Just last week the United Nations General Assembly adopted the outcomes from the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development. That conference on June 20-22 in Rio de Janeiro was held not to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the original Rio Earth Summit and creation of a comprehensive global action plan, Agenda 21, that contributed to the adoption of three major conventions ― United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Convention on Biological Diversity and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. Nor was it to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Stockholm conference that established the United Nations Environment Programme.

What Rio+20 was convened to accomplish was nothing short of writing a brand new chapter in establishing a new relationship between human beings and what is around them.

That is exactly what that conference accomplished. It was an opportunity to formulate new norms and global policies to harmonize two intertwined challenges ― economic growth and environmental sustainability ― under the rubric of green economy. And the world community that attended the conference delivered on everything ― not quite as expected by the civil society groups and in the form that they had hoped, but effective in its conclusions and outcomes nonetheless. Lest it is forgotten, conferences of this kind are not held to mark an end but to launch new beginnings.

For the world community to fully reap the benefits of this conference it is time to harness collective determination in transforming our economy toward a greener, cleaner and safer future in a climate and environment-friendly way. Leapfrogging innovation in not only science and technology, but also in development policy and our individual behavior is essential.

In many areas, in particular, renewable energy, Northeast Asia is already leading innovation. But it is time to urgently spread such achievements across all industries and economies first within the subregion and then more broadly with the rest of the world.

In this course of global transformation, participation by youth who will look at things differently and initiate different practices in the economy is vital. While the pressures and temptations for taking the easy route are understandable, the youth attending the Rio+20 conference demonstrated that they are ready for the task of harnessing their collective wisdom and determination to work together in addressing the daunting challenges facing them and, of course, the rest of humanity.

In the words of the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, this conference has made great progress in providing a firm foundation to build on, so that all of us can move toward greater sustainability. It renewed and strengthened political commitment to sustainable development. The conference also agreed to launch a process to establish universal sustainable development goals that will be an integral part of the post-2015 development framework.

Key substantive outcomes include: recognition of the green economy as one of the important tools for achieving sustainable development; agreement to launch an inter-governmental process for the development of sustainable development goals; recognition of the significant role of the U.N. regional commissions in promoting a balanced integration of the three dimensions of sustainable development; agreement to strengthen and upgrade the UNEP including universal membership and stable and adequate resources.

The work ahead for all those that care about sustainable development is formidable. While almost all are in various stages of implementing the outcomes, Korea is ahead on a number of initiatives contained in the outcome document. The Global Green Growth Institute was launched as an intergovernmental organization in Rio with a number of presidents, prime ministers and Ban attending. As is widely known, one of two themes of Rio+20 was green economy in the context of poverty eradication and sustainable development.

The transformation of the GGGI into an intergovernmental organization was seen by some as the first major outcome of Rio+20 and is poised to meet the global demand for advancing the green economy.

Amongst other initiatives under way, the program led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and global green growth supporters to engage youth and seek their full participation in realizing green economy that would contribute to poverty eradication and sustainable development for all deserves particular mention. Ban put it rightly ― he said we should stop calling them youth leaders of tomorrow. By their engagement with Rio+20 and their determination to ensure that the outcomes are realized they are leaders today!

By Kilaparti Ramakrishna, Head of the UNESCAP Northeast Asia subregional office