One Young World 2014

Reviewing One Young World 2012, Pittsburgh - Day by day

With over 180 countries represented at 2014 One Young World Summit in Dublin, Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, is set to welcome more than 1,250 young leaders from all over the world. The delegates from different countries caught up to find out what they thought of their time so far and what ideas they planned on expressing. One Young World co-founder Kate Robertson said: "The young people who have made One Young World such a success over the past four years are leading our world towards a brighter, more sustainable and more global future and I have no doubt that this week's Summit will see them transform the lives of thousands more."

In the first day, UN Special Envoy for Climate Change Mary Robinson explored the principles of Climate Justice and how a global climate agreement that embeds equity can better respect people and planet.Founding partner and CEO of XCOR Space Expeditions, Michiel Mol showed how space travel is becoming a commercial reality. Kofi Annan and Mary Robinson came together to inspire ambitious action on climate change and eventually, Sir Bob Geldof hosted a session showcasing examples of the work and impact of One Young World Ambassadors.

On the second day, the Acting Head of the UN Office in Geneva, Michael Moller, responded to questions posed by the 2014 delegation. Unilever CEO, Paul Polman addressed the need to make sustainable living commonplace and how young people are critical to driving change. Boris Becker, Adam Walker, Sol Campbell and delegate Kirani James talked about sport's power to create positive change. After that, Kofi Annan joined One Young World delegates to impress the need to work towards a fairer more secure world. In the afternoon session, Dr. Martin McAleese set the context before two historians follow with their differing perspectives on what resulted in the Northern Ireland conflict.

The attendants from ESSEC on this event find these speeches very useful. As one of the participants commented: "One young world is also an incredible opportunity to meet people from all over the world and create a strong relationship with them. The network sessions were very interesting although too short in my opinion.Through internal sessions, you get to discuss in smaller groups and brainstorm about a particular issue. The opinions are very diverse as we all are from different countries and cultures, but this is exactly what makes the debate interesting!"

Other participants of this event stated: "One Young World is a place where you put your own problems aside to look broader. It empowers you with a special spirit to push you to act better and to find solutions to fight and end the problems that our world is currently suffering from."

The Closing Ceremony of the One Young World Summit 2014 saw the passing of the baton from Dublin’s host Lord Mayor Christy Burke, to Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra who will welcome the Summit to Bangkok next year. Much to Governor Paribatra's delight, Bangkok will be Asia’s first city to host the One Young World Summit, a responsibility which is not being taken lightly. He went on to assure the crowd that Bangkok is ready to ‘emulate the success of the 2014 Summit’ and to do their bit to ‘make the world a safer and better place to live.’

‘Bangkok is ready to do what is does best, welcome all of you in the best Thai tradition.’

For the 1,250 delegates attending the Summit, the Closing Ceremony is just the beginning. They now join the One Young World Ambassador community, a network of more than 6,000 impactful young people connected with the mission to create positive change.