Kathleena Henricus, a fourth-year international relations student at Western, is one of four Canadian youth who had the opportunity to develop and propose policy recommendations to world leaders at the G7 Summit.
The G7 is an intergovernmental organization composed of Canada, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany and the United States. The countries hold annual meetings to discuss shared policy goals and objectives. The 2024 summit is in Italy from June 13 to 15.
Henricus, who starts her fourth year at Western’s School for Advanced Studies in the Arts and Humanities in the fall, was part of the Canadian delegation for the G7 Youth Summit, which takes place annually before each G7 leaders’ summit. Young people from each member country and the European Union negotiate and create policy recommendations, which are then sent to the G7 presidency.
“It’s been incredible. It’s such a privilege to be a part of this experience. One of the highlights was meeting the Canadian ambassador to Italy, Elissa Goldberg, and talking about the issues and our recommendations with her,” Henricus said. “We also came a week before the summit, so we’ve been able to go sightseeing to places like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Vatican, and the Amalfi coast.”
This year’s Youth Summit was held from May 20 to 24.
The four themes and priorities were:
- Environmental sustainability and energy transition
- Innovation and digital transformation
- New skills, entrepreneurship and the future of Work
- Inclusion and equal opportunities
Henricus was the lead delegate advocating for environmental sustainability and energy transition.
“We’re at an inflection point where we need the mass redirection of capital from carbon intensive industries into renewable energies, while supporting the reskilling of workers who are in fossil industries in order to facilitate a just transition,” Henricus said.
An additional proposal – developed in conjunction with the other delegations – was to mandate and expand reporting requirements for corporate social and environmental practices. The idea is to induce public pressure on corporations to create greener and more sustainable production systems.
“We want to create robust policies that show our leaders this is a priority for young people. Tackling climate change and promoting transparency in relation to sustainable supply chains is important to us.” -Kathleena Henricus, fourth-year SASAH student and Canadian youth delegate at the G7
Additional proposals were headed by the other members of Canada’s Y7 delegation, including Cathy Hu from McGill University, Terence D’Souza from the University of Ottawa and Bavan Pushpalingam from the University of Toronto.
“The communique put the proposals for all themes together. I think it’s a document that’s actionable, pragmatic, while also ambitious about the world we believe everyone deserves,” Henricus said.
She enjoyed her time at the summit and encouraged others who have an interest in international relations and making a difference in governmental policies to apply in the future. She stressed the importance of being involved in global diplomacy and ensuring governments are aware of the issues on the minds of young people.
“What we need is young people from diverse backgrounds who will think outside the box and whose experiences aren’t necessarily represented in these diplomatic spaces. We want to be able to push ambitious targets, provide innovative ideas and create concrete recommendations that world leaders can act on,” Henricus said.
The negotiations between youth delegations began in February. After months of research and negotiations, the final communique created by all delegations was submitted to the G7 presidency at the end of the youth summit.
“It was really important that our proposals were grounded in consultations – we ran nationwide youth consultations,” Henricus said.
“It’s the youth that are going to drive this, especially on issues of climate change, given our stake as inheritors of the world.”
