The Nordic Council of Ministers has adopted a vision that the Nordic region will be the most sustainable and integrated region in the world by 2030. Based on that vision, Sustainable Living in the Nordics was initiated in 2021, a cross-sectoral programme running through 2024 including six projects. The overall aim is to develop tools and guidelines that can make it easier to live in a climate-friendly way in the Nordic Region – and to make sustainable choices the new norm.
Among the six projects, one has focused on gender aspects of lifestyles, consumption and commitment, related to sustainable development. A first report from the project was published in September 2022, Climate, Gender and Consumption. A research overview that summarized the current state of international research in seven different areas: Food; Housing and energy; Clothing and consumer goods; Transport; Work and time use; Culture and tourism; and Activism and influence.
The first report showed that people’s attitudes towards climate change and consumption behaviors are influenced by norms and ideals that relate to either care giving or technology, and that these norms are associated with either femininity or masculinity, which in turn impacts a person’s climate engagement. Among other things, the report shows that a caring ideal can be an important key to accelerate the green transition.
The report at hand is a more in-depth study of young people's commitment to sustainable development, examined through gender and intersectional analysis. The patterns in young people's involvement can be understood as a matter of gender, but education level and geography (urban-rural, migration background etc.) are also relevant factors. Through interviews and a survey, the study examines how youth organisations for sustainability can relate and respond to the challenges of inclusion and diversity. The report concludes with a discussion and four key takeaways that can be useful for organisations that want to tackle these challenges.
The study has been produced in collaboration between Nordregio and Nordic Information on Gender (NIKK), for the Youth project within the Sustainable Living Programme. NIKK is a knowledge centre under the Nordic Council of Ministers for Gender Equality and LGBTI, located at the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research at the University of Gothenburg. The report has been written by Jimmy Sand, an analyst at the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research.