A just transition needs to consider the roles of different existing and future generations. Young People are a particularly important population group. They have a long-term stake in the planning of sustainable futures, yet are generally excluded from participatory decision-making and research.
The SYSC project Visions of life looked to engage with primary and secondary school children to capture youth visions of sustainable futures in the region. As part of the SYSC Consolidated Research Report, the “Youth Visions of a Just Transition” case study explored how we did this through piloting an approach to understand how young people envision a just transition.
Key Findings
Our research found that students have strong environmental values; for example, they prioritise fairness and equality, safety and protection for everyone. Their illustrations and discussions during the research workshops included specific examples of shared green space, renewable energy, and community food growing, whilst protecting privacy and valuing their wellbeing. However, access to tools and knowledge to turn these values into action were limited. Most youth engagement is either consultative or extra-curricular, and not fully integrated into government strategies. The Youth Visioning project demonstrated that young people recognise, and can imagine what a sustainable future looks like, drawing from values formed through early moral development in childhood and reinforced through social learning in family and school settings. It is important that children and young people are provided with a framework for attaching these values to later life career decisions.
