We are preparing for our upcoming Google+ Hangout on “Samoa 2014: Empowering Youth for Sustainable Islands”, which will take place on 24 July at 3:30pm EDT featuring Conference Secretary-General Wu Hongbo and youth representatives from small island nations. The hangout will take place here: google.com/+UNDESA  

Be sure to tune on 24 July and share questions in advance via Twitter using #islands2014!

Less than 2 hours until UN Rio+20 Executive Coordinator Brice Lalonde will answer your questions on what young people can do ahead of Rio+20. Tune in at: http://gplus.to/unitednations.
Following participants will join the Hangout:

Michael Boampong is 27 years old. He is the Founder of the Ghanaian-based NGO Young People We Care (YPWC) where he currently serves as Board Member and Advisor. Michael has been actively involved in the organization of a Rio +20 West Africa regional prepcom as part of the Road to Rio +20 youth mobilization campaign. He is an ardent believer in youth empowerment and believes that if the youth are not empowered now, the world will not realize any meaningful development.

Sarah Dayringer has been working with SustainUS on the Rio +20 delegation since June 2011. For SustainUS she is the Partnerships Liaison and leads the Fundraising team on the delegation. On behalf of SustainUS she was one of the organizing partners of the US/Canada Citizens' Summit, which took place in March 2012 in the lead up to the March Rio +20 Intersessional. She has been active in the MGCY since October as well, and contributed to the drafting of MGCY's policy submission to the Zero Draft concerning the objectives of Rio +20. As part of the MGCY, she is one of the focal point organizers for the Official Rio +20 Youth Blast.

Emily Rodriguez is 23 years old and from New York, USA.  She currently lives in Sweden where she is studying in a master's program called science for sustainable development.  She participated in COP15 and COP16 as a youth delegate for the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), and she will participate in Rio+20 together with 23 other international WAGGGS youth delegates. Within her delegation, she is leading the policy working group, and is following youth, education, and gender issues. She is also working together with the MGCY task forces, the green economy task force in particular, where she is focusing on education.

Cassia Oliveira Moraes is Brazilian, 22, graduated in International Relations with research experience in environmental issues, international cooperation, human rights, public management, international economy and foreign policy, resulting in a thesis entitled "Brazil in the development of climate change’s international regime." She works today as a Market Relations Analyst in the private sector, but she is also volunteer with many initiatives, such as Road to Rio+20 and Rio+Veg, where she is a founder.

Alexandre Florentin, 26, French. He is an French engineer who felt like finding technical solutions was not enough! He thus started to study environmental policies, to find the problems worth working on and broaden his perspective.  Last year he thought it was not healthy to expect so much from governments and international negociations. He believes it is time for Youth to take over and thus created MyCity+20, empowering young people to organise their own Rio+20 summit, in their own cities. Passionate about politics, energy and environment, he wants to work in meaningful projects for our sustainable development