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The Guardian
26-06-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Youth need new skills and support to fight the climate crisis
Young people are most at risk from climate change and eager to respond. But they need the right skills and support to shape a sustainable future Younger generations want careers to match their values. In fact, 53% of people aged 16 to 24 say they are keen to work in jobs that help the environment. That's more than 600m people stepping up to shape a sustainable tomorrow. The insight comes from Capgemini's recent report, Youth perspectives on climate: preparing for a sustainable future, co-developed with Unicef's Generation Unlimited. It is based on a comprehensive survey of 5,100 youth across 21 countries, spanning global regions and various socioeconomic backgrounds. Optimistic and eager to get involved, this generation represents a force for decisive action. However, there's a gap between motivation and ability. While the majority of youths believe that green skills are essential and will lead to career opportunities, most of them feel ill-equipped to lead the sustainable transition. Seeking future-ready skills Although knowledgeable in some areas, younger generations are less confident in disciplines such as climate technologies, data analysis and sustainable design. Only 44% feel equipped with the skills needed to thrive in a green workforce. And there is an unequal access to resources and opportunities across the global north and global south. This inequity and lack of skill-building is holding us all back. This survey also revealed that young people are increasingly worried about the future of our planet. Back in 2023, 57% of them reported 'eco-anxiety' – one year later, this number jumped to 67%. Yet, despite this anxiety, almost three-quarters believe there is still time to address climate change. Advancing education on sustainability As young people prepare to step up and help to shape a sustainable tomorrow, businesses and governments need to support them from early on through robust education. Existing education initiatives on sustainability can be democratised and deepened. Integrating sustainability into core educational curriculums as a formal subject can ensure a unified approach and support educators in strengthening their own ability to teach key skills. Investing in this kind of teacher training is particularly important in local programmes and underserved communities. Brazil is leading in sustainability education – in 2024, their National Environment Education Policy officially recognised climate change and biodiversity protection as formal subjects. Brazil aims to have fully implemented a nation-wide climate curriculum by the end of 2025. Education can extend beyond the classroom and into the workforce. In 2022, Capgemini launched its Sustainability Campus to facilitate learning and development in this vital area. Accessible to all 340,000 employees, the programme offers specialised training for key roles, as well as industry-specific training modules and deep-dives on crucial topics. Since September 2024, the Global Awareness Module, the introductory course, has been made mandatory for all Capgemini employees. Opening avenues to green employment Policymakers can also pair national climate goals with robust youth employment strategies. Different types of work-based pathways exist, from training to employment – such as green entrepreneurship, youth-led sustainability projects, apprenticeships and volunteerism. Beyond simply offering these options, policymakers can further incentivise them, enabling youth to align their values with their economic needs. Initiatives such as Green Rising are leading the way in sustainability innovation for young people. This global movement helps young people take grassroots action to build a clean and healthy environment through volunteerism, advocacy, skills, jobs and entrepreneurship. It's led by Unicef Generation Unlimited and supported by public-private youth partners, of which we're proud to have been among the first. Capgemini CEO Aiman Ezzat even joined the board of Generation Unlimited in 2024. Engaging young people in decision-making If young people feel business and political leaders are not taking enough action on the climate crisis, they may disengage altogether. By intentionally and meaningfully including young people in decision-making, leaders are better positioned to gain their trust. With their trust comes young people's drive, fresh ideas and action. Options could include formally embedding young people in climate policymaking and corporate strategy development through youth councils and structured feedback mechanisms. Solidarity across generations Sarika Naik. Photograph: PR Today's young people are taking action for their future in the shadow of climate change. All generations share the responsibility to support them – let's step up to the plate together, and build a future where young people are empowered to drive a better future. This content is paid for and supplied by the advertiser. Find out more with our
South China Morning Post
09-06-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Why democracy vs autocracy isn't the definitive contest shaping the world
What is the fundamental contradiction shaping our world today? Some might say it's the dichotomy between democracy and autocracy – a staple of former US president Joe Biden's world view. However, that perspective seems outdated. Biden's successor, Donald Trump, is well known for being transactional. Last month he said Washington would lift sanctions on Syria, although the country's new government hasn't put it on the path to democracy. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has pitched a slew of positive perks, including a Trump Tower in Damascus. Also, Trump's eagerness for the US to accept the gift of a luxury Boeing 747-8 from Qatar, hardly a bastion of democracy, for use as Air Force One has raised questions about what is expected in return. Meanwhile, the United States' squeeze on academic freedoms – as evidenced by threats to revoke visas for Chinese students and international students harbouring divergent views – speaks volumes of a dystopian new normal. One would think democratic norms should encompass the embracing of pluralism and difference. An alternative reading would suggest that our times are marked by a struggle between the Global North – comprising more advanced and affluent economies – and the Global South
The Guardian
21-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
It's time to stop the great food heist powered by big business. That means taxation, regulation and healthy school meals
Our food system is killing us. Designed in a different century for a different purpose – to mass produce cheap calories to prevent famine – it is now a source of jeopardy, destroying more than it creates. A quarter of all adult deaths globally – more than 12 million every year – are due to poor diets. Malnutrition in all its forms – undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight and obesity – is by far the biggest cause of ill-health, affecting one in three people on the planet. Ultra-processed foods are implicated in as many as one in seven premature deaths in some countries. Every country is affected by malnutrition but it is the poorest, most marginalised people who are most likely to become malnourished, get sick and die too soon. Our food system is also sickening our planet – generating a third of all greenhouse gas emissions and driving a raft of environmental harms. As economies grow, countries move from rural, low-productivity agricultural systems – focused on staples – to more diversified systems, including legumes and nutrient-rich foods, and on to commercialised systems, inundated with ultra-processed foods. The global north started to move through this dietary transition in the middle of the last century – about three generations ago. Many countries in Latin America and Asia have made the same journey in just one generation and Africa is now becoming more obese as it switches to ultra-processed foods. The global food system has been captured by a few rapacious transnational companies that profit from public ill-health while using an array of tactics to stop governments getting in their way. When viewed through the prism of power, this is more like a heist than a dietary transition. We need to transform the system into one in which the health of people and planet is prioritised above the relentless drive for profit. It is too late for incremental change and yet more tweaking at the margins – we need a radical overhaul. Everyone has a role in turning things around but we need governments to lead, to set the rules and to govern. First, governments must have budgets to procure healthy foods (and limit ultra-processed foods) for schools, government agencies, hospitals and clinics. In Kenya, Food4Education has delivered more than 21m nutritious hot meals to schoolchildren. Tens of thousands of young children are fed well every day, keeping them in school and able to learn. The Kenyan government is working with the charity to scale its operations up to cover all schools by the end of the decade. In Brazil, the government funds healthy meals for millions of pupils in public schools, a third of which have to be bought from local farmers who practise organic, low-carbon farming. Momentum is building. School-meal plans now operate in nearly every country, reaching more than 400 million children at a cost of about $48bn a year, and 108 countries have come together in a global School Meals Coalition. Second, governments have the power to regulate advertising, labelling and marketing of unhealthy ultra-processed foods. For Guido Girardi, a senator in Chile, it was simple: children's right to food and health was being violated by the predatory marketing of ultra-processed foods. From 2006 to 2022, Girardi struggled against the food industry and fellow politicians to bring in regulation. But Chile now leads the world in terms of a comprehensive package of measures that include front-of-pack labels, restrictions on media marketing to children, 18% taxes on sugary drinks and a ban on the sale and marketing of junk food in schools. A 2018 New York Times headline proclaimed the slaying of Tony the Tiger as cartoon characters were taken off cereal packs in Chile. Within a year, driven by these new laws, children's exposure to ads had dropped by 73%. Within three years, consumption of calories, salt and sugar from regulated products across the country had fallen by a third. Front-of-pack nutrition labels are now on products in Peru, Israel, Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil and Colombia, with others in the pipeline in Africa and Asia. The third action required concerns taxes and subsidies. Governments can disincentivise buying unhealthy foods (through taxing harmful products) while earmarking tax dividends to incentivise healthier food purchases, such as subsidies for low-income families. In Mexico, the idea of introducing a tax on sugary drinks had been debated for several years in the 2010s, after the public health catastrophe of the presidency of Vicente Fox, a former chief executive of Coca-Cola in Latin America. In a classic case of the revolving door between public office and the private sector, Fox had brought in his Coca-Cola pals to run key departments in 2000. Coca-Cola's sales went into overdrive after bottling concessions were tripled and water was sucked out of aquifers. By 2006, one in six adults in Mexico had diabetes, with 40,000 deaths a year attributed to over-consumption of soft drinks. Despite strong pushback from the drinks industry, in 2014 a new government launched the world's first tax on sugary drinks. Two years later, sales of these drinks were down 12%, while water sales went up by a similar percentage. The biggest benefit was seen in the poorest households. Taxes work. More than 120 countries covering more than half the world's population have started implementing them. It is a huge global success story that is now being extended beyond sugary drinks. Colombia was the first country in Latin America to introduce a tax on ultra-processed products, in November 2023. These interventions work, and when they are joined up in a comprehensive national policy, supported by multiple government departments, they can be transformative. Our global food system is not nourishing us. The good news is we now know why, and we know enough to turn things around. We need to harness the growing body of evidence and experience from around the world to propel us forward into a better food future – one with people and planet at its heart. Dr Stuart Gillespie is a non-resident senior fellow with the International Food Policy Research Institute. His latest book, Food Fight: From Plunder and Profit to People and Planet, is published by Canongate
