Abu Dhabi: The Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD) announced the results of the Youth Survey on Climate Change that was conducted during Q4 2022. The survey, presented during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, had a total of 4210 respondents. The survey included employees as well as students, aged 15 to 29, residing in various emirates.
EAD’s survey captured the voices of young people on the most critical environmental issues and the effects of climate change. The survey further evaluated youths’ awareness and engagement on key environmental issues, identified their views on environmental preservation techniques and sustainability concepts, as well as interpreted their level of ecological awareness.
In addition, the survey measured how far the youths’ behaviour had changed due to the newly implemented single-use plastic bag policy and analysed the youths’ viewpoints on environmental priorities as well as perceived solutions to climate change.
Youth have always been a main focus in the national strategies of the UAE in all fields, therefore they play an important role in bringing about tangible development through their direct support. They are a major player in national and international programmes and initiatives to confront climate change and its effects on their daily lives, and are important for instigating change in their environmental behaviour with regards to sustainability.
Ms.Shamma Al Mazrouei, Minister of State for Youth Affairs, shared.
Mr. Al Mazrouei added that “the UAE’s investment in youth to enhance its efforts and support its strategic plans on climate change issues will give it double impetus to find direct, practical solutions that will reduce environmental concerns and challenges in the short term.”
According to the minister, the results of the Climate Change Survey launched by EAD in the last quarter of 2022, targeting adolescents and youth, confirm the importance of this category in drawing up future environmental policies within the framework of finding practical and sustainable solutions to the issue of climate change.
Dr. Shaikha Al Dhaheri, Secretary-General of EAD, shared that “we were pleased to see a wide response from young people and their eagerness to participate in the survey. Youth are an influential group in global environmental movements, and their voices matter to us as regulators. It is clear that our youth are concerned and actively engaged in environmental issues and tend to suggest solutions.”
The survey was accessible on EAD’s various social media platforms and reached a large number of youth, including the Sustainable Schools Initiative Network of 153 schools and the Sustainable Campus Initiative, which consists of 24 universities with more than 500 000 students, in addition to EAD’s network of stakeholders and its programmatic partners.