Recently, I had the privilege of attending, as a representative of my school, the BeyondCOP21 Sustainability Symposium 2016, hosted by an international school in Dubai.

   The conference witnessed a plethora of students, teachers and experts from various schools and institutions, all with the common objective-the Environmental Impact of the COP21 Paris Agreement and its implications in the coming years.

      One of the agendas of last year?s Paris Agreement includes the ambitious target of mitigating the all-time high global temperatures to the pre-industrial levels, i.e, limiting temperatures to 1.5⁰C to 2⁰C. Guest Speakers and Experts from a number of environmental fields gave noteworthy speeches and presentations, bringing to the forefront, the environmental issues as well as the corresponding possible solutions and ideas that concern them. From green building in architecture and hybrids in the transport system to renewables in the energy field, we covered every aspect of the ?Ideal Green Economy? that makes the combined concept of the sustainable development and economical development feasible.

     Soon, the Sustainable Development Goals or the SDGs were brought under heated discussion, with goal 11-?Sustainable Cities and Communities? and goal 13-?Climate Action? in special focus.

   Students from schools across the UAE, including me, actively took part in the conclusive debate, dialogue and discussion that followed the crucial topics. I designed a poster along with my school team and I also composed a poem on the SDGs titled ?Towards A World In Perfection??, highlighting how critical they are in ascertaining a clean, safe and productive world for the next one and a half decades.

The student forum took an interesting turn, when the organizer of the symposium declared a set of distinct activities to instill in us the vitality of the SDGs. Some of the hands-on activities and events included :-

1. Green Charades: The students were asked to divide themselves in teams and act out to each other each one of the UN?s Sustainable Development Goals.

2. Black Box Visit: All participants were ushered into a room where many environmental companies had showcased their portfolio as exhibitors.     I interacted with them, and took part in the various activities that were lined up by each company.

3. Dragon?s E-Den: The Young Budding Environmentalists were asked to upcycle daily products, creating business plans for organizations selling things that were made from old, or discarded material such as damaged Trampolines, skate boards, crates, etc.

4. Blue-The Oil Company: This was a spin-off workshop hosted by Blue, a green organization that works towards converting used vegetable oil into bio-fuel for commercial and industrial use.

After such vibrant learning experiences, we were given a final lecture by the organizer as a conclusion to wonderful student conference. For certain, I believe that each student left the symposium with a far-better comprehension of the importance of environmental preservation and the student collective action that is most required to battle the ecological crises that confront humanity as a whole.

Thank you for reading!