At the UN General Assembly, leaders finally woke up to the plight of the COVID-19 generation, but young people still wait for action. Youth-led groups came together to launch the Unlock Declaration, driving the change we need to ensure we have a viable future, free from crises we did not create. Leaders must catch up, or risk being left behind.

Young people live in a world in crisis, knowing that their future is uncertain and in danger. COVID-19 has stolen our access to education and for too many of us, meaningful jobs. We have to ask ourselves if these really are the best years of our lives. I find it hard to avoid fear of what the future holds.

As a college student who is about to graduate, I am scared of the current global financial crisis. My peers and I face a dilemma: unemployment, or working jobs that destroy our planet and misuse our skills. Each time there is a new emergency, world leaders invest in industries that harm our future. Perhaps it is no surprise that I spent my time at the recent UN General Assembly (UNGA) looking for signs of hope.

Green investment could create 24 million jobs by 2030, yet the G20 countries spent almost a quarter of a trillion dollars in fossil fuels to create jobs to “respond” to COVID-19. Young people want to be at the heart of the transition to net-zero carbon, not perpetrators of climate change.

If we are to change course and avoid the breakdown that UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned about, we can’t keep making the same mistakes. Too much is at peril. We need to preserve what is important and meaningful for future generations, so that they are not forgotten by the change that is going to happen in the next decade or so. This is why I and the other Next Generation Fellows opened our digital time capsule, something we call the Future Vault, to reflect on how much we still have to protect by each choosing one item to preserve for future generations.

Read the full article about youth development by Valeria Colunga at United Nations Foundation.