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Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon delivers resonant lecture on 'Youth and the Future' at Hongik University
On November 23, a guest lecture by former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was held at Garam Hall on the 4th floor of Hongmun Hall.
The lecture was held as the 12th week of 'Humanities Guest Lecture', a popular liberal arts course at Hongik University. 'Humanities Guest Lecture' is a liberal arts course that provides students with the opportunity to acquire broad and diverse humanistic knowledge and seek to improve their flexible thinking and insight through invited lectures by experts in various fields of the humanities. In particular, it aims to develop critical thinking skills, empathy for others, and humanity for the performance of duties in modern society, and to discover a vision of life in the future society and seek ways to implement it.
The content of the lecture, which was held under the theme of 'Sustainable Future and the Role of Youth,' was largely composed of the achievements of the UN Secretary-General in pursuit of global citizenship, referred to as 'global citizens,' and a sustainable future in a globalized world.
First, he briefly introduced the Ban Ki-moon Civic Center, which opened in Austria in 2018, emphasizing the importance of dialogue, communication, and helping others as a 'global citizen' outside of Korea. The Ban Ki-moon Civic Center was established with the goal of empowering youth, women, and other socially disadvantaged groups, and is co-chaired by former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon along with former Austrian President Heinz Fischer.
Next, he talked about his work as UN Secretary-General to ensure a sustainable future. First, he talked about his work in framing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were launched in 2015 to ensure that all people around the world live well. The SDGs are an international commitment to sustainable development, setting out goals for the world to work toward over the next 15 years, from 2016 to 2030. It consists of 17 goals and 169 targets.
Next, he talked about the work he did to help secure the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement is a new climate change agreement that took effect in January 2021 to overcome the limitations of the Kyoto Protocol, which expired in 2020. As an agreement with no end date, it aims to keep the global average temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and to eventually require all countries to set and implement their own greenhouse gas emission targets, with a goal of net zero carbon dioxide emissions.
In addition, she spoke about the work she has done and continues to do as Secretary-General to improve the status of women and young people. She emphasized the importance of creating opportunities for women in order to improve the status of women in society. She also emphasized the importance of the role of Hongik University students in their 20s as global citizens who will lead the world in the future.
After the lecture, there was a short Q&A session. Two students asked questions, the first of which was about what competencies we should build as university students. In response, he said that it is important to always have a spirit of passion and compassion along with a global vision.
Next, he was asked about the direction of the response to climate change, whether we should focus on government policies or individual efforts. In response, he said that a wise response to climate change is to use a combination of factors rather than being biased toward any one method.
The lecture was attended not only by the students of the 'Humanities Guest Lecture' but also by many other students of Hongik University who were interested in former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Through this lecture, Hongik University students were able to learn what kind of attitude they should have as global citizens from the former UN Secretary General.
Online Communication, Kyeungeun Cho
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