University of Arizona’s Biosphere – International Young Leaders Environmental Event

One Young World, a UK-based not-for-profit organization, will hold the One Young World Environment Summit May 19-21, 2016, at the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2. Tickets are now available for delegates to participate in this three-day event, which will focus on important environmental topics, with prices as follows:

Shared university accommodation

• Early bird price (until Feb. 21) ￡680/ $1020
• Full ticket price ￡750 / $1125

Single hotel accommodation

• Early bird price (until Feb. 21) ￡880 / $1320
• Full ticket price ￡950 / $1425

The location of the summit is one of the world’s most well-known environmental venues, Biosphere 2, which has gained renown throughout the scientific community and even in the pop culture zeitgeist (the ’90s cult comedy Bio-Dome was believed to be loosely inspired by the structure and its colorful history).

The One Young World Environment Summit, the first in a new series of themed events, will offer individuals the opportunity to generate solutions-led ideas that will result in tangible action, changing the way companies and countries tackle and react to many of the environmental challenges facing the world.

The high-level, action-based summit will gather 500 young leaders in UA Biosphere 2—the largest earth science laboratory—and will feature keynote speeches, breakout sessions and interactive workshops, including special sessions on water scarcity, the arctic and Antarctic and the national security implications of climate change, among other topics.
“One Young World International will continue to amplify the voices of young leaders. 2016 is an optimal time for us to extend our reach and deliver new, more in-depth events for young leaders,” said Ella Robertson, Managing Director of One Young World International. “These new events will address specific issues—and following One Young World’s ‘Call on COP’ campaign and the COP21 discussions in Paris, we’re first focusing on the environment. Biosphere 2 is an entirely unique experience where young leaders will be inspired by their surroundings to find solutions to the environmental challenges we face.”

Recently called a must-see wonder of the world, the glass-enclosed UA Biosphere 2 is set at 4,000 feet in the midst of the Sonoran Desert at the foot of the Santa Catalina Mountains. Its mission is to serve as a center for research, outreach, teaching and lifelong learning about the planet’s living systems and place in the universe.

Joaquin Ruiz, director of University of Arizona Biosphere 2, dean of the UA College of Science, and Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Professor commented: “Biosphere 2, located in one of the most beautiful settings of the Southwestern USA, has been a symbol of forward thinking on worldwide environmental issues. From its origins, which aimed at understanding the fundamental feedback mechanisms between biomes, to present-day experiments that address how water availability will change worldwide as the global climate changes, Biosphere 2 has been preoccupied with key questions of the environment. There is no better setting for a focused meeting of One Young World concentrating on environmental solutions.”

The Environment Summit marks the launch of One Young World’s division to expand global reach. The organization has been attracting valuable young talent and global figures since 2010at its annual conferences, dubbed by CNN as “the junior Davos,” and will be growing its footprint with One Young World International.
Last year’s global One Young World Summit in Bangkok, the first to take place in Asia, welcomed 1,300 young leaders as well as global figures including Kofi Annan; Sir Bob Geldof; Professor Muhammad Yunus; Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever; former NASA astronaut Ron Garan; author and activist Fatima Bhutto; and Gary White, co-founder and CEO of Water.org.

The summit also saw the launch of a major international campaign, “Call on COP,” where One Young World delegates from 196 countries delivered passionate calls to action, urging their heads of government to take real and decisive action on climate change and to reach a binding agreement in Paris at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21), which took place in December 2015.

For more information, visit oneyoungworld.com.