Stockholm+50 meeting! The first 1h 45 min or so were speeches after speeches by the Sweden King, UN Secretary-General, Co-Presidents of the meeting, etc. Tbh I don’t know how everyone else stayed awake because I was dying lol. (Forgot coffee this morning.) Some important points were made in the opening speeches but I wonder if we could just do away with some formalities… those 2 hours could’ve been channelled towards building concrete recommendations instead.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres
With Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Transport, and Sustainability and the Environment
Next was interventions—each member state was given the floor to speak. So… more speeches. Honestly this was the point where I began to question the whole purpose of the meeting. Most of the statements were either generalised comments about ‘the planet is dying, we need to do more’, or a portfolio dump about the state’s climate policies. No acknowledgement of ‘This is where my country is failing, these are the actions we are going to take to change that.’ Some of the interventions were just pre-recorded statements. I just think it’s such a strange dichotomy between political leaders’ attitudes versus youth who genuinely see this as the fight of – and for – our lives.
Decided to leave the plenary and attend some side events instead, ate lunch, hung out with friends at the venue. Then at 3.30pm there was a scheduled youth dialogue with… Ellie Goulding!!! She arrived 45 minutes late which was a bummer because I had to leave for a meeting right after, but at least I got to take this selfie ‘with’ her LOL. Only a few youth were selected for the dialogue itself but it was still really cool to see her in-person.
Final thing for the day: In the evening we had a Fridays For Future meeting at the Greenpeace office to plan tomorrow’s protest. Collectively came up with a list of demands:
| 1. We’ve lost trust in government pledges and the international system. We need to see clear roadmaps from governments moving forward. 2. Funding must move away from war, environmental crime and fossil fuel infrastructure. Climate finance must be channelled towards adaptation measures, loss and damage and climate infrastructure instead. 3. We need to strengthen meaningful inclusion of youth and indigenous people, not lobbyists. This includes strengthening Visa support for these stakeholders to attend international conferences. |
There was something so special about this meeting for me, just seeing all these young people gathered in one space, so willing to listen and learn from one another, and also unafraid to share our views. I also just want to give a shoutout to FFF Sweden—they’ve been incredibly welcoming, providing snacks at each meeting, working hard behind-the-scenes to make sure everything runs smoothly and that everyone is well taken care of. These people give me so much hope 🤍
DAY FIVE – Friday, 3 June
Last day!!! This week flew by too quickly, I’m not ready to leave 😭
Woke up feeling a bit sick so I decided not to attend the conference in the morning. (My COVID-19 test came back negative, I’m pretty sure this is just the result of sleep deprivation and eating junk-y takeout food lol.) But there was no way I was going to miss the FFF protest!!! I don’t know how many people were actually there but it felt like hundreds and the energy was INCREDIBLE. We marched through the streets, shouted chants and sang together, then attended a rally where different activists came up to share their stories. Realising that protesting is as much for us as it is for the broader public; the sense of community and solidarity I felt that day was truly such an unforgettable experience :’) If only there was a way to capture all this passion and excitement and bring it back to Singapore…
Afterwards, I was invited to dinner with the Singapore delegation—SMS Amy Khor as well as two other representatives from MSE. We had a good conversation about policymaking and youth and activism in Singapore; I had a good time and was very pleasantly surprised by how open SMS was! Also this was my first time eating ~actual~ Swedish food rather than convenience store sandwiches lol. (Verdict: Not a fan, but it was worth trying anyway I guess…)
And! Last thing to round up my trip: FFF Silent disco!!!
We each got a pair of headphones and basically danced our way through the streets of Stockholm. Wildest experience ever and what a perfect way to end my time here :’)
Kate Yeo 
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