Nobel Laureate and Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus delivered a stirring address to students at Qatar University today, declaring that the current generation of young people is the most powerful in human history.
Speaking at a special lecture titled *“Building a World of Three Zeros: Zero Net Carbon Emission, Zero Wealth Concentration, and Zero Unemployment,”* Prof Yunus praised the youth as “superhuman beings” and likened them to superheroes and genies, capable of reshaping the world through imagination, innovation, and social responsibility.
“You may look like everyone else, but you are literally supermen and superwomen,” he told the packed audience at the university’s B239 auditorium. “You are the most powerful generation in the entire history of humankind.”
Prof Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank and a leading global advocate for social business, attributed this power to the unprecedented access today’s youth have to knowledge and technology. “You inherited all of it. You are in control,” he said, urging them to use these tools to create a better, more sustainable world.
During the lecture, he encouraged students to reject lifestyles that contribute to wealth inequality and environmental degradation, and instead, embrace their role as leaders of a new, more equitable civilisation.
“We are not passengers on this spaceship Earth,” he emphasized. “We are the pilots. Pilots have responsibilities.”
The speech focused on Prof Yunus’ vision of a world with “Three Zeros”—zero poverty, zero unemployment, and zero net carbon emissions. He called on students to embrace this concept and to imagine radical alternatives to the current global systems.
“If you imagine it, it will happen. If you don’t, it never will,” he said, adding that the world needs not only science fiction but also *social fiction*—stories that imagine the kind of society humanity should build.
In recognition of his lifelong contributions to humanity and sustainable development, Qatar University presented Prof Yunus with an honorary award at the beginning of the session.
Several high-profile figures accompanied the Chief Adviser, including Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain, Energy Adviser Fouzul Kabir Khan, National Security Adviser Dr Khalilur Rahman, SDGs Affairs Coordinator Lamiya Morshed, and Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam.
Prof Yunus concluded his speech by reinforcing the power of dreams and imagination. “Keep dreaming. Keep imagining. That’s how change begins.”
