In 1998, the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth recommended the annual celebration of International Youth Day. The following year it was endorsed by the UN Assembly and the commemorative day has been celebrated each year on 12 August ever since.

In keeping with the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, this year the theme for IYD is The Road to 2030: Eradicating Poverty and Achieving Sustainable Consumption and Production and the leading role young people can play in that.

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The UN mission statement for this year reads: "The development and promotion of individual choices and actions that increase the eco-efficiency of consumption of all and minimise waste and pollution is critical to achieving equitable socioeconomic development.

"Yet, many young men and women face barriers to certain green consumption choices. Those barriers to sustainable consumption choices include the high prices of goods and services and a lack of information about the available choices.

"By focusing on the social development dimensions of sustainable consumption and production, this year's theme emphasises a cross-sectoral approach to sustainability and the social, political, economic and environmental inter-linkages needed to achieve it."

In keeping with the day, IBTimes UK lists some inspirational quotes for and about youth

youth volunteers
The UN urges youth to take the lead in sustainable development ventures (File photo) Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images

Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, quality of the imagination, a vigour of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life. – Samuel Ullman

There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age. – Sophia Loren

You are only young once, and if you work it right, once is enough. – Joe E Lewis

Youth is the best time to be rich, and the best time to be poor. – Euripides

Young people need models, not critics. – John Wooden

Middle age is youth without levity, and age without decay. – Doris Day

Time misspent in youth is sometimes all the freedom one ever has. – Anita Brookner

Youth is wasted on the young. – George Bernard Shaw

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. – Friedrich Nietzsche

Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die. – Herbert Hoover