Bajan youth trail regional peers in green economy awareness

Despite Barbados’ strong focus on climate resilience, a new study has found that the island’s youth lag behind their regional counterparts in awareness of green and circular economy activities.

The findings emerged from a UNICEF-commissioned Climate Change and Resilience study examining youth engagement in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica and St Lucia. 

Released on World Environment Day during the presentation of findings under the topic, ‘Young People’s Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices on Climate Change and Green and Circular Economies in the Eastern Caribbean’, the research is intended to help shape climate programmes that better include young people.

While Barbados has invested heavily in climate resilience initiatives at both the government and community levels, researchers found a disconnect between those efforts and young people’s awareness of green and circular economy opportunities.

“It does not mean that we are not connecting these climate-friendly investments in the right vehicles and the right avenues; it may very well mean, in terms of how we package the information on how young people can access these green activities and circular activities,” explained Professor Dwayne Devonish, the study’s lead researcher.

Speaking to reporters following the presentation of the findings at UN House, Professor Devonish said the issue appears to be less about a lack of interest among young people and more about how climate-related information is communicated.

“Some of the young people that we surveyed, and we actually conducted the interview, said that we understood what Barbados was doing. They understood what the government is doing when it comes to these climate-ready investments, but we want the language to be broken down in a way that we young people can access and can understand.”

He said discussions with focus groups revealed that young people want greater exposure to information about the green economy, including careers, paid internships and training opportunities.

“Within the educational system, they would like to see differences in approaches, like, for example, including material on what green economy and activities and circular economy activities are all about, how exactly young people can access these as careers, as internships, as training programmes.” 

“I think what young people are saying is that they want these particular types of investments to be operationalised in a way that they can access, that they can understand.”

Professor Devonish suggested that Dominica’s stronger performance may be linked not only to its greater exposure to climate-related disasters, but also to the government’s response.

“It’s not necessarily the impacts are differentiated, in the sense that Dominica had greater exposure to natural disasters, so it would naturally follow that young people will be more intimately engaged relative to Barbadians. It is also how Dominica’s government is responding because think about it, by virtue of being more exposed, the government now is a little bit more aggressive and a little bit more consistent in terms of the types of programmes that they’re adopting.”

He acknowledged that while there are a lot of climate investments and technology there is less buy-in due to a disconnect in youth involvement.

“Typically, you will see experts, subject matter, specialists carrying out these particular projects, but you’re not seeing that kind of cascading effect or domino effect down to the young person. So I think that’s where we have to make that bridge between investment and of course, young people’s engagement and interests.”

The frequency and consistency of such programmes have helped generate greater engagement across society, including among young people, he said.

UNICEF social and behaviour change specialist Dr Lisa McClean-Trotman said the agency plans to support governments in developing social and behaviour change strategies in response to the findings:

“This strategy, of course, as the study said, it has to go beyond awareness. It has to go towards what the structural barriers are that need to be addressed if you want to ensure that young people become involved in climate action and climate behaviours. In addition to that, we’re hoping to be able to support governments to move forward in terms of what practically they can do.”

Dr McClean-Trotman acknowledged that the findings for Barbados were somewhat surprising, but cautioned against interpreting them as a sign that young people are disengaged.

“It might not be that Barbadian young people are not aware, are not interested. It might be how we may use the word green economy, but they may understand recycling, and we may use the word circular economy, but they may understand it as something else. So I think it’s a matter of how we have been selling climate change, how we have been selling these particular concepts.”

She added: “I think that we need to use terms that young people understand, use the examples they understand. You find this could be perceived as a little surprising, yet not surprising because I think that young people in Barbados are engaging and they are conscious of some of the issues.”

While Barbados has done a good job raising awareness about climate issues, the findings suggest there is a need to adjust how those messages are delivered to younger audiences, Dr McClean-Trotman said. 

“We need to pivot a little to make certain that we use language that young people understand, terms and concepts that they can relate to, and that they understand.”

(LG)