Kingborough Council’s Senior Environmental Health Officer and Tasmanian Girl Guide leader, Abyilene McGuire, recently represented Australia at a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) conference on climate change.
The conference was held on 20 August in Daejeon, South Korea, but the ‘Global Town Hall’ meeting used state of the art technology to virtually link the gathering with hundreds of young environmental leaders in 15 cities across the world.
Other participating countries included Kenya, England, Canada, India, China, Mexico and Brazil.
The Global Town Hall identified the priorities of the world’s youth for ‘sealing the deal’ on global climate change prior to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009.
Abyilene linked into the conference from a temporary webcast studio at the Kingborough Civic Centre.
The Kingborough Council was one of only two sites in Australia, the other located in Canberra. As the facilitator and moderator for the site, Abyilene reviewed and provided feedback on a draft declaration of climate change priorities, which was developed through an online process in the weeks leading up to the event.
Abyilene’s involvement was initiated by the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) through her involvement with Girl Guides Australia. In her capacity as an environmental health practitioner and Local Government employee, it provided a rare opportunity to participate in this unprecedented world first event.
“WAGGGS has had strong relations with the UN for many decades and it is testament to this organisation that it actively encourages international youth involvement and advocacy in such important global issues,” Abyilene McGuire said. “To have one of Australia’s two sites being located in Tasmania was an incredibly unique opportunity for youth in this State.”
Participants at the remote sites were able to view the conference and took part in the same discussions as participants in South Korea. They were then able to submit the results of discussions over the internet so that they could be combined with ideas from around the world.
In real time, the teams in South Korea reported back to the entire group about the strongest themes that were heard from all sites.
“It was exciting that the changes suggested from the site in Kingborough made it into the final document within minutes,” Abyilene McGuire said. “This really demonstrated how effectively ideas can become part of a global statement and that your voice can be heard.”
The Global Town Hall was facilitated by Washington based non profit organisation, Global Voices, which has pioneered the use of technology to convene large scale deliberations to impact policy making.
For further information contact Abyilene McGuire, telephone (03) 6211 8240.
