The European Commission and Parliament have published a Eurobarometer identifying the climate crisis as the priority challenge for young people.
What are the main challenges facing the European Union? What role will young people play in addressing these challenges and in shaping our collective future? For one in two young Europeans, the battle for the future is fought exclusively on the front of combating climate change. Nine out of ten people aged between 15 and 24 consider it will be decisive for their health and wellbeing.
The figures are contained in the special Eurobarometer 517 survey "The future of Europe", jointly commissioned by the European Parliament and Commission and published on 26 January last on the dedicated website, which brings together surveys and data from the past 48 years.
26,530 people were interviewed across the 27 member states, in person or online to comply with the safety measures established by the Covid-19 pandemic, between 16 September and 27 October last. The work was strongly sought after on the occasion of the European Year of Youth 2022, promoted to include younger generations in decision-making processes at every level — European, national and local — and in key consultations, such as the most topical Conference on the Future of Europe.
Almost the entire sample, 88 per cent, believes that the share of energy produced from renewables will need to increase if economic growth and energy efficiency are to be promoted — the latter understood as the moderate and responsible use of this resource. Still with reference to the European Green Deal strategy, 80 per cent look resolutely towards achieving climate neutrality through the use of low- and zero-emission vehicles.
It is not only young people who are concerned about their future: 84 per cent of respondents aged 55 and over share the same fears. It is climate change and the environment that will need to be discussed at the Conference on the Future of Europe, says 44 per cent of the sample, in order to achieve truly tangible results.
What emerges, then, is the shared desire of European citizens to have a say in the decisions taken about their future. There is also a conviction, held by 43 per cent of respondents, that involving younger people in the issues of greatest concern to them is a major opportunity the Conference offers. It becomes clear, finally, that great expectations rest on the shoulders of the young, and that the young climate activists gathered in the ranks of Fridays for Future are certainly not afraid to take their future back into their own hands.
