The IDEA campaign has announced an essay competition.

The IDEA (International Dialogue for Environmental Action) campaign has launched an essay competition titled “Deliver Your Message to Rio+20.”

One of the main goals of this environmental campaign is to engage Azerbaijani youth in the UN’s “Rio+20 Summit on Sustainable Development” and to encourage them to reflect on the future of our planet, where natural resources are overconsumed and face the risk of depletion.

The essay competition organized by the IDEA campaign provides Azerbaijani youth with a new opportunity to express their ideas on preserving the planet’s ecological balance and to share their vision for the future.

The main purpose of the competition is, prior to the Rio+20 summit, to learn about young people’s perspectives on ongoing global environmental issues and to communicate the viewpoints of the next generation regarding existing obstacles to the international community.

In modern international relations, the three most frequently discussed areas in global political circles concerning environmental problem-solving have been chosen as the main topics for the essay competition:

• The role of international environmental agreements and treaties in addressing global environmental problems;
• Challenges hindering sustainable development;
• The importance of transitioning to a green economy for future generations.

Only Azerbaijani undergraduate and graduate students currently studying in the country are eligible to participate in the competition. Essays should not exceed 2,000 words and must be written in Azerbaijani or English, using Times New Roman font, size 14.

The deadline for submitting essays to [email protected]
is March 15, 2012.

The top three winning essays selected by the jury will be awarded as follows: first place – iPad, second place – camera, and third place – netbook.

Additional information about the competition can be found at www.ideacampaign.org.

It should be noted that on July 11, 2011, Leyla Aliyeva, Vice President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, initiated the IDEA campaign.

As an international environmental campaign, IDEA aims to draw global attention to major environmental problems.