What does NRC think | Make it easier to be climate -friendly for people – young and old

Bad news for the climate: while their knowledge about sustainability has increased, this does not lead to young people making more sustainable choices. In fact, the behavior of young people was less sustainable in 2024 than in the years before. They are also less concerned about the climate than a few years ago.

This was evident from a study by Ipsos I&O last week Among Dutch people aged eighteen and older. The decrease in concern about the environment is greatest within the youngest group, young people from 18 to 24 years old. In 2019, 71 percent of this age group said they were worried about the climate. In 2025, that percentage is 66 percent, still relatively high. In the Netherlands, around 61 percent of all people are worried about the climate.

Current issues such as the war in Gaza and the housing crisis gave young people more headaches than the change in the climate. Only when the surveyors went on, did the climate come up as a subject.

For many young people the idea is that it does not matter much what they do or leave as an individual. What also does not help is that the potentially disastrous consequences of climate change do not reveal itself today or tomorrow, as the living crisis is already finding many, but only in years or decades. For young people, who are at the beginning of an independent life and can finally do things they have been looking for a long time, linking knowledge about sustainability to sustainable behavior is not easy.

Research by the Social and Cultural Planning Office has already shown that people with a higher professional or WO education show less sustainable behavior than the rest of the Netherlands, while they know better which dangers are involved in climate change. For example, the Paradox reveals that Dutch people who realize that the climate (higher educated) and Dutch who are most bothered by that climate change (young people) do not proceed to adjust their behavior.

That could be a reason to scorn that verbally confessed commitment with climate is not much more than hypocrisy, but that conclusion is too short. Society is arranged in such a way that it is not easy to make climate -friendly choices.

It is therefore good that municipalities will prohibit advertisements for activities that fossil fuels are used. Complaints for smoking have also disappeared from the public space, while people still stand up to stand up a cigarette. It is also with advertisements from travel agencies: the citizen is not limited in his choices, but also does not see offers all the time to fly to the sun for an apple and an egg.

Regarding the latter: it has already been argued at this place that tax on kerosene must be levied in Europe, just like on other fuels. If it is not to discourage flies, then at least to praise the costs involved in climate change in a flight. It must also be hurry with the construction of reliable and affordable international train connections.

These are all measures that make it easier for the Dutchman – but also old – to show climate -friendly behavior. Ultimately, this remains an individual choice of every citizen: what practical consequences do I connect to my beliefs?

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