Listening to young people: Mobility for future
Many young people worldwide travel while engaging in the fight to curb climate change. However, not all forms of travel are good for the climate. Does this require us to rethink and reframe youth mobility and to find new ways for young people to continue enjoying travel? Or have young people already adapted their travel habits, which they now believe to be climate-sensitive? “Climate-sen- sitive youth mobility” - what does that even mean? How does this impact on climate-sensitive international mobility for learning purposes? And what do young peo- ple around the world have to say about the matter? The transnational, explorative and non-representative LEMOCC 1 study examines the attitudes of young peo- ple aged 15 to 30. Respondents from seven countries – China, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Turkey and the UK – were asked to take part in the survey, which was available in seven languages. In addition, selected young people from all seven countries took part in four transnational focus group meetings to discuss the con- nection between climate change and youth mobility. The main outcomes of the study are described in this report. It emerges that on the one hand, the responses are uni- form ; on the other, they are also heterogeneous . What do we mean by uniform ? The young respondents all agree that climate change is a global challenge that requires immediate political action. So why are their responses also heterogeneous? The respondents were somewhat divided on the causes of climate change and the interdependencies of those causes. There was also some country-specific variation in the challenges the participants recognised, for instance how climate change should be managed and what issues need to be prioritised. However, the respondents repeatedly said that climate change can only be managed if we all adapt our actions and choices. So what about the connection between youth mobility and climate change? Looking at the magnitude of con- cern that young people have about how their personal choices impact on the environment, a clear correlation emerges between how worried they are and how much
personal experience they have of international mobility. In other words, recognising the connection between climate change and youth mobility is an outcome of young people’s experience of mobility, given that it allows them to experience this connection themselves. Another observation is that young women in the partici- pating countries were overrepresented both in the survey and in the focus groups. Other studies on current social and political challenges in Germany, too, have found that young women account for the majority of respondents. In the case of LEMOCC, however, they were responsible for a particularly large share of the responses. Whether young women today have a particularly strong general interest in political issues and are hence specifically concerned about social and climate change issues may be a promising area of future research.
The title of this report,
was chosen in analogy to the Fridays for Future climate initiative. The report was written in a move to encourage the international youth work community to engage in a regional, national and transnational debate with young people on sustainable youth travel and mobility and explore this important issue in greater depth. Further- more, the report is designed to aid international youth work providers in gaining a better understanding of the needs and expectations of young people when it comes to climate-sensitive mobility for learning purposes. Our thanks go to all young people, the participating organisations in the seven countries, and to the Interna- tional Youth Service of the Federal Republic of Germany (IJAB). This special transnational project would not have been possible without you. Thank you! Listening to young people: Mobility for future
1 LEMOCC stands for Learning Mobility in Times of Climate Change and is used henceforth.
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