Environment, the European Green Agreement and youth involvement

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
11 March 2021

Environment, the European Green Agreement and youth involvement

Author: Alesia Makaj

She has a Master of Science in Economics and European Studies from the University of Tirana and Latvia University. She is a Konrad Adenauer Stiftung merit scholarship sur-place alumna. Alesia is interested in public policies related to sustainable development, environmental issues, European Integration, education, gender equality, migration, and child protection. She is actively involved in voluntary work, social, and community activities.

The environment is where our social, political and economic activities take place. In this perspective, the impact that our activity has on the environment is left out of focus. Over the years, using the opportunities that natural resources have offered to the economic development (we mention here that the Industrial Revolution was initiated as a result of the navigable river network in England) human activity has had a negative impact on the environment. As a result, there is a need to think about how we can develop our economies while being environmentally friendly.

Why we should protect the environment

By caring for the environment, people are actually working on an issue that brings benefits to them, even though it may seem like a process that costs them time, money and other resources.

The following are some of the reasons why it is considered important to work for the protection of the environment:

A healthier life, air, water and soil pollution have a negative impact on health. This year, for the first time officially, a death directly caused by air pollution of a 9-year-old child was recorded in the United Kingdom in 2013.
Intergenerational equity. Socio-economic theories state that for altruism or for strategic reasons people want to leave a legacy. Inheritances such as money or other assets from the older generation to the younger ones serve as a transfer of resources and assistance to the younger generation. This also applies to natural resources. If consumed rationally today, it will be possible for future generations to have access to the use of the environment.
Conservation of biodiversity is essential for the life of our own species. At first glance, it seems as if the loss of biodiversity only harms the coexistence of living things with each other (e.g. breaking the food chain of frogs if mosquitoes disappear). Yet beyond that, the extinction of a small creature such as bees would cost humanity an unimaginable blow to agriculture and food supply.
Forests are essential for productive activities. Wood is the raw material for many manufacturing processes.
Trees have a number of useful functions. They produce oxygen and slow down the process of global warming. In addition to this role, trees protect against soil erosion, protect against floods, provide protection of agricultural crops from the wind, serve as thermobalancers for climate’s temperature, and as habitats for many living species.
The environment provides employment for a large number of people who associate their livelihood with it.
A protected environment expands the potential for tourism development.

A European Union response to the importance of environmental protection

On 11 December 2019, the European Commission presented the European Green Agreement, a strategy to make the economy of the European Union sustainable, turning climate and environmental challenges into opportunities for all policy areas, as well as making a fair and inclusive transition. This agreement provides a roadmap with measures that will enable efficient use of resources to move to a circulating economy, halt climate change, conserve biodiversity and reduce pollution. The sectors involved are transport, energy, agriculture, construction and the steel, cement, ICT, textile and chemical industries. In itself, the Green Agreement includes strategies related to the transformation and digitalisation of industry, the creation of a circulating economy, the “farm to fork” strategy, biodiversity, emissions by 2030, with the ambition to make European Union’s climate neutral by 2050.

Involvement of young people in environmental activism

Generation Z, which includes young people and teenagers born after 1996, was thought to be simply the generation of digitalisation, but in fact they have high solidarity regarding causes for the good of society. Here we can mention the case of the Swedish teenage activist, Greta Thunberg, who did not attend school on Friday in order to protest for climate change, she inspired thousands of young people across Europe by creating the movement “Fridays for Future”.

Young people, whose lives will be affected more than others by climate change, should enjoy the right to have a voice in this issue and to be part of decision-making in an institutionalised way. Current politicians, whose activity is related to the environment, should create a space for regular and meaningful dialogue with young people on policy proposals and strategies in the area of climate and sustainable development.

Consulted materials

Environment, the European Green Agreement and youth involvement

Why we should protect the environment

A European Union response to the importance of environmental protection

Involvement of young people in environmental activism

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