The Cleanup Generation: Youth Participation in A Climate Crisis

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The Cleanup
Generation
The Cleanup
Generation
The Cleanup
Generation
The Cleanup
Generation

Young people
are demanding
solutions, and
young people
are creating
them

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This report was commissioned in December 2018 to look at
youth engagement. During 2018-2019 we have seen children
and young people become engaged in the climate crisis like
never before. It is the greatest engagement for this issue that
has ever been seen in the history of humanity.
When looking internationally at activists and entrepreneurs,
we can see a clear trend of growing engagement. The
report was written in Oslo with a focus on local engagement
towards a global issue. It was written not only with the
intention of being read. It was written to enable more action
by young people engaged in solving the climate crisis.
Youth Participation in a Climate Crisis
Written by Alex Moltzau and Amund Grytting
Design and layout by Alex Moltzau
Illustrations by Anette Moi
Printed by ...

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This report was commissioned in December 2018 to look at youth
engagement. During the year of 2018-2019 we have seen engagement
from children and youth for the climate crisis that has never been seen
before. It is the greatest engagement for this issue that has ever been
seen in the history of humanity.
Youth in this report is defined as the age group 13-28 globally.
Sustainability is development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs.
Engagement in this report is any action taken towards a more
sustainable society. This includes but is not limited to entrepreneurship
and activism.
Participation is defined different by youth organisation than those
seeking to facilitate youth in policy or business. This has to change to
enable more action from youth to address the climate crisis. We use the
terms participation and engagement in this report interchangeably to
refer to taking action towards increased sustainability.
Looking internationally at activists and entrepreneurs we can see a clear
trend of growing engagement. The report was written from Oslo with
a focus on local engagement towards a global issue. It was written not
only to be read. It was written to enable more action for youth engaged
towards solving the climate crisis.
Written by:
Alex Moltzau and Amund Grytting
Brief Introduction

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Table of Contents
p. 6 0.0 Table of Contents
p. 8-9 0.1 A process of understanding
p. 10-19 0.2 Background and intention
p. 20-21 0.3 The New Urban Agenda III
p. 22-29 0.4 Criterias for Youth Participation
p. 31-35 0.5 Research about young entrepreneurs
p. 36-43 0.6 A story of sustainability
p. 44-47 0.7 What is Contribution to the SDGs?
p. 48 1.0 Youth Demanding
p. 50-61 1.1 Climate protests around the world
p. 62-71 1.2 Digital Engagement Amongst Youth
p. 72-79 1.3 The Youth Climate Top Meeting in Oslo
p. 80-81 1.4 Roaring for climate
p. 82-83 2.0 Stories from Youth Creating
p. 84-87 2.1 Sharing from conflict to peace - Qussai Maklad
p. 88-91 2.2 With Magic and Courage - Carmen Young
p. 92-95 2.3 Networking Youth Across Cities - Andre Kwok
p. 96-99 2.4 The Young Inventor - Himanshu Panday
p. 100-103 2.5 Delivering Clean Water - Øyvind Egaas Stenberg
p. 104-105 3.0 Bridging Engagement to Action
p. 106-113 3.1 Young Sustainable Impact
p. 114-117 3.2 Ashoka
p. 118-121 3.3 Tøyen Unlimited
p. 122-125 3.4 Ungt Entreprenørskap (Junior Achievement)
p. 126-133 4. Five key actions for youth participation in a climate
crisis with objectives and recommendation for measures

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This report is based on a number of semi-structured
qualitative interviews, an examination of existing
research on participation and young entrepreneurs, a
survey to the YSI community, and our own experience
from three years ofworkwith YSI.
While working with this report we have experienced first
hand the uprising of youth globally through the school strike
movement called FridaysForFuture. Since the ask from
the ministry emphasised especially how to increase the
engagement with youth we decided to follow the development
of the school strike more closely and make it a greater part of
this report.
After interviews with the key informants Douglas Ragan,
Martin Demant Fredriksen and Thomas Hylland Eriksen
we partly widened the scope. It developed from a sole focus
on SDG11 to addressing a wider, qualitative question of
understanding how youth are engaging with sustainability
and how they do it.
This included looking at how youth organizations works
to bridge engagement today towards solutions; what their
challenges are; and finally connect this with quantitative
insights about what is important to focus on when trying to
help young entrepreneurs to bring it to action.
A process of understanding
Qualitative and quantitative methodology

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The reportwill not provide any magical formula on how
to facilitate engagement to action, nor how to measure it,
rather present and discuss it as far aswe canwithin the
scope of the study.Any one particular solutionwould be
a one-size-fits-all,withvery small impact andvalue for
money.
Semi-structured qualitative interviews (55+2)
• 22 interviews of young entrepreneurs and key informants
• 12 interviews school strike March 15th 2019
• 21 interviews school strike May 24th 2019
• 2 group interviews (one with YSI team + one mid-
way with the ministry of local government and
modernization)
Norway, Malaysia, India, Syria, Hong Kong, Pakistan,
Bangladesh,
Examined existing research on participation and young
entrepreneurs.
Survey to YSI community
• 277 responses
• 21 countries (main group from Pakistan, Nigeria, India,
Kenya, Brazil)

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We at Young Sustainable Impact (YSI) have been asked
by the planning department at the Ministry of Local
Government and Modernisation to write a report about how
to use the sustainable development goals to strengthen
collaboration and partnerships, with a particular emphasis
on how to increase youth engagement.
“YSI will examine how UN sustainable development
goal number 11, sustainable cities and communities, is
being pursued by other governments to understand what
Norway can learn from others. The principal question
is: Which young people in the 18-28 age group use
entrepreneurship for sustainability and how do they
work? What are their needs and what do they wish for?”
While working with this report we experienced first-
hand the uprising of youth globally through the school
strike movement known as Fridays For Future. Since the
request from the ministry especially emphasised how to
increase youth engagement with, we decided to follow the
development of the school strike more closely and make it a
greater part of this report.
After interviews with key contributors Douglas Ragan
(Leader of Youth and Livelihoods, UN Habitat), Martin
Demant Fredriksen (PhD inAnthropology who focuses on
disengagement) and Thomas Hylland Eriksen (Professor
ofAnthropology with a focus on globalization) we partly
widened the scope. It developed from having a sole focus
on SDG11 to addressing a wider, qualitative question
of understanding how young people are embracing
sustainability and how they go about doing this.
This led us to look at the following main areas:
1. The basis for good practice in youth participation,
helping young entrepreneurs, and the story and status of
sustainability.
2. How youth are engaging and demanding change today.
3. Stories of youth that not only engage in change, but are
creating change.
4. How youth organizations works to bridge engagement
today towards solutions.
Background and intention
by Amund Grytting

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The report will not provide any magical formula on how to
facilitate engagement to action, nor how to quantify this, but
will rather present and discuss the topics insofar as possible
within the scope of the study.
A Process of Understanding
Qualitative and quantitative methodology
Key terms:
Youth/Young people in this report are defined as the age
group of 13-28 globally.
Sustainability is development that meets the needs of
the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs.
Engagement in this report is any action taken towards a
more sustainable society. This includes but is not limited
to entrepreneurship and activism.
Participation is defined differently by youth
organisations to those seeking to engage young people
in policy or business. This has to change to enable more
action from young people to address the climate crisis.
We use the terms participation and engagement in this
report interchangeably to refer to taking action towards
increased sustainability.

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This report is based on a number of semi-structured
qualitative interviews, an examination of existing research
on participation and young entrepreneurs, a survey of the
YSI community, and our own experience from three years of
work with YSI.
A total of 57 semi-structured qualitative interviews:
22 interviews of young entrepreneurs and key
contributors
12 interviews at school strike on 15 March 2019
21 interviews at school strike on 24 May 2019
2 group interviews (one with YSI team + one mid-
way with the Ministry of Local Government and
Modernization)
Interviewees represented Norway, Malaysia, India, Syria,
Hong Kong, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Existing research on participation and young entrepreneurs
was examined.
Survey to YSI community
• 277 responses
• 21 countries (main group from Pakistan, Nigeria, India,
Kenya, Brazil)

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Alex Moltzau
Co-founder of YSI
Member of the Board
Amund Grytting
Co-founder of YSI
Chief Operating Officer
About the authors and Young Sustainable Impact
Young Sustainable Impact (YSI), is a non-profit organization
started in Norway that aims to find and connect young
talented people from around the world together to create
impact start-ups to solve the world’s sustainability
challenges. This is done both through an online
innovation program and by building online communities
(Earthpreneurs). We do not conduct large quantitative
surveys nor are we a research or policy organisation.
However, despite only being a few young people in Oslo we
have managed in three years to engage millions of young
people globally and attracted 30,000+ applicants to our
innovation programs. Therefore, the value of our perspective
lies in our focus on using innovation to channel engagement
to action, and our network and connection to young
entrepreneurs and community builders globally.

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Introduction and scope
About Young Sustainable Impact
Who? In December 2015, a group of nine young students
and entrepreneurs in their twenties met for a workshop in
connection with 17-year-old Maiuran Loganathan’s idea of
gathering together the world’s most brilliant young minds to
solve the climate challenge. The group had all met through
Future Leaders, a leadership program with the aim of
creating social, economic and environmental sustainability
through developing a diverse group of brave young leaders.
Why? The COP21 Paris Conference had just ended and
the fact that most countries in the world agreed on working
towards the goal of limiting global warming to ”well below
2°C” compared to pre-industrial levels was an amazing thing,
but where was the action? For twice as long as most of us
had lived, world leaders have acknowledged that climate and
sustainability are an issue, yet many of the challenges are
bigger than ever before.
In today’s world, there is a long list of initiatives that do
incredible work towards creating a better future, with
everything from teaching youth, to initiating social
movements, political movements, or creating a new breed
of social entrepreneurs. YSI’s approach differs in that our
core focus is to use innovation to make a measurable impact
through breakthrough solutions.
During the past hundreds and thousands of years, humanity
has developed every aspect of the world through constant,
small improvements. These incremental innovations and
changes have brought us to the level of civilization and
society that we now have today. They occur in science,
technology, our social structures and in politics.
Whenever these smaller, incremental innovations are
combined into one solution, that then spreads rapidly
worldwide, and we call that a breakthrough solution.

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How? YSI positions itself as a catalyst for breakthrough
solutions that push the world towards a better and more
sustainable future. We believe that when connecting
the drive, naivety and curiosity of young people with
the experience of established stakeholders in business,
academia, politics or other sectors, there is no limit to what
we can achieve together.
Most entrepreneurship programs focus on taking in
established teams or that individuals submit ideas.At YSI,
we only look for individuals who are passionate about a
sustainability challenge in the world and have proven that
they possess great skills and the ability to execute.
In addition to our innovation programs, we are building a
network of young entrepreneurs called Earthpreneurs, which
means making sustainability business as usual, and various
methods of influencing already established companies
and organizations. Through youth engagement, we initiate
new solutions from stage zero, and help the established
stakeholders to gain new insight into where to find their next
steps towards sustainability.
See the section on how organizations are working with
bridging engagement today to read more about the
innovation program.

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Volunteers from 15+ countries
To YSI Global

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In 2019 YSI ran another four programs where the global program
ended with 6 out of 8 teams having a validated prototype in
the end of the program. YSI also is starting to see the impact of
earlier startups like Aquasolis Global providing clean water to
7000 people in Tanzania.

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We have looked at the urban agenda to find goals relevant
to participation. We found them challenging to understand
and to use, which led us to present them in a more easy-to-
understand manner. This may be considered reductionist
and we recommend reading the paragraphs that we have
extracted these from. However, much like the sustainable
development goals, these provide visual cues for complex
issues, and we would argue that action towards the New
UrbanAgenda may benefit from this.
15. (C) Adopt sustainable, people-centred, age- and gender-responsive and integrated
approaches to urban and territorial development by implementing policies, strategies,
capacity development and actions at all levels, based on fundamental drivers of change,
including:
(i) Developing and implementing urban policies at the appropriate level, including in
localnational and multi-stakeholder partnerships, building integrated systems of cities and
human settlements and promoting cooperation among all levels of government to enable the
achievement of sustainable integrated urban development;
(ii) Strengthening urban governance, with sound institutions and mechanisms that empower
and include urban stakeholders, as well as appropriate checks and balances, providing
predictability and coherence in urban development plans to enable social inclusion,
sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and environmental protection;
(iii) Reinvigorating long-term and integrated urban and territorial planning and design in
order to optimize the spatial dimension of the urban form and deliver the positive outcomes
of urbanization;
(iv) Supporting effective, innovative and sustainable financing frameworks and instruments
enabling strengthened municipal finance and local fiscal systems in order to create, sustain
and share the value generated by sustainable urban development in an inclusive manner
61. We commit ourselves to harnessing the urban demographic dividend, where applicable,
and to promoting access for youth to education, skills development and employment to
achieve increased productivity and shared prosperity in cities and human settlements.
Girls and boys, young women and young men are key agents of change in creating a better
future and when empowered they have great potential to advocate on behalf of themselves
and their communities. Ensuring more and better opportunities for their meaningful
participation will be essential for the implementation of the New UrbanAgenda.
92. We will promote participatory age- and gender-responsive approaches at all stages of
the urban and territorial policy and planning processes, from conceptualization to design,
budgeting, implementation, evaluation and review, rooted in new forms of direct partnership
between Governments at all levels and civil society, including through broad-based and well-
resourced permanent mechanisms and platforms for cooperation and consultation open to
all, using information and communications technologies and accessible data solutions.
155. Wewill promote capacity-development initiatives to empower and strengthen the
skills and abilities ofwomen and girls, children and youth, older persons and persons
with disabilities, indigenous peoples and local communities, as well as persons in vulnerable
situations, for shaping governance processes, engaging in dialogue, and promoting and
protecting human rights and antidiscrimination, to ensure their effective participation in
urban and territorial development decisionmaking.
156. We will promote the development of national information and communications
technology policies and e-government strategies, as well as citizen-centric digital governance
tools, tapping into technological innovations, including capacity-development programmes,
in order to make information and communications technologies accessible to the public,
including women and girls, children and youth, persons with disabilities, older persons
and persons in vulnerable situations, to enable them to develop and exercise civic
responsibility, broadening participation and fostering responsible governance, as
well as increasing efficiency. The use of digital platforms and tools, including geospatial
information systems, will be encouraged to improve long-term integrated urban and
territorial planning and design, land administration and management, and access to urban
and metropolitan services.
15. (C)Adopt sustainable age-responsive and integrated
approaches
61+155. Youth need education and capacity-development
for meaningful participation
92+156. Using information and communications
technologies and accessible data solutions.
≈
The New Urban Agenda III
How can we make participatory goals clearer?

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Integrate Approaches
Education & Capacity
Accesible Solutions

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Young people have been working to include young people
for some time. Youth participation as a conceptual
framework was coined in 1975 by the National
Commission On Resources For Youth in the United States.
However, at that time, the focus was more on needs and
opportunity. In more recent times, the Commonwealth
Youth Programme and UNICEF described it in 2006 as
active self-involvement that is voluntary and informed.
Youth participation has been delegated to areas where
young people have been thought to be engaged such
as sports and schools, however more recently this has
become a far too narrow view of where young people can
contribute.As can be seen from a few examples of new
suggestions for youth participation, young people should
be able to more freely choose the area within which they
want to engage, and this needs to be facilitated by the
state. Planning, and particularly issues concerning the
climate crisis, is only one of several examples in this
regard. However, we would argue it is the most pressing
issue.
The Norwegian Children and Youth Council (LNU)
LNU, the Norwegian Children and Youth Council, is an
umbrella organisation for close to one hundred Norwegian
children and youth organisations. Their member
organisations are democratic and voluntary, and represent a
vast diversity of activities and interests. On behalf of these
organisations, LNU conducts work within three main areas:
politics, knowledge and funding. In their report, Right to
Participate (LNU, 2014), the main argument of the report
was to move from viewing young people as a target group
to acknowledging young people as critical stakeholders.
Further, it argues that there have to be theories and models
for participation, for which it outlines five: (1) independence,
(2) representation, (3) expertise, (4) sufficient information
and (5) continuity.
1. Independence. First and foremost, it is important to
establish that youth should independently choose what
Criterias for
youth participation
by Alex Moltzau and Amund Grytting

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issues they want to engage in. It is youth’s right to be
involved and have their voices heard in decisions that will
impact on them as well as decision-making processes
for issues youth are concerned about in general. What
processes youth are able to participate in should not be
decided by the government.
2. Representation. Youth have the right to represent
themselves in a similar manner to other groups
in society. Youth themselves have a wide range of
perspectives and opinions and are best placed to
establish dialogue with other youth. Youth should
themselves have the opportunity to select who is
going to represent them. To represent youth carries
with it the responsibility to promote youth’s views
and opinions. It involves having knowledge about the
specific topic; having an insight into what policies would
be in youth’s best interests, and having an overview
of youth’s opinions on the topic. Youth representation
should be regarded as any other democratic institution.
Representatives should be elected by their constituents.
3. Expertise: youth must be acknowledged as a subject-
area resource with the necessary expertise that others
cannot replace. However, it may still be necessary for
bodies that would like to embed youth participation in
their work to set aside time and space for initiatives that
will increase youth’s expertise.
4. Sufficient information: units working to include youth
needs to have access to relevant information so they
can update themselves on issues that relate to youth or
they care about. The information should be relevant,
accessible and shared well in advance to enable youth-led
organisations and networks to process it in a timely and
detailed manner.
5. Continuity: Most political decisions are reached
following a comprehensive process. Often, youth are
brought in towards the end of the political process,
almost to provide a youth alibi. To ensure that youth
participation is real, it is important to refrain from such
tokenistic measures, and rather make sure youth are
involved in the process from the start. Youth should
be part of the development, discussion, decision,
implementation and evaluation stages of policy making.

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Spire
Spire is a youth organization working for the just and
sustainable distribution of the world’s resources. They aim
to examine the major connections that create injustice. Their
focus areas are the environment, food security, international
trade and urban development. Spire influences politicians
in Norway and internationally to create change. They work
with young people in the Southern hemisphere and run
information campaigns to inspire Norwegian youth to action.
They are the Development Fund’s youth organization.
Since 2016, Spire has also created committees working on
sustainable cities and communities with political comments.
After contributing to a political process, this notably resulted
in Resolution 710 in the Norwegian report “Sustainable
Cities and Strong Districts” arguing that: “The parliament
asks the government to look at how New UrbanAgenda can
be appropriately implemented in Norway, and to return to
parliament with a suitable policy.” (Stortinget, 2017). With
their recent report Young People and Participation (Spire,
2018), Spire suggested that we take a few different steps to
increase participation. These are presented in more detail
in the report, however are roughly summarised as follows
(apologies for any omissions):
1. Regulation regarding participation in planning
a. Develop a regulation for participation
b. Be very clear what participation is
c. Require participation
2. Knowledge and capacity building
a. Learn about city and area development in school
b.Aim for increased participation in these processes
3. Digital platforms and tools
a. Social media is a new infrastructure in society
b. There has to be developed digital tools and this must
be financed
c. This needs a requirement of ease of use for youth

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Council of Europe’s Youth Department
A study commissioned by the Council of Europe’s
Youth Department from 2017 focuses on young people’s
participation in decision-making processes at national,
regional and local levels. The report includes an overview of
the current debates and developments with regard to youth
involvement in decision making at European, national,
regional and municipal levels, explores the concept of “new
and innovative” participation, and analyses the results of a
survey of 356 stakeholders (Crowly,A., & Moxon, D. (2017)).
The case studies also highlight a number of other key
messages:
Innovative approaches can come from both young people
and adults/professionals; innovation is often linked to a
desire to solve a specific issue. Innovative methods evolve as
a project is established through experimentation and trial.
Demonstrating impact is challenging, but necessary to
assess the success of a new method. Successful methods and
forms developed through innovation need to be replicated.
Many opportunities for the development of new methods
of participation are currently provided by the online world
which has implications for education curricula and for how
we build digital literacy and media competency amongst
citizens.
The survey explored perceptions, amongst stakeholders, of
different forms of participation in decision making. The key
findings are that: Co-management, co-production, digital
participation, deliberative participation and for some, the
concept of ‘participatory spaces’ are seen as the more
innovative forms of participation. Youth councils and similar
bodies, and youth activism or popular protest are seen as the
less innovative forms of participation. In general, the ‘more
innovative forms’ are not more or less effective than the ‘less
innovative forms’; These more innovative forms are facing
similar barriers to those faced by youth councils and forums
in terms of young people’s views being taken into account by
public bodies. Barriers include:
a. lack of funds and resources;
b. lack of political support;
c. lack of understanding by public authorities

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Green Building Council
The Green Building Council (TGBC) has, together with
Norwegian Property, described how using dialogue and
participation during the entire process can be beneficial for
costs related to change. This includes everything from the
(1) ideas for development and negotiations, through to (2)
government studies and risk, (3) transfer of the property,
(4) regulation and planning, (5) projection, deal-making
and marketing; (6) build, (7) completion of the property, to
the (8) transition to operations/stewardship of the property.
Their focus in the handbook for sustainable placemaking
argues that the concept of sustainability includes social,
environmental and economic sustainability. By devoting
proper attention to these three topics, sustainable
development will be possible.
In their handbook for sustainable placemaking they describe
in particular how participation should take place early as
possible, as well as the rising costs associated with change in
a building project. There is of course far more extensive work
that has been done and is being done by TGBC.

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Arnstein’s Ladder of Participation
Arnstein’s ladder of participation often used in discussions
of participatory planning.
”It is a democratic goal to achieve as high a level of real
participation as possible. Not only partnership with
business, and not only token ’partnership’with the users
Participation is also deliberate redistribution of power to
ensure inclusion of under-represented groups or types of
stakeholders. The UN’s Agenda 21 says that participation is a
real requisite for sustainable development.”
-Chris Butters
We should note that a process of including young people is
far more than a step by step process or climb. However, this
does illustrate that the ideas pertaining to participation are
in no way novel despite their necessity today.

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Folketråkk - A Citizen Participation Platform
Raising citizen’s voices through a knowledge-based
citizen participation platform. In order to meet
the overarching challenges linked to urbanisation,
demography and climate adaptation in society through
local planning, an initiative has been taken by Design and
Architecture Norway (DOGA) in consultation with the
public, private and civil sector, to develop an innovative
and digital-based participation platform, the intention
of which is to embrace all the hard-to-reach citizens in a
universal and democratic manner.
The Folketråkk project is inspired by the Norwegian participatory
model “Children’s Tracks”, developed by the Norwegian
Mapping Authorities, Vestfold Regional County and Design and
Architecture Norway (DOGA).
In 2018, Trine Nohr from the Royal Norwegian Department
for Planning held a presentation at the Universal Design &
Higher Education in Transformation Congress in Dublin.
At the conference she outlined current perspectives which
resulted in a paper entitled: ”Local democratic rule and
citizens’ voices as a premise in the planning of accessible
and universal society.” The following is a summary of
the main points and the current progress in developing a
platform for participation in Norway.
The basic pillars of the project is
1. Transparency.A national digital platform that allows
transparency and full access in the planning process,
enabling citizens to be informed, engaged and
empowered to provide their input.
2. Innovation. Input is facilitated through an input-
mechanism which is innovative and effectively managed.
3. Cooperation. The system will be supported by a
planning processing guide targeting the planner that
allows for informed and innovative decision-making
during the entire period of involvement and management
of the plan. Inherent in the system is cooperation and
dialogue between citizen and planners in the planning
process.

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4. Smart database. There is an ambition to develop a
smart database that collects information from digital
systems for citizen participation that is already in use in
the municipalities that will require further development
to function properly in modern democratic decision-
making. The database will: a) collect and share public
data, statistics and facts, making knowledge accessible
to all citizens and b) continuously collect and share
data from public participation and citizens’ input for
decision-making.Adapting such knowledge enables
the application of more targeted qualitative methods to
supplement quantitative methods, which subsequently
support decision-making for communities that is
universal, empowered and sustainable.
The current stage of development has seen the completion of
the second step, with another online guide (in addition to the
existing one issued by the government) launched on 23August.
This is intended to act as a helpful tool to navigate methods,
and is, in practice, another report. More is likely to follow.
Combined and translated to English from presentations by Designit and KMD

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Youth Business International (YBI)
YBI, a global network of 47 not-for-profit organizations in
40 countries which help underserved young entrepreneurs
(18–35 years of age) to start and grow sustainable businesses,
and EY have compiled a report to consolidate learning,
successes and challenges which have emerged when
implementing successful youth entrepreneurship support
initiatives. They collect data about 15,000 young people who
complete their programs annually and, based on research
into this data, they have created ten lessons in how to help
young entrepreneurs (YBI & EY, 2016).
Lesson 1: Don’t underestimate the power of attitude
The mind-sets of young entrepreneurs matter. Programs
must nurture attitudes: these are vital to business success.
Lesson 2: Market intelligence: get it right and from the
start. Program design should be underpinned by sound
market understanding. This increases the likelihood of
beneficiaries’ business success and sustainability.
Lesson 3: Training: not “king” but a core ingredient for
success. Entrepreneur skills training has a wide-ranging
and long-term positive impacts for beneficiaries regardless
of business creation. For entrepreneurs, it also helps unlock
access to finance.
Lesson 4: Collaborate! Vocational skills +
entrepreneurship training can enhance success.
Vocational and entrepreneurship support complement –
rather than compete – with each other. Where possible,
different interventions should work together for added value
and impact.
Lesson 5: Invest in more 1:1 support to create more
profitable businesses. Youth entrepreneurship support
programs need depth: beneficiaries who receive repeated 1:1
support over a longer period of time create more profitable
businesses.
What Does Research Tell us About
Helping Young Entrepreneurs?
by Amund Grytting

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Lesson 6: Mentoring: huge impact but it must be
thorough. Mentoring programs must be thorough in order
to maximize beneficiary impact. They need long term
investment, resourcing and very careful planning.
Lesson 7: Financial support: time to get creative.
Programs should help young entrepreneurs explore
alternative funding models, e.g. crowd funding and savings
groups.
Lesson 8: Local support networks can “make or
break” interventions. Programs must carefully engage
communities and families from the start. Local support
networks can “make or break” youth entrepreneurship
interventions.
Lesson 9: Gender can make a difference: adapting
support for success. One size does not necessarily fit all.
Programs should adapt their services so female beneficiaries
get the support they need, e.g. dedicated gender targets;
promoting role models; undertaking community gender
training.
Lesson 10: Invest in the right tech to support monitoring,
evaluation and learning (MEL). Invest in effective
technology to support program monitoring, evaluation and
learning: it saves time, improves performance, enhances risk
management, and aids decision making.
European Training Foundation
Their mission is to help transitioning and developing
countries harness the potential of their human capital
through the reform of education, training, and labour market
systems, in the context of EU external relations policies. In
2014, they prepared a policy brief that outlines a number of
key considerations for governments, the private sector and
civic interest groups to move forward with more strategic
promotion of youth entrepreneurship (ETF, 2014):
1. Promotion of an education and training environment in
which young people are able to develop the appropriate
mindset and skills for entrepreneurship.
2. Career guidance on entrepreneurship supporting the

33
transition from education to start-up and beyond.
3. Establishing quality outreach programmes
involving training and mentoring services,
specifically through good practice peer learning.
4. Promoting policy dialogue between education,
business and banking communities to close the
gap between training and access to finance.
5. A joined-up policy framework for youth
entrepreneurship involving public, private and
civic institutions particularly including young
entrepreneurs.

34
YSI Quantitative Research Survey
“If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that
this thing is to be remembered.”
-Edgar Allan Poe
As part of the research, we conducted a survey of the YSI
community through our Facebook page and sent the survey
by email to the people who reached stage two of the 2019
application process. We received 277 responses and, on the
whole, the results were the same.
We received various suggestions in response to the question
“What could (in your opinion) your state do to help young
entrepreneurs?”.Although the suggestions differed, they
all related to three principal areas. These were: (1) provide
funding, (2) more access to mentorship and knowledge, (3)
regulation in favour of those starting up in the first years.A
survey with such a small sample size cannot reflect trends
in other findings, however it is hard to argue that it is not
impactful or meaningful.
This secondary research also reflects the thoughts from our
key contributors and in particular Douglas Ragan.Although
we could have conducted a larger quantitative survey based
on this information, we found it neither valuable within
our role and the scope of a preliminary report to reaffirm
existing research. YSI is not an organisation with numerous
researchers, interviewers or the funds to follow up a
coordination of international efforts along these lines. What
can be said is that after funding (which tends to place first)
we have mentorship and regulation. Thus, when reviewing
this based on the input, the immediate conclusion is that
there needs to be more funding, mentorship and regulation.
On the other hand, this tells us little about the specific
challenges that are faced within these categories, how they
can be solved or how the respondents want these to be
solved.
If the respondents did propose a specific type of action in
the questionnaire, it may be hard to follow this up or collate
these opinions, which raises challenging questions in
regards to participation in this report, as well as from those
who decided to participate. We cannot properly harness the
wisdom of the crowd through a standardized form, although
this may also be as much a failure on the part of the authors.

36
A Story of Sustainability
We do not assume everyone is familiar with the term
and history of sustainability despite its widespread and
increasing usage. Therefore, we have decided to include
a summary of the history of sustainability. Human
history is characterized by the increased success of some
societies followed by crises that were either resolved,
producing sustainability, or not resolved, leading to
decline (Wright, 2004). We will start our explanation
in our current geological age, theAnthropocene, which
is viewed as the period during which human activity
has been the dominant influence on the climate and
environment.As such we no longer talk about the ability
to sustain separate communities – rather the focus is on
our planet earth and the survival of humanity within our
ecosystem here.
The 1971 findings of the book Limits To Growth were
presented for the first time at conferences in Moscow and
Rio De Janeiro (Meadows et al., 1972). The findings proposed
that the planet earth is a finite system, which means it has
limited or finite resources. The report used a computer
simulation of exponential economic and population
growth with a finite supply of resources. It concluded that
with certain growth patterns the system may collapse and
proposed we should take immediate steps to avoid this.
At the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment
in Stockholm, there was an expressed need to “maintain
the earth as a place suitable for human life not only now
but for future generations” (Ward and Dubos 1972, xiii)
and the focus was on human activities that contribute to
environmental degradation and resource depletion. (Adam,
2001, 55).
When the International Union for Conservation of Nature
(IUCN) published the World Conservation Strategy in
1980, it applied the following concept of sustainability to
development: “For development to be sustainable, it must
take account of social and ecological factors, as well as
economic ones; of the living and non-living resource base;
and of the long term as well as short term advantages and
disadvantages of alternative actions” (IUCN 1980, 1). The
1987 World Commission on Environment and Development,

37
now known as the Brundtland Commission, with their report
Our Common Future, popularized the use of “Sustainable
Development”.
“Sustainable development is development that meets
the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
– Our Common Future (Brundtland et al, 1987)
This report and the work of the World Commission on
Environment and Development laid the groundwork for
the convening of the 1992 Earth Summit and the adoption
ofAgenda 21 that presented the aim of achieving global
sustainable development in the 21st century.At the
Millennium Summit in 2000, all 191 member states of the
United Nations agreed to eight goals with specific targets.
Agenda 2030 (also known as the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs)) was decided upon at the UN Sustainable
Development Summit in 2015. It took the goals fromAgenda
21, re-asserted these and added a total of 17 agreed goals
with 169 targets, each with one to three indicators.
The online publication SDG Tracker was released in 2018,
which was based on the Our World in Data database to help
understand progress towards the 17 goals (SDG Tracker,
2019). The Global SDG Index and Dashboards Report
(SDG Index, 2018) is a yearly publication that features
trend analysis to show how countries perform on key SDG
metrics. as well as analysis of government efforts. Reports
and analysis from 2018-2019 from these sources show that
the world is far from achieving the sustainable development
goals.
This is echoed by the latest report from the IPCC
(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), which
suggests that unprecedented change is needed (IPCC,
2018). There needs to be a drastic reduction in emissions,
yet this has not been the case in the last few years and, as
such, in addition to not reaching other SDGs, it can be
argued we are currently in a climate crisis.

38
The second wave, a spike of search results on global warming

39
The Climate Crisis Goes Viral - Three Waves
“Viral: quickly andwidely spread or popularized
especially by means of social media”
There must be a variety of events leading up to the rapid
spread of information about the extent of the climate crisis.
Again we may be reductionist in attempting to analyse this
complex phenomenon in terms of simple elements, but let
us nevertheless try to do so, with the implicit understanding
that these are not comprehensive. Then allow us, in very
broad brushstrokes, to consider a few waves of virality.
The First Wave – Environmental Protection
It could be said environmentalism has deeper roots, however
in more recent times Greenpeace was set up during the
late 1960s with its goal to: “ensure the ability of the Earth to
nurture life in all its diversity”. Their continued actions to
create awareness around the world and the actions of a series
of other small organisations, both known and unknown, can
be said to have led to the first wave of “viral” moments of
awareness in regards to the environment through television
and increasingly the Internet. The climate issue being a
crisis has more recently become more and more apparent
with its manifestations in the real world.
The Second Wave - Global Warming
There may have been several reasons and initiatives
resulting from this realization of collapse, yet one film that
can be credited with international public awareness isAn
Inconvenient Truth by David Guggenheim, featuringAl Gore
with his presentations of a changing climate. It was released
in 2006 and won twoAcademyAwards and is one of the
highest grossing documentaries of all time (Boxofficemojo,
2019). The film attempted to alert the public of the
increasing emergency occurring due to the effects of global
warming. This was somewhat evidenced by the spike in
searches mapped by Google Trends, but it somewhat failed to
take hold due to a massive backlash from corporate interest
groups and deniers.

40
The Third Wave - Climate Crisis
18 of the 19 warmest years on record have occurred since
2001 (NASA, 2019). There has been a drastic and noticeable
change in the past decades that has grown to the point of
being undeniable. The wording “climate crisis” has been
adopted instead of climate change by the newspaper The
Guardian (The Guardian, 17 May2019). The United Kingdom
and Ireland have declared a climate crisis (Time, 2 May
2019, BBC, 7May 2019).A new, comprehensive report by the
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity
and Ecosystem Services shows that 1,000,000 species are
threatened with extinction (IPBES, 2019). Furthermore, there
are well-founded claims that we have already entered the
world’s sixth mass extinction (Barnosky et al., 2011).

42
Norway is one of the most polluting countries
in the world if we consider exports as part of
the impact
As we made clear previously in the report, we (the global
community in this case), have not managed to reverse the
trend of increasing emissions. Norway is also one of the
largest contributors to exacerbating this disturbing trend.
This was clearly expressed by three of Norway’s foremost
climate researchers Øyvind Paasche,Are Olsen and Robbie
Andrew in a recent article in Morgenavisen (Morning Paper)
entitled Our True Climate Footprint. Their statement was
written in Norwegian and the following is my translation:
“In 2018,43.9 million tonnes of CO2 was emitted from
Norwegian territory. CO2 emissions from the burning of
Norwegian oil and gas were more than 10 times greater: 455
million tonnes of CO2! Since the 1970s, when the Norwegian
oil adventure began, the combustion of Norwegian oil and gas
has led to emissions of 15 thousand million tons of CO2. That
is our responsibility as a producer. If all this was restricted to
Norwegian territory we would have a CO2-concentration of
around 2,500ppm [parts per million] above us. If we consider
that seas and forests would help absorb half of these emissions
– which influences the numbers that apply globally – then the
atmospheric concentration would be 1,250 ppm. In comparison,
the current concentration is410 – the highest in at least 2 million
years.”
If we consider accountability in terms of emissions, a report
was written called “Sky’s The Limit Norway: Why Norway
should lead the way in a managed decline of oil and gas
extraction”. Taking the vantage point of including exported
emissions Norway would not meet its target. If we continue
to develop oil and gas we will not be able to contribute to
reducing global CO2 emissions.

43
Graphs from Sky’s The Limit Norway: Why Norway should lead the way in a
managed decline of oil and gas extraction.

44
What Is Contribution to
Sustainable Development Goals?
In 2015, the ParisAgreement was created with the aim of a
collective initiative from all member countries. The 2030
Agenda was adopted by the member states for Sustainable
Development and its 17 sustainable development goals. The
sustainable development goals can be viewed as a recipe or
a compass for governments and enterprises on how to solve
the global challenges. The UN General Secretary stated:
“Global challenges require global solutions. No country can
do it alone. We need today multilateralism more than ever.”
The need for collaboration across borders cannot be
stressed enough from different stakeholders, but what does
it really involve? Solving the pattern of global challenges
requires collaboration across national borders and collective
contributions. This is the key to global solutions. In this
section of the report, we want to provide you with various
definitions of the concept of “contribution”. What does
contribute to the sustainable development goals and when is
it declared to be a contribution.
Cambridge dictionary defined contribution: as a gift or
payment to a common fund or collection. This can be
related to what Norwegians are identifying as ”dugnad”.
Its definition is: “ a common and unpaid voluntary work of
importance to the community or an individual”.
In their report entitled “The industry’s contribution to the
UN’s sustainable development goals” (Næringslivets bidrag
til FNs bærekraftsmål), the Confederation of Norwegian
Enterprise (NHO) stated that the Sustainable Development
Goals are a call for a global “dugnad”, and, among other
things, its aim is to eradicate all extreme poverty and hunger
by 2030. The collective contribution to climate issues
involves different key performance indicators, whereas
everyone should have access to education and everyone
should have access to clean water, health services, and
electricity. What does it really mean to contribute to a
global “dugnad”? The report shows how major international
companies are taking steps towards collective contribution

45
to Sustainable Development. Goals (SDGs). Figures from
the KPMG sustainability survey show that 43 per cent of
international companies have established strategies and
activities for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (NHO,
Lund, 2018, 8).
Collaboration between the private sector and civil society
is essential for acheiving the collective contribution from
different aspects of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The White Paper (St.meld.24, 2016-2017) addresses the
significant role of the private sector in the contribution to
issues relating to the climate. Figures show that nine out
of ten jobs in developing countries are within the private
sector, which contributes the investments, knowledge,
and employment that are needed to create development in
those countries (St.meld.24, 2016-2017,34). The UNDP also
highlighted the importance of recognizing the private sector
as a key partner for achieving the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs):
“It plays an important role as an engine of economic growth
and job creation in developing countries. It provides goods
and services, generates tax revenues to finance essential
social and economic infrastructure, develops new and
innovative solutions that help tackle development challenges
and it is a central actor in addressing climate change”
- UNDP
The private sector not only contributes to financing,
but it also contributes to information and technology.
Numerous enterprises, not least in Norway, increasingly
view sustainability as a prerequisite for profitability in the
long term (St.meld.24, 2016-2017,62). Telenor, Yara, and
DNVGL are just some of these enterprises.Achieving the
Sustainable Development Goals has become the new hot
topic for most private companies by implementing these into
their strategic plan.As the UN General Secretary,António
Guterres stated last year during the Private Sector Forum:
“(...)we count on the private sector to be a driving force to
push governments to assume their responsibilities in this very
important aspect of our commitments”.

46
The need for collaboration from both the private sector and
civil society is essential for being able to leave no one behind
and finding the best solutions to climate related issues. The
role of civil society is the implementation of development
policy and its aim of achieving Sustainable Development
Goals. This has to be a collective effort – a “dugnad” at local,
regional and national levels. The Sustainable Development
Goals will not be achieved without good interaction and
collaboration with the private sector. This applies not least
to finding new solutions and adopting new technology (St.
meld.24, 2016-2017, 34).As the Minister of Investment,
Trade, and Industry of Botswana said:
“We have to find ways in which all the countries can really
come together towards delivering this mandate of sustainable
development using technology”
Multiple reports and speeches from different policymakers
around the world stress the importance of collaboration
between the private sector and civil society. The fundamental
need concerning this cooperation or collective “dugnad” is
to include knowledge within the development cooperation
in order to achieve innovation, renewal, value creation, and
sustainable growth. The World Bank has estimated that there
will be a worldwide need to establish 40 million new jobs
every year over the next 15 years to keep employment rates
stable (St.meld.24, 2016-2017, 35).
The private sector can be seen as the driving force within
the job creation, economic growth, and sustainable
development. To ensure economic growth and sustainable
development, it is critical that all stakeholders collaborate
together. In this report, we have interviewed some self-
employed start-ups working towards the 2030Agenda. Such
initiatives are demanded in the climate debate, including our
way of contributing to the important issues.
When Can You Call It a Contribution?
The whole world has agreed to collaborate on the 2030
Agenda and to find ways of contributing towards the
Sustainable Development Goals. Nevertheless, the biggest
question remains - when can we call it a contribution? The
study regarding what constitutes a contribution to the SDGs

47
and at what stage we can call it a contribution reflects all
levels and stages. We are familiar with the statements that
we have to take action about our future and matters such
as climate change. But what does that really mean? The
collective contribution to climate issues does not only mean
creating a major impact and engagement, it means that we
have to take action. Several international companies and
start-ups have moved towards the new green. The need for
collective contribution includes each and everyone taking
action. Throughout this research, we have interviewed
several stakeholders who, by making small collective
contributions, are solving the Sustainable Development
Goals and the significant climate issues.
We can call it a contribution to the Sustainable Development
Goals when the whole community at local, regional and
national level are collectively taking action. We can identify
it as a contribution when the private sector is collaborating
with civil society. The definition of contribution to the
Sustainable Development Goals is when each and everyone
is aiming for action. Through this report you will seef how
small scale engagement has developed into something
enormous and how the joint battle towards the Sustainable
Development Goals has created a global ”dugnad”.

49
1.
Young People
Demanding Change
In the past year, millions of young people all around the
world have been striking to urge their governments to
take action in the fight against global climate change and
in slashing greenhouse gas emissions. The collective
engagement towards achieving positive change in relation
to climate issues has increased awareness among young
people, policy-makers, companies, and governments.
The high levels of collective engagement have contributed
to renewed enthusiastic interest in the Sustainable
Development Goals, where the value of producing a
collective impact is the new way of taking action. Young
people are demanding change in leadership and their
demands are developing into engagement, which most
certainly converts into action, and not only among young
people.Adults, policymakers and businesses are increasingly
taking action when their children or friends are out in the
street demanding an increased focus on the climate crisis.
You know it is time for change when children act like leaders,
and leaders act like children.

51
“We must change almost everything in our current
societies. The bigger your carbon footprint, the bigger
your moral duty. The bigger your platform, the bigger
your responsibility.Adults keep saying: ‘We owe it to the
young people to give them hope.’ But I don’t want your
hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic.
I want you to feel the fear I feel every day.And then I want
you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want
you to act as if the house is on fire. Because it is.”
-Excerpt from Greta Thunberg’s speech at Davos in
January 2019.
-Excerpt from Greta Thunberg’s speech at Davos, January 2019.
A Young Girl From Sweden
Waves of climate strikes across the world by children and
young people have been widely reported on both in the news
and on social media in recent times. Greta Thunberg, who
was then 15 years old, played a key role in starting this new
wave from Sweden, and was inspired by students from the
Parkland school in Florida walking out in protest against
US gun laws that led to a massacre on their campus (The
Guardian, 11 March 2019). The movement Greta Thunberg
founded refers to how she strikes every Friday to protest the
lack of effective climate legislation.
Recently, students throughout Europe have been regularly
striking on Fridays. The initiative began inAugust 2018
when 15 year old Greta sat in front of the Swedish parliament
to protest the lack of action on the climate crisis.After
posting updates on social media it soon went viral. On
8September she decided to strike every Friday until
Sweden’s policies provided a means of better achieving the
global climate goals that were set (FridaysForFuture, 2019).
Her skolstrejk för klimatet (school strike for the climate)
banner has been translated into many different languages
with a wide range of iterations and interpretations. There
have recently been school strikes around the planet. One can
dismiss this as sensationalist, yet if we look at the previously
mentioned data and the consensus among scientists,
Climate Protests
Around The Planet
by Alex Moltzau

52
criticism of this warning is not valid.
“If you think we should be in school instead then we
suggest that you take our place in the streets striking from
your work, or better yet join us so we can speed up the
process. We have started to clean up your mess, and we
will not stop until we are done.”
-Greta Thunberg, Brüssels (FridaysForFuture, 2019, 21st of February)
On 14 March 2019, Greta Thunberg was nominated for
the Nobel Peace Prize (The Guardian, 14 March 2019) and
on 15 March 2019 a worldwide protest was organized by
FridaysForFuture.According to the campaigners, 1.4 million
young people in 2,233 cities and towns in 128 countries took
part in these protests (The Guardian, 19 March 2019). While
we were writing this report and examining how to increase
youth engagement for the sustainable development goals, we
decided to attend the Oslo protest that was held on 22 March,
and interview some of the young people protesting, and write
down some field notes:
“It is our future.” Is what I read on a poster from a passer-by.
It seems like children and young people have dressed up for
this occasion, and there is a sense of pride. There is laughter
and smiling people. Is it wrong? That is what I think to myself
as I look around. I do not fully know who is here to buy,
protest or for tourism except for the clear indicators in the
form of cardboard signs. I hear talk of absence from school:
“I just left school, that’s what I did.” That is what I hear from
a boy on the way down the escalator. I get the impression
that this is a cool activity, maybe the same ‘coolness’that the
hippie movement may have had, at least that is what goes
through my head, what I imagine it to be like.
As I walk I hear opinions about the number of people who
have met up to protest. Some think it is the maximum, others
think it is too few: “There are 600,000 people in Oslo, so
there could be more people here.” The shopping mall is clean
and I have mud on my shoes from the lawn in front of the
government building. I forgot to drink water so my head is
starting to hurt. It was beautiful in a way to see all the young
children protesting and so confusing to talk to people. There
is a clear ambiguousness about knowing how, but not really
how. No to oil and no to global warming - there is a divide

54
between the accusations and the accused.
I saw shapes of people waving down from the government
building. It is beginning to get colder outside with the
Norwegian weather in March. Towards the middle of the day
most disappear and you can hear a song by Frank Ocean:
“Super rich kids with nothing but loose ends… Searching for
real love.” There is a small half circle of protesters left, and
then they play Justin Bieber. Soon there are no people and no
posters left, only a few freezing youths. I walk down the main
street and see a poster someone has left:
“There’s no planet B.”
- Field notes from Oslo, 22 March, 2019
Viral Spread And New Demands
Both during and after the protest there was a backlash
from the Norwegian government and from individuals in
newspapers claiming that young people should reconsider
their own habits, as well as claiming that the strike should
not be supported by adults in schools (ABC Nyheter, 2019).
Some politicians in Norway campaigned actively on social
media against schools supporting or assisting the strike (VG,
2019). Days before the strike, the Ministry of Education in
Norway had issued a statement that those striking would
not be granted valid absence from school as “political
engagement” (NRK, 2019).On 22 March, approximately
40,000 young people attended the school strike on the
streets of Oslo and other locations around Norway (Pienne,
2019).
I had taken a picture of a protester on 22 March. As I had
walked down Karl Johan (the main street in Oslo), I asked her
to stop and I managed to take a picture of the young teenager
holding a piece of cardboard. That poster read: “You know it’s
time 4 change when children act like leaders and leaders act
like children.” Based on what I knew of the events occurring at
different locations of Europe, I thought it was a fitting statement,
so I later shared it on my social media feed. The next morning as
I woke up on Saturday 23 March, I found out that the picture had
been shared 2,700 times. This had never happened to me before.
Staring at my phone in disbelief I understood that one of my posts
had gone “viral” for the first time and was spreading quickly and

55
widely. During the next few weeks it gained attention and was
shared 41,000 times directly from my Facebook feed and was
shared by a few Norwegian celebrities. It was also widely shared
as a second wave hit before the second strike.
It was shared on Instagram by Greenpeace International (1.9
million followers, liked 106,877 times), @Feminist (2.1 million
followers, liked 119,403 times), and @doutzen (6.1 million
followers, in her story). It seemed to convey the message of
strong leadership among children and failing leadership by the
establishment during a time of protests.
- Fieldnotes from Oslo, 27May, 2019
During March and the subsequent weeks, Extinction
Rebellion had taken to the streets to protest around
the world. They were demanding three things: (1) for
governments to tell the truth; (2) for governments to act
now, and (3) the crisis is an issue that goes beyond politics
(Extinction Rebellion, 2019). During a similar time span,
widespread protests against Brexit in the United Kingdom
took place with organizers claiming that there were millions
out protesting in the streets of London and with an online
petition signed by four million people calling for Brexit to be
cancelled (BBC, 23 March 2019).As previously mentioned,
this contributed to the United Kingdom declaring a climate
crisis.
An opinion poll conducted by IPSOS Mori Social Research
Institute across 11 European countries ahead of the elections
in the European Union showed that large majorities of
potential voters wanted parties to prioritize environmental
issues (European Climate Foundation, 16April 2019l).
The official website of Fridays For Future has categorized
their different strikes as follows:
• Weekly global strikes - several countries are striking
weekly every Friday.
• Big strikes - when one or two countries create
“fireworks”: - on Feb 15 Sweden went big along with the
UK.
• Deep is when many countries synchronize together – 24
May was Deep.

57
Therefore, the next strike we intended to cover was the “
Deep” strike on 24 May. When approaching this next strike,
the massive participation from the previous strike appeared
to set more clear demands from different locations, at least
as reported:
• Australia demanding to end mining and powering the
country with renewable energy.
• TheUK and Ireland declaring a climate crisis and
recommending net-zero emissions by 2050, the same
target backed byAngela Merkel in the European Union.
• Greta had been on the cover of Time magazine.
• A continued push for a Green New Deal in the US (VOX,
2019,24 May).
The Philippines is one of the countries that is most
vulnerable to climate change and has been hit severely by
extreme weather and the survivors of these events were
protesting fossil fuel, coal, and land grabbing. In India, they
protested climate change that would adversely affect them as
one of the most populous countries in the world. Germany
hosted more events in large and small cities than anywhere
else in the world, and campaigners claimed that 320,000
people were out in the streets (Fridays For Future Germany,
2019). Young people in the UK protested while they heard the
news on the morning of 24 May that Prime Minister Theresa
May had resigned (Time,2019, 24 May).
In Nigeria, Kenya and other countries inAfrica there were
protests demanding a fossil fuel freeAfrica that placed
justice for citizens ahead of profits.A letter calling for a
national ban on fracking was brought forth in SouthAfrica.
In Senegal there were thousands calling for an end to a coal
plant (#AfricaVuka, 2019). In New Zealand, young people
stormed the steps of the parliament. In EastAsia they
marched to their government ministries. In Canada, they told
the government to invest in climate solutions not pipelines.
There was a “die-in” protest in New York’s Times square. In
LatinAmerica the sheer numbers of protesters were enough
to cause major disruptions (350, 2019). In Norway, the
climate protests were focused on saying no to any further oil
licenses, increasing the development budget, and decreasing
emissions by 65%. We joined the protests in the pouring
rain:

58
I did not expect to see many people here, but I was wrong.
The rain is pouring down and there are raincoats in a variety
of colours, enough to make a rainbow. There is a cheerful
mood again, like a festival, and in a way it is. More party
tents have popped up this time, one where you can make your
own cardboard protest sign. Umbrellas are dotted around,
but most people just stand there in the rain getting drenched,
however they don’t seem to care. Last time I took a picture of
a girl holding a cardboard sign that read: “You know it’s time
4 change when children act like leaders and leaders act like
children.” I had managed to find the girl holding the poster
through one of her comments on Instagram. I sent her a
message on Instagram and then got the email to her parents.
They both gave their consent for me to interview her, so I was
ready to talk to her for an interview. It is strange to consider
the reach of the message she created and that has engaged so
much around the world. As I interview other protesters and
after three hours in the rain the cold was starting to creep
in. I interviewed some leaders and members from different
organizations as well as some bystanders.
This protest Erna Solberg, the prime minister of Norway came
out to speak, but she was quickly met by shouts of: “What
does Erna do? Nothing!” It is being repeated by the crowd,
and the speaker at the stage is trying to calm everyone down.
Despite the low temperature you could somehow feel the
anger and frustration from the crowd in the crying or mad
faces of children, youth and adults present. Later I heard talk
of ‘protest shaming’over social media, by others not there.
Classmates were snapchatting burgers or calling them out on
social media in negative tonality, harassing those protesting.
On the opposite end as such there seems to be a sense of pride
not to be an activist. Something that is felt by those present
outside protesting, as well as reflected in the news – calling
out children as protesting yet with their unsustainable habits.
“There’s almost nobody that says they don’t care... But I
don’t feel like my parents do enough. They say they care, but
they always choose easier or cheaper.” A teenager said as
I passed by. After most of the day in the cold the crowd was
thinning out and I found leaders of different organisations or
organizers of the strike. People were shivering and jumping
to keep warm. At some point a band on stage, catching the

59
vibe, told them all to jump for the climate. There were a few
musicians that played rock and folk. Although the event was
planned to five it thinned out and ended towards quarter
past four in the afternoon. I remember overhearing several
conversations during the day from the young children
discussing climate and politics that I wish I had written down.
The cold rain was slowly ending, and I felt so cold, checking
Instagram to see the protests in Stockholm posted by Greta
Thunberg. I kept worrying about the questions I asked that
day, whether they were the right ones. Yet questions were
leading to new questions, and after the protest I did not feel
relieved. Perhaps because I was cold to the bone, or due to
the feeling of the crowd – of not being heard. That feeling
was contagious, particularly after all the political talks I had
heard that day.
I had started my day at the morning event at the Urban
Future Conference organized by UN-Habitat Norway. There
the mayor of Oslo had talked about giving children hope. As
much as I respect our mayor it was the narrative of hope that
Greta Thunberg was protesting, and she voiced that opinion
at Davos. So, how can the leaders of a city show they are
listening and taking action?
It was as if they had learned little or next to nothing from
the last protest, and it was felt by the crowd that they had
done nothing. Yes the crowd was filled with joy in the
morning, yet that quickly transitioned to sadness, anger and
disappointment. We do want our leaders and our elected
officials to listen, yet it is hard to tell if they do. Because they
ignore or fail to discuss issues that are important to many
children and youth protesting – attempting to include, yet
somehow ending up eluding or avoiding the issues at hand
instead.
When you have ignored or misunderstood someone it is
harder to win back their trust.
- Fieldnotes from Oslo the 24th of May, 2019

60
The Green Surge
According to numbers on the website of Fridays for Future
there seemed to be a decline during May the 24th. However
the movement can be said to have contributed to the change
in the European Union and the ‘Green surge’ leading to
69 out of the 751-seat legislature, yet on the other hand
right-wing parties advanced (Financial Times, 2019, 28th of
May). The population of Oslo Municipality is 685,080 (Oslo
Kommune, 2016). If we estimate 20,000-40,000 of the local
population took place in a non-violent strike that is 2,9-5,8%
of the population in the municipality.
It has been argued heavily for the success of nonviolent
campaigns as opposed to violent campaigns, they recruit
more participants and tend to be larger (Chenoweth &
Stephan, 2011). Sian Lazar who has studied protests for some
time says there can be a sense of history being created, as a
moment that will become the historical event is an important
part of protests or the embodied experience of acting on the
urban environment. The political being-in-the-world of what
creates them as activists (Lazar, 2017). It is hard to predict
the development, yet seeing as the adverse effects of climate
will continue to worsen it is hard to to believe it will recede.
Activists have set their sights on an even bigger global strike
on the 20th of September and will take place during the
United Nations GeneralAssembly, where Secretary General
António Guterres will be convening an international climate
summit. “There are many different plans under way in
different parts of the world for adults to join together and step
up and out of your comfort zone for our climate… This is
about crossing lines — it’s about rebelling wherever one can
rebel.” (The Guardian, 2019, 23rd of May).

62
What can a small girl holding a piece of cardboard
change? Intuitively we could perhaps say “not much”,
yet recent events can lead us to re-evaluate this
sentiment. Greta Thunberg and her cardboard sign
saying ‘skolstrejkför klimatet’ (school strike for climate)
is a message that, through its persistence, has managed
to reach large parts of the world. Influence works in
mysterious ways.As mentioned, by chance we happened
to share a picture of another girl in Oslo holding a poster
that went on quite a digital journey.
Reaching millions
It was coincidentally shared and seen by at least a few
hundred million people according to perhaps exaggerated
social media estimates of average views per share. 41,000
shares on Facebook with 338 friends on average could mean
a potential reach of 14,196,000 views. The average user
count on Instagram is 150 (Statista, 2015) which, in turn,
means: 1,7M followers = 255,000,000 views, 2,1M followers=
350,000,000 views, and 6,100,000 views (due to its inclusion
in story).
However, numbers are not very important on this scale,
and they might not give a correct representation since
the extent of how it was shared is unknown. It seems we
keep discovering different places where it has been shared
Although we did not expect to find the person holding the
poster, we did in fact manage to do so. We asked her to do an
interview, and she said yes. However, since she is a teenager
we asked her parents for permission to do an interview,
and thankfully they also said yes. The following are her
thoughts about going viral and a few things she wants to
change. We felt it was valuable to share these thoughts and
this small series of events, because it was fitting to the topic
of engagement – reaching the world and then talking about
change on a small scale here in Oslo.
Digital engagement
among young people
by Alex Moltzau

65
Julie discovers that
she went ’viral’

66
On school striking and going viral
Julie Rekstad is 14 years of age and lives in Oslo. This is a
conversation we had about her cardboard sign going viral,
thoughts she has had between the strikes, and reflections
on possible actions that can be taken by the government
or herself in response to the events that have taken place.
Alex: I took a picture of you at the climate protest on 15
March and now the picture has been shared across the world.
What did you think about when you wrote the message, and
how did you come upon it?
Julie: I knew I wanted to create a poster, and I had seen
many special posters around. I did not want any poster which
said ‘save the planet’, so I searched for different options.
I believe it was the Instagram story of the school strike in
Norway that posted suggestions on what you could write. I
found a lot of protest posters and sent one to my friend. I
asked her which one I should pick and ended up with this
one. I did not have a lot of time to decide, I had come back
home the day before the strike and thought: “Should I really
do it?” Then I woke up early the next morning to make the
poster and I am rather happy I did so.
Alex: What motivated you to join the School Strike for
Climate?
Julie: To be honest, our teacher was quite sceptical about
the strike, even though he is very concerned about the
climate. His opinion was that students were doing it just to
skip school. Then I did not think too much about it, but I
got to hear about Greta Thunberg, and I thought what she
was doing was really cool. However I did not actually know
what the school strike was about, and whether it was people
in political parties, youth parties or what it was. Then my
dad suggested to me that I should watch a debate a week
prior to the protest. The grownup politicians were saying:
“You should not fly and therefore you destroy just as much
as we do.”All these sort of things, and I remember one of
the women debating against that man said something really
good in response about the strike. So that changed my mind
and I wanted to join the strike. Because sometimes it is
easy to get overwhelmed with all the awful things that are

68
happening around our planet. It makes me think that I am
sitting here and I am not part of anything, I am not doing
anything. Now I had the opportunity to take part and protest,
so I sent a friend a message to ask if she wanted to join me.
Alex: How was it to be there on 15 March?
Julie: Well, at first I was surprised by how many had turned
up. I was surprised to see the number of people, such
an extreme number, showing up. I was overcome by the
number that had turned out and when we went through the
mass of people, there was almost nowhere to stand. Yet it
was so cool because children and young people of all ages
were carrying cardboard posters. It was not only the youth
politicians or the activists, it was all of us. It really shows how
many that care. There were small children that had joined
their parents, people who were almost grown-ups, a lot of
different people that seemed interested. So I stood there for
a while, but then I had to get out of the crowd and people
started taking pictures of my poster. Well, there was another
thing that I found special – the grandparents for the climate,
our children our future. I thought that was really nice and it
made me really happy. I meet way too many old people who
say: “I will not live in the future, so I do not need to care.”
Then on that day old people showed that they cared. Because
sometimes adults make you lose hope for the future, and this
was different.
Alex: Which things have you thought about since then? Is
there anything that goes through your mind?
Julie: Yes the first thing I thought is that it is something I
want to do again. There were so many people there and I
hoped it would happen again, and luckily it did. When I saw
that everyone I knew had posted pictures from the strike I got
the feeling that people care, but then I completely forgot my
cardboard poster until friends started tagging me in different
posts asking if that was my poster.
Alex: What was it like when you noticed that your cardboard
sign had gone viral?
Julie:Yes, the first time I saw it was on Instagram. It was not
on a very big account, but I was pretty happy that people had

70
shared it. Then I told my parents, and my dad said he had
seen it on Twitter and re-tweeted it – although he did not
know it was mine. Then i felt that more people had seen it:
“Oh, people have seen my message!”And it made me happy.
Alex: Yes, I thought it was a message that resonated with
many. Several events were happening at the same time.
Protests against climate and political protests at the same
time.
Julie: Yes, it is not really a climate message, but it tells
leaders to sober up in many ways.
Alex: I do not think this has happened to the same extent
or scale. Not that I know of. I do not know that a protest
initiated by so many children and young people all over the
world simultaneously has ever before occurred in the history
of humanity. Some could call it a historical moment, yet what
expectations do you have for the future?
Julie: That things work out, that is what I hope. Even though
as more time passes it becomes less likely, yet I want it to
be fixed in a way. Because yes we cannot just… We must not
let the planet die, it is frightening to consider. So I hope as
these protests happen more often we will be able to influence
important leaders, and I hope our leaders take responsibility.
Even if not everybody does, someone in some country will
decide to do something that influences other countries.
Alex: Your message has had some influence across the world,
but what responsibility do you want to take going forward?
Julie: Yes, I often get sad that I do not take action. In the time
since, I have read a lot about fast-fashion. I knew that it was
an issue, but at the same time I am interested in clothes.
So I thought: “Yes, I will buy fewer clothes.” I feel I am old
enough now to take proper responsibility for as much as I
can. It is hard to approach my parents and say: “Now we will
get solar panels and become vegan.” So for now I will buy
used clothes, and control whichever action I can take in my
given situation.
Alex: In terms of climate engagement for the city, how
do you think young people could be included in the
development of a better city?

71
Julie: I have an elective at my school called: “Make an effort
for others.” Right now we are talking about solutions for the
climate. What can students do, what can teachers do, and
what can the school do. Then we started talking at our school
about how we should have an elective about the climate next
year.An elective where you learn about climate-friendly
solutions, environmentally friendly food, and doing things
differently. That it either becomes an elective, part of another
subject and that we learn more about caring for nature so
that we are influenced to take less harmful actions that
pollute nature. Yes, that is what I was thinking about, that we
need more information in the schools. In that way those who
do not care a lot may realise that they do care. If this climate-
thing is just a removed event you watch on the television, but
not something that you take part in – it will be much harder to
do something. If you are surrounded by it all the time, learn
about it in school and see how others are adversely affected,
it may help. That is why I think social media is cool, because
you can see how people all over the world experience climate
change. Because for other countries it is far worse with
floods for those countries at lower elevations. If we learn
more about it in school I believe that more people will
engage with these issues.
- I found her!

73
The day before the climate protests in Norway that
attracted 40,000 children and young people to protest
out in the streets, the Norwegian Government decided to
invite young people to a “youth climate top meeting” or
a youth conference of the parties (Aftenposten, 14 March
2019). This was to discuss solutions and hear suggestions
from young people. The date for the meeting was set for
30April and an agenda was posted four days prior on the
government website (Regjeringen, 26April). We would
have liked to have been present at this meeting to follow
up on youth climate engagement , however we did not see
any news about the inclusive workshop nor did we see it
posted anywhere online before it was held.
Two hours in Oslo
The climate top meeting lasted for two hours. It started
with an introduction from the Minister for Climate and
the Environment, followed by a 70 minute roundtable on a
variety of topics, and then concluded with a summary by
the Minister for Knowledge and Integration. There was an
opportunity to interview selected politicians and young
people after the meeting. To the best of our knowledge,
the children and young people did not define the topics,
and discussions proposed by members of the school strike
were not included in the discussion. Loosely translated into
English, the topics at the workshop, were as follows:
• Low-carbon society: what does the future low-carbon
society look like?
• Green transition: what challenges and opportunities are
there in the transition to a more sustainable society?
• The future of work: how do we get more people interested
in researching new technological solutions to the climate
challenges?
• My local environment: what can you do in your local
environment to cut emissions?And what do you want to
do yourself to contribute to less emissions?
• Democracy and participation: how can children and
young people have better opportunities to influence the
future climate policies?
The Youth Climate
Top Meeting in Oslo
by Alex Moltzau

74
• Knowledge and education: how can the school provide
more encouragement regarding climate and sustainable
development?
It is currently unknown as to what the results from the
meeting were or how they will bring this engagement
forward. We sent an email and called the communication
department for the Ministry of Climate and the Environment
and asked for (1) the results, (2) who proposed the questions
and (3) who took the initiative. The respective answers
were: “Had to check”, “Not sure”, and “It was initiated by
the politicians”. The only summary we could find from the
government repeated the event outline with two positive
comments: one positive comment from a student and
one positive comment from the Minister for Climate and
Environment (Regjeringen, 30April 2019).
The most extensive coverage we could find was from a
young journalist who was present at the meeting. Her overall
impression was that the young people were disappointed
and embarrassed and felt it was hypocritical (Filter Nyheter,
7 May 2019). However, her depiction of the event deserves
some space. Here we may be able to answer a few questions
which the ministry was unable to answer:
For the round-table topic discussions there were note-takers
at each table. These were supposed to gather all the feedback
and compile it into one document. However it appears the
notetakers were the politicians and were selectively able to
choose which aspects they wanted to take into consideration.
“Halleland received a comment: higher prices in the toll ring
for cars and less parking spots, as an example. One young
person noticed that this was a good way for their parents
to choose to take public transportation to the city instead.
Halleland did not take
notes.” (Filter Nyheter, 7 May 2019).
As such, if notes are taken and compiled by policy-makers,
“selective hearing” appears to be a practice. The article
describes the anger and frustration when some young
people at one table were blamed for the climate issues
by the politician. It also describes how the Norwegian
oil and gas lobby organisation’s argument was used
enthusiastically by the Norwegian Minister of the Climate
and Environment Minister. Before the protest on 14 March,

75
a series of authors and scientists signed a declaration in
support of the protesting young people (Morgenbladet, 14
May 2019). Later on the date of the second deep strike on 24
May, one of the signatories of this agreement commented
on the development. His sentiment in the article he wrote
at the time was not a direct comment on the youth climate
top meeting, however it accurately describes the situation
through a metaphor:
“If you raise yourvoice on behalf of the climate today
it is a bit like the experience of hitting cottonwool.
You do not meet any resistance, but you leave no
imprint.”
– Dag O. Hessen, Professor of Biology at the University of
Oslo (Morgenbladet, 24 May 2019)
While this may be unfair, let us approach this from
principles we mentioned earlier from the Norwegian
Children and Youth Council: (1) independence, (2)
representation, (3) expertise, (4) sufficient information,
and (5) continuity. Let us rank these according to low,
medium and high depending on how they comply with the
outline presented by LNU. It is problematic that there are
no set sub criteria for this, however we can still attempt to
approach an outline as if we were grading a term paper for a
friend.As such, we could follow up with some constructive
suggestions.
Let us start with the first principle, independence – that
young people should choose what to engage in and that the
government does not decide. How far does this go? If young
people are unable to define the agenda or topics from which
they participate nor help determine the outcome, using this
standard we could argue that this had a very low degree of
independence.A medium degree could be permitting young
people to decide on the topics discussed and a high degree
could be to let youth representatives help shape the event
itself.
The second principle is representation, and children
and young people were not represented on stage nor were
any reasons given for the those selected other than them
being in the requisite age group. The argument was that
leaders of different school councils and those engaged in
political parties would be a good choice. There are national
organisations that were not represented and some actively

76
choose not to be present. It seems unreasonable that there
was no livestream or no digital participation after 40,000
young people protested. Since an attempt was actually
made, perhaps we can accept that there was a low to
medium degree of representation.A medium degree could
be taking into consideration national youth organisations
and permitting young people to speak on stage.A high
degree would be explaining the representation and inviting
others to influence or challenge the selection of groups
represented.
The third principle is expertise and young people were not
recognized as subject area experts. The politicians at the
different tables were the experts overseeing the different
discussions. Yes, the politicians were listening, but they were
not necessarily discussing the matters with young people
on equal terms.Again, the only speakers lined up for this
event were politicians, and the notetakers were politicians
etc. Several of the topics pushed responsibility back onto
young people rather than recognizing expertise or building
expertise. There are several subject area experts in the
relevant age group that could have been brought in.As such,
the event cannot be said to be seen as recognition of this
and therefore has a medium degree of recognition of youth
expertise. To achieve a high degree, certain young people
could be hosting the table discussions about the different
topics.
Fourth, insufficient information was provided in advance.
The event was not well-reported either before or after the
event (based on our semi-structured interviews at protests
on 15March and 24 May).At best, it was seen as a hopeful
or feeble attempt at stopping or neutralizing the protests
and at worst it was seen as a disaster. There does not appear
to have been any information shared on any of the topics
discussed beforehand, and it was an open discussion without
any underlying information to discuss. Nor was it specific in
terms of policy, but rather avoided the information provided
and communicated by the protesters. No comprehensive
information was shared after the event, and we could argue
this has a low degree of information sharing. Medium degree
could be to share what came out of the meeting and high
degree could be to create a basic summary that could be
interactive or open for comments, perhaps even facilitated
discussions.

78
Presenting a positive message about how great the
event was is not necessarily informative in itself
(Kunnskapsdepartementet Facebook, 2 May 2019).
Fifth, continuity was not apparent. There was mention of
climate meetings scheduled to occur in different cities,
however there was no clear statement of what these meetings
would lead to other than brief comments by politicians on
a few topics.After the event, there was no clear means of
understanding what had resulted from the discussions;
no minutes, no talks etc. What is the plan for continued
focus on the climate crisis unfolding, and how is this being
addressed by those who were present on the given day?
Continued engagement with young people who are interested
in these issues and protesting was also uncertain. Due to
this, let us argue for a low-medium degree of continuity
due to the claims of there being climate meetings in several
locations, as well as documents promised. Yet when young
people are protesting a climate crisis we could ponder
whether a medium-high degree of continuity would be to
collaborate.
On the one hand, we may ask if we are expecting too much
of politicians regarding participatory planning with young
people. On the other hand, after seeing young people from
around Norway and the world being passionate about this
issue, we may allow ourselves to have higher expectations for
this participatory process. When we spoke to young people
about the meeting at the next protest they had either not
heard of it or did not believe in the process that had been
instigated. Here are a few examples:
“We have made the decision not to participate in the
youth climate top meetings as the youth organisation
we are becausewe see it does not lead to real action,
andwe are an organisationwith other organisations
thatworkwith policy development and disseminating
information.As suchwe have decided it is important
to undertake other activities than going to another
meeting that results in nothing. Our time isvaluable,
and sometimes it feels like the politicians do not
understand this.”
- Hege Skarrud (28) leader for Spire, working for a just and
sustainable distribution of the world’s resources, interviewed
at the school strike on the 24th of May.

79
“I think it is unfortunate how they were completely open
without any way of ensuring stakeholder commitment
to participation. There was a sort of first come first
served principle – not listening fully to the organised
voices, rather voices that talk for themselves, because
that is somewhat contrary to what you otherwise do in a
democracy. I think it is admirable that the government
wants to listen to young people, and they should do
it more often, however it has to happen on the young
people’s own terms. When one of the topics discussed is
how young people can effect change themselves at a local
level, it seems you have not fully understood the issue at
hand. Therefore, I believe a climate meeting should not
be to push the problem back at young people, it must
be to actually listen, and listening does not mean 100%
implementation and decisions by young people. That
is also not democratic. Yet you cannot simply write-off
suggestions that are made by young people as cute and
engaging. You have to be able to answer clearly: yes we
will pursue this or yes we will not pursue this.”
- Rode Hegstad (26) President of the Norwegian Children and
Youth Council, interviewed at the school strike on the 24th of
May.
We have to get youth involvement right when it comes to
addressing the sustainable development goals. Good or
bad intentions? Hard to say, but did it work? Hard to say.
There were positive comments that were presented by the
government and their attempt to involve young people is
to be commended, but involvement could be viewed as
inherently flawed when the government falls in-between
expectations. Is it a show or participation? We need to give
more meaning to these processes than this, which can be
presented or summarised in a reductive manner:
1. Important person talks.
2. Possibly panel debate with selected members.
3. Discussion by tables, one politician each (selectively written
notes by policy makers).
4. Summary on stage by important person who moved tables or
has a key role.
5. Unknown what was said and suggested at different tables.
6. Unknown what results or when an update will be given.
7. Unknown what possible course of action has been brought
forward.
Further roaring frustration may result from a lack of involvement.

80
Klimabrølet – Climate Roar
Friday 30 August
Children, young people, adults,
senior citizens, companies and
organisations have made their
voice heard. The movement that has
grown from historic children and
youth engagement has now moved
citizens across Norway to demand
climate action.

81
The people,
both youth
and adults
are roaring
together for
climate action.

83
2. Stories from young
people who create
Greta Thunberg says that the house is on fire, but if so where
are the firefighters? Yes, they are protesting on the streets
and asking for action, however young people certainly also
have the capacity to take action in different venues of society.
In fact, young people are already taking action in a myriad
of ways all over the world. We need to bring people together,
inform them about challenges and make new solutions
together that can address this climate crisis. Young people
are fighting the fire. This is something we are certain of and,
empirically ,we have seen it in our network and by reading
stories from 178+ countries in the shape of applications to
our program aimed at creating solutions through sustainable
entrepreneurship. We see pictures and have discussions
every week on a community with more than 10,000 young
people online, from more than a hundred countries. Changes
have been documented, communicated, discussed and felt
by community members these past three years.
We are generally optimists and enjoy the change towards
what we call earthpreneurship, i.e. making sustainability
business the norm. However it can be argued whether we
are acting as if the house is on fire. What would that sense of
panic even look like? Because there is no doubt we do need
actual change in policies, business and how we work with
young people. Indeed we will have to re-evaluate our very
notions of participation in these issues. So let us say we act,
both by exploring how issues are tackled and looking at their
work towards specific solutions. This can be difficult while
reading a report, so let us talk about urgency in the shape of
a few stories.
The following pages will present five stories of individuals
with different backgrounds, which range from addressing
the future of cities within one of the most densely populated
urban environments in the world to leaving the education
system to create a clean-water machine for someone on the
other side of the planet and starting projects within a war
zone. These are young people who have made a personal
commitment and used vigorous engagement to embark on
the journey towards creating something that can address the
problems we are facing. The stories presented are excerpts
from full interviews we conducted from early 2019.

The Cleanup Generation: Youth Participation in A Climate Crisis

The Cleanup Generation: Youth Participation in A Climate Crisis

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