India’s G20 Secretariat along with the United Nations India Country Office will hold “Model G20 Meeting” on 17 Feb

India’s G20 Secretariat along with the United Nations India Country Office will hold a day-long “Model G20 Meeting” at Sushma Swaraj Bhawan in New Delhi on Friday, 17th February 2023

The meeting, the first official Model G20 event will be a simulation exercise of a G20 meeting where school students would essay the roles of delegates of G20, Guest countries and international organisations. The event would be inaugurated by India’s G20 Sherpa Shri Amitabh Kant and the United Nations India Resident Coordinator Mr Shombi Sharp.

The meeting would see participation of a total of 8 schools from Delhi/NCR, which includes international schools, private schools and Kendriya Vidyalaya. In total, over 60 high school students, representing 12 nationalities including 10 G20 countries would be participating in the meeting.

During the meeting, the students would deliberate on the theme “Youth for LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment)”. They would discuss and exchange views on the leading role that the global youth could play in making LiFE a mass movement for Climate Action.

The idea of LiFE was introduced by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow. The idea promotes an environmentally conscious lifestyle that focuses on ‘mindful and deliberate utilisation’ instead of ‘mindless and wasteful consumption’.

The LiFE Movement aims to utilise the power of collective action and nudge individuals across the world to undertake simple climate-friendly actions in their daily lives. The LiFE movement, additionally, also seeks to leverage the strength of Youth and social networks to influence social norms surrounding climate. LiFE plans to create and nurture a global network of individuals, namely ‘Pro-Planet People’ (P3), who will have a shared commitment to adopt and promote environmentally friendly lifestyles. Through the P3 community, LiFE seeks to create an ecosystem that will reinforce and enable environmentally friendly behaviours to be self-sustainable.

LiFE envisions replacing the prevalent ‘use-and-dispose’ economy—governed by mindless and destructive consumption—with a circular economy, which would be defined by mindful and deliberate utilisation.

The theme for the Model G20 event – “Youth for LiFE” was identified keeping in mind the critical role which the global youth, being the agents of change, could play in Climate Action through the LiFE initiative.

They goal of the day-long simulation exercise would be for the participants to negotiate and adopt by consensus an outcome document titled “Guiding Principles for Youth-led Mission LiFE”. The outcome document, would be handed over to the Chair of the G20’s youth Engagement Group (Youth 20 or Y20) for consideration at their official Y20 meeting.