Inre omställning är minst lika viktig som den tekniska utvecklingen

Företag och organisationer behöver se över sina visionsplaner, projektledning, arbetsstrukturer och kommunikation för att främja inre hälsa och engagemang för naturen, skriver Frans Libertson och Gustav Osberg, doktorander inom industriell miljöekonomi

BeChange: Sustainability education and leadership development : Assessing the links between inner development and outer change for transformation

This report presents the assessment of a six-week online course offered by BeChange, which was given from April to June in 2022. Through a total of five online sessions, an interactive learning platform, diverse practices and individual coaching, the course aimed to support participants in reducing their CO2 emissions, increase their climate engagement, and at the same time enhance their wellbeing. The topics covered were sustainable food, consumption, living, mobility, and engagement. The course participants were 41 residents of the Swedish cities of Umeå, Luleå and Huddinge, including 20 municipal employees. To assess the course, we systematically analysed the participants' reported inner developments and outer changes and the associated interlinkages between these. Inner development was assessed by looking at participants’ change regarding their relationships to i) self, ii) others, and iii) nature. Outer change, such as climate-related behaviour and engagement, was examined regarding i) participants' private life, ii) their work, and iii) their wider socio-political context. Our analyses show that the course has helped the participants to develop a range of inner 'transformative capacities' that are crucial to support wellbeing and more sustainable engagement across individual, collective, and system levels. Examples are increased self-awareness, self-compassion, sense of agency, emotional regulation, optimism, hope, and intrinsic motivation, together with reduced feelings of being overwhelmed and climate anxiety. Reported changes regarding people's relationships with others include being less judgmental and more trusting. Many participants have also rethought the way they communicate and how they want to bring about change. The latter manifests in their changed understanding and action-taking: from being purely cognitive and information-based to more intrinsic and embodied, and thus becoming the change they want to see. For several participants, the inner capacities they developed have also led them to move from a technical understanding of climate change to understanding that is more relational, i.e., from a focus on external solutions (such as technological innovation and ‘climate-smart’ consumption) to an increased emphasis on addressing and integrating internal and social dimensions of climate change in their climate actions.The identified changes relate, amongst other things, to the fact that the course focused on two aspects: i) giving the participants new tools and perspectives on climate change and engagement that emphasise the importance of inner dimensions of climate change, and ii) working practically with each individual's current conditions and abilities. The tools and practices included diverse self-reflection, perspective-taking, meditation, communication and visualisation exercises. They provide important examples of how approaches from different fields (such as psychology and contemplative science) can be adapted to the context of sustainability, to support transformation.Through the content, practices and perspectives it provided, the course has helped the participants create a more sustainable source of motivation and engagement based on positive (rather than negative) emotions. But the course assessment also shows that capacities such as perspective-taking and critical, complexity and systems thinking could have been strengthened further. In particular, an important opportunity was missed for the participants to learn more about how they can tap into their inner potential to support collective and systems change through systematically integrating both inner and outer dimensions of sustainability in their work and engagement to ensure transformation

Transformative Climate Policy Mainstreaming : Engaging the Political and the Personal

Non-technical summary Mainstreaming climate objectives into sectoral work and policies is widely advocated as the way forward for sustainable public-private action. However, current knowledge on effective climate mainstreaming has rarely translated into policy outcomes and radical, transformational change. This 'implementation gap' relates to the limitations of current approaches, which do not adequately address so-called 'internal' or 'personal' spheres of transformation. Here, we address this gap and provide an integrative climate mainstreaming framework for improving and guiding future sustainability research, education, policy and practice. Technical summary Current knowledge on what makes climate mainstreaming effective has, so far, seldom translated into policy outcomes and radical, transformational change. This 'implementation gap' is related to the limitations of current approaches. The latter tend to focus on isolated, highly-tangible, but essentially weak leverage points that do not adequately link practical and political solutions with 'internal' or 'personal' spheres of transformation. This link involves an internal (mindset/consciousness) shift leading to long-lasting changes in the way that we experience and relate to our self, others, the world, and future generations. It requires unleashing people's internal potential and capacity to care, commit to, and effect change for a more sustainable life across individual, collective, organisational and system levels. To address this gap, we analyse how such internal dimensions can be integrated into climate mainstreaming, to move beyond its current, partial focus on external and technological solutions. Through a robust investigation of how to scale up climate mainstreaming in a more transformative manner, we explore how mainstreaming and conscious full-spectrum theories can be related to fundamentally advance the field and improve current approaches. The resulting integrative framework breaks new ground by linking the mainstreaming of climate considerations and internal dimensions across all spheres of transformation. We conclude with some policy recommendations and future research needs. Social media summary Linking climate policy integration/mainstreaming and personal development: An integrative framework

Rethinking political agency : The role of individuals’ engagement, perceptions and trust in transitioning to a low-carbon transport system

Although there are many technological solutions and policy approaches for transitioning to a fossil-free society, effective action is still lacking. We need a new way to address the issue, one that inspires and attracts the widest possible group of society. Against this background, the aim of this paper is to explore citizens' political agency in influencing transport policy, and the inner and outer factors that encourage or hinder related engagement at individual and collective levels. Based on a national survey in Sweden (N = 1,210) and a mixed-methods approach, our findings show the importance of people's perceived possibilities to influence policy and their trust in authorities when engaging and exercising political agency. They also shed light on the complex, intertwined nature of these three factors (i.e. engagement, perceived influence, trust), and the role that the perceived environmental effectiveness of low-carbon transport options, climate change awareness, sociodemocratic issues, and underlying human inner dimensions play in this context. The findings highlight the role of perceptions and emotions that are engrained at individual, cultural and structural levels. This is key, as one identified obstacle to engagement is the belief that individuals have no influence. With due limitations, our results support calls for an expanded view of political agency that goes beyond political and institutional actors, and recognises each individual's capacity to contribute to transformative change. We conclude that fostering political agency for a low-carbon transport system is a dual process of addressing both structural and personal (capacity) factors to increase individual and collective engagement, enhance perceptions of possibilities to contribute, and address trust-related issues. All of which need to be given greater consideration to transform transport and climate policy more broadly

My Malmö – Climate Visions for Transforming the Future : Policy report by LUCSUS and Malmö City

Sweden and Malmö are widely considered forerunners of climate change mitigation and adaptation, both internationally and by self-proclamation. Political will, available resources, and public knowledge are fairly high. National and local policies and regulations are in place, and a dominant majority of Swedes is well informed about climate change and the associated obligations, seeing climate change as real and a risk for themselves and others in Sweden (Blennow & Persson, 2009).Despite this situation, progress remains slow, as for all advanced industrialised economies (IPCC, 2018). According to the World Wide Fund for Nature Living Planet Report (WWF, 2016; 2020) Swedes are living a lifestyle that would require the equivalent of around 4.2 Earths to sustain, which places Sweden close to the likes of the United States when it comes to its consumption footprint. The failure in current approaches to address climate change relates to the fact that they have mainly focused on external factors, such as wider socio-economic structures, governance dynamics and technology. Hardly any efforts have been concerned with the personal, inner drivers of change (Wamsler, 2020). This is unfortunate, as people’s mindsets lie at the root of sustainability challenges and are thus fundamental to the solutions. They involve people’s beliefs, values, worldviews and associated inner qualities or capacities, which can be both forces of change or reproduce current unsustainable paradigms. New approaches are urgently needed

Linking internal and external transformation for sustainability and climate action : Towards a new research and policy agenda

Climate change is an increasing threat to sustainable development worldwide. However, the dominant incremental policy approaches have not generated action at anywhere near the rate, scale or depth that is needed. This is largely due to the fact that climate change has historically been framed as a purely external, technical challenge. There is an urgent need for a more integral understanding that links internal and external (collective and systems) approaches to support transformation. However, related knowledge is scarce and fragmented across disciplines. This study addresses this gap. Through a systematic literature review, we analyse how the linkages between internal and external change are portrayed and understood in current research. We assess the scope, perspectives and approaches used to understand why, and how, internal change relates to climate action and sustainability. Our results highlight patterns and gaps regarding foci, conceptualisation, methods, epistemology, ontology and ethics that hamper emergent solutions and progress. Starting from the status quo, we propose an integrated model of change as an agenda and roadmap for future research, policy and practice

Meaning-making in a context of climate change : Supporting agency and political engagement

Responding effectively to climate change requires an understanding of what shapes people’s individual and collective sense of agency and responsibility towards the future. It also requires transforming this understanding into political engagement to support systems change. Based on a national representative survey in Sweden (N = 1,237), this research uses the novel SenseMaker methodology to look into these matters. More specifically, in order to understand the social and institutional prerequisites that must be in place to develop inclusive climate responses, we investigate how citizens perceive their everyday life and future, and the implications for their sense of responsibility, agency, and political engagement. Our research findings show how citizens perceive and act on climate change (individually, cooperatively, and by supporting others), their underlying values, beliefs, emotions and paradigms, inter-group variations, and obstacles and enablers for change. The findings reveal that, in general, individual and public climate action is perceived as leading to improved (rather than reduced) wellbeing and welfare. At the same time, climate anxiety and frustration about structural and governance constraints limit agency, whilst positive emotions and inner qualities, such as human–nature connections, support both political engagement and wellbeing. Our results shed light on individual, collective, and structural capacities that must be supported to address climate change. They draw attention to the need to develop new forms of citizen involvement and of policy that can explicitly address these human interactions, inner dimensions of thinking about and acting on climate change, and the underlying social paradigms. We conclude with further research needs and policy recommendations

Meaning-making in a context of climate change: supporting agency and political engagement

Responding effectively to climate change requires an understanding of what shapes people’s individual and collective sense of agency and responsibility towards the future. It also requires transforming this understanding into political engagement to support systems change. Based on a national representative survey in Sweden (N = 1,237), this research uses the novel SenseMaker methodology to look into these matters. More specifically, in order to understand the social and institutional prerequisites that must be in place to develop inclusive climate responses, we investigate how citizens perceive their everyday life and future, and the implications for their sense of responsibility, agency, and political engagement. Our research findings show how citizens perceive and act on climate change (individually, cooperatively, and by supporting others), their underlying values, beliefs, emotions and paradigms, inter-group variations, and obstacles and enablers for change. The findings reveal that, in general, individual and public climate action is perceived as leading to improved (rather than reduced) wellbeing and welfare. At the same time, climate anxiety and frustration about structural and governance constraints limit agency, whilst positive emotions and inner qualities, such as human–nature connections, support both political engagement and wellbeing. Our results shed light on individual, collective, and structural capacities that must be supported to address climate change. They draw attention to the need to develop new forms of citizen involvement and of policy that can explicitly address these human interactions, inner dimensions of thinking about and acting on climate change, and the underlying social paradigms. We conclude with further research needs and policy recommendations. In general, citizens perceive increased individual and public climate action as leading to improved (rather than reduced) wellbeing and welfare.Effective responses to climate change require addressing underlying social paradigms (to complement predominant external, technological, and information-based approaches).Such responses include increasing policy support for: o learning environments and practices that can help individuals to discover internalized social patterns and increase their sense of agency and interconnection (to self, others, nature);o institutional and political mechanisms that support citizen engagement and the systematic consideration of human inner dimensions (values, beliefs, emotions and associated inner qualities/capacities) across all sectors of work, by systematically revising organizations’ vision statements, communication and project management tools, working structures, policies, regulations, human and financial resource allocation, and collaboration; ando nature-based solutions and other approaches to support the human–nature connection. In general, citizens perceive increased individual and public climate action as leading to improved (rather than reduced) wellbeing and welfare. Effective responses to climate change require addressing underlying social paradigms (to complement predominant external, technological, and information-based approaches). Such responses include increasing policy support for: o learning environments and practices that can help individuals to discover internalized social patterns and increase their sense of agency and interconnection (to self, others, nature);o institutional and political mechanisms that support citizen engagement and the systematic consideration of human inner dimensions (values, beliefs, emotions and associated inner qualities/capacities) across all sectors of work, by systematically revising organizations’ vision statements, communication and project management tools, working structures, policies, regulations, human and financial resource allocation, and collaboration; ando nature-based solutions and other approaches to support the human–nature connection. o learning environments and practices that can help individuals to discover internalized social patterns and increase their sense of agency and interconnection (to self, others, nature); o institutional and political mechanisms that support citizen engagement and the systematic consideration of human inner dimensions (values, beliefs, emotions and associated inner qualities/capacities) across all sectors of work, by systematically revising organizations’ vision statements, communication and project management tools, working structures, policies, regulations, human and financial resource allocation, and collaboration; and o nature-based solutions and other approaches to support the human–nature connection.</p

Nog nu, politiker – ta klimatkrisen på allvar

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