Dear readers,
2022 is the "European Year of Youth", the EU Commission and the European Parliament have considered it that way.
In order to find out what concerns young people in the Union have and what worries they have, the EU commissioned a large-scale survey.
The results of the "Eurobarometer" were published on Wednesday, for which tens of thousands of people in all 27 member states were surveyed.
The answers were also evaluated according to sociodemographic criteria, including age.
And they show:
For more than half of Europeans aged 15 to 24, the climate crisis
is the most important global challenge
.
Nine out of ten young EU citizens believe that tackling climate change would have a
direct impact on themselves
: containing the crisis could help improve their own health and well-being.
85 percent of all respondents believe that tackling climate change can offer new opportunities for
innovation, investment and jobs
.
83 percent agree that tackling climate change now can help reduce the
cost of greater environmental damage
in the future.
The survey also shows that popular support for the European climate goals is broad - "overwhelming," as the EU bodies put it.
For example, 88 percent of Europeans consider it important to increase the share of
renewable energies
.
Making Europe the first climate- neutral continent
in the world by 2050
is an important goal for 80 percent.
This is even more important for younger people (87 percent) than for older people (77 percent).
Outside the EU, many young people think the same.
Three out of four think the future is scary
For a study published in December in the journal Lancet Planetary Health, scientists asked 10,000 children and adolescents between the ages of 16 and 25 from ten countries - including Brazil, India, Nigeria, Great Britain and the USA - about their thoughts and feelings about climate change.
The result: 84 percent were worried, 59 percent even very.
Three out of four participants said they thought the future was scary.
A generation around the world is worried.
And there are examples around the world of these concerns being overlooked.
One of these examples is currently emerging in the United States, the country historically responsible for the bulk of cumulative greenhouse gas emissions.
For months, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin has been blocking a US government reform package that would provide billions of dollars for the energy transition and other climate protection projects.
The majority of Senate Democrats, and thus approval of the Build Back Better Act, depends on a single vote - Manchin's vote, in this case.
Manchin himself defends his stance by arguing that the program is too expensive and that he is concerned about the economy.
Others consider alternative motives to be conceivable. The state of West Virginia, which the 74-year-old represents in the Senate, is one of the largest mining regions in the USA. Manchin is said to have made a fortune through personal investments in coal companies and campaign donations from the coal industry. The climate protection measures that future generations depend on might simply not seem so desirable to the senator.
The politician is now certain to attract international attention for his blocking attitude, even if the verdict is often unflattering. "He's a villain, a threat to the world," Saleemul Huq, director of the International Center for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh, said in The Guardian newspaper. British MP Ed Davey, according to the same report, described Manchin as a "problem." And as early as December, a Greenpeace staffer called the senator a "fossil-fueled sociopath."
One might find it almost amusing how great the power of a single coal dude dude can become in the US political sphere were it not for the fact that the United States enacted very rigid emission reduction measures very quickly.
Because the calculated CO₂ budget that the USA should still use proportionately if distributed fairly in order to comply with the 1.5-degree limit set in Paris has been exhausted since the end of the year.
If you like, we will inform you once a week about the most important things about the climate crisis - stories, research results and the latest developments on the biggest issue of our time. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.
The topics of the week
For 1.5 degree target: USA must no longer emit CO₂
By the end of 2021, the United States will have exhausted its calculated CO₂ budget.
Germany also only has five years left.
This shows that emissions must fall rapidly if the climate crisis is to be contained.
Climate and environmental balance of livestock: Researchers advocate a meat tax
Meat is too cheap, say experts in a study.
They calculated how much more expensive beef, lamb or pork would have to be - and how this could lead to the poor having even more money than before.
The Althausen family and the hard way: Without a car in the country – is that even possible?
It is often said that away from the big cities, everyday life can only be managed by car.
A family with three children in Brandenburg tries it out - and commutes 30 kilometers by bike every day.
Species protectors versus climate protectors: How the Greens could solve the wind power dilemma
The expansion of wind power threatens birds and bats and causes disputes, not only among the Greens.
That could further delay the energy transition – but there are solutions.
E-cars as energy storage: Germany's gigantic unused power bank
Electric cars could soon temporarily feed as much energy into the grid as a hundred nuclear power plants - and thereby reduce electricity prices and prevent blackouts.
But politics and industry are in danger of missing the opportunity.
Plug-in hybrids: How Minister of Transport Wissing collects the coalition
goal for electric cars
Yes, thinks Minister Wissing and outraged many Greens.
In order to achieve the climate goals in transport, a new plan is needed.
Harmful emissions: Gas stoves also emit methane when they are switched off
Scientists have examined the emissions from gas stoves in the USA and found that dangerous or climate-impacting pollutants are sometimes emitted.
stay confident
Your viola keel
