With fjords dying and seas rising, Danish youth will go to the polls knowing the nation’s problems are transnational.
People vote at the Groendal Center in Copenhagen during the European Parliament elections in 2019. (AP Photo/Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix)
Editor’s Note: This story, by News Decoder Climate Journalism Program Manager Amina McCauley, is the second article in our five-part Wh-Y Vote series that focuses on youth participation in the upcoming European elections.
Between 6 and 9 June, voters in all 27 countries of the European Union will go to polls to select representatives of the 700+-member European Parliament, the only directly elected transnational assembly in the world.
The last European election, in 2019, saw the first increase in voter turnout in 40 years. The leap to just over 50% was largely thanks to a so-called ‘youth surge’: namely a 12% increase in turnout among 25 to 39-year olds and a 14% increase among the under 25s.
Senior EU figures heralded the result as a new era of civic engagement and evidence of strengthened support for the European Union. Yet, even with the increase, only half of eligible voters cast a ballot and turnout actually decreased in eight countries.
The 2024 election will include, for the first time, 16-year olds in Germany and Belgium, joining their Maltese and Austrian counterparts who were granted the vote in the 2000s.
News Decoder’s Wh-Y Vote series aims to shed light on these questions by examining how young people across the European Union feel about the upcoming election. What influence do they believe the union has on their lives? Why are young people voting or not voting? What are the issues driving them to or away from the polling station?
Correspondents based in France, Denmark, Hungary, Latvia and Poland have sought the views of young voters and non-voters as well as election experts in their respective countries and, over the course of five articles, will paint a nuanced and candid portrait of the state of the youth vote in the run up to polling day.
Four out of five Danes between the ages of 18 and 25 plan to vote in the upcoming European election, according to the Danish Youth Council’s Democracy Analysis 2024.
And there’s one main factor that’s driving them to the booths: the climate.
“Both the climate and environmental crises are huge failures,” said Katrine Skov-Hansen, a 22-year-old communications student living in Copenhagen.
Solving climate and environmental problems was the most important factor to the youth council’s study participants. When they were asked about the issues that politicians in the European Parliament ought to take care of, 48% of them said so. The next most important issue, which one quarter chose, was terrorism and international crime.
It’s not just young people. Following the 2019 European election, the Eurobarometer showed that 70% of Danish voters said the main issue that influenced their choice was combating climate change and protecting the environment, 33% higher than the EU average.
The next most important issues to Danish voters of all ages were immigration (45%) and promoting human rights and democracy (44%).
“The climate crisis was the main reason I started getting involved in politics,” Skov-Hansen said. “But for this election, issues of human rights and democratic rights have also become very important. This especially concerns the right to abortion and the rights of minorities. And the war and genocide in both Ukraine and Gaza are, in my view, two challenges where the EU has huge untapped potential.”
Ludvig Goldschmidt, a 30-year-old European Parliament candidate for Denmark’s Red-Green Alliance, said that one reason that youth feel compelled to vote, is because they’re the ones who will have to deal with the problems society fails to solve.
“Most of the decisions we are taking these next five years, and especially the ones we’re taking in the European Union, are going to primarily affect the youth,” he said. “Because they are the ones who are going to be here 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now. So obviously it’s their interest to vote for the people they think have the best solutions to the issues they are going to have to live with.”
Youth seek transnational solutions.
Youth understand the importance of the European Union. Asked if she plans to vote in the election, Skov-Hansen said that she votes in all elections.
“Democracy is not a given, and I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to vote,” she said. “For me, the EU means being part of something bigger. My responsibility and Denmark’s responsibility do not end at the border.”
Goldschmidt said that 10 years ago he had more negative feelings towards the EU.
“Whereas now, I think there’s much more reason to fight for continuing this kind of green agenda that the European Parliament has been successfully engaging with for the last 10 years,” he said.
Denmark must be pushed towards sustainability.
Goldschmidt believes that young people today are aware of the institution’s importance.
“As a candidate you go out and you have debates all over the country and I especially have had a lot of debate personally at high schools and with young people in the audience and I do think they are quite aware of the importance of the European Parliament and the EU when it comes to big crises and the issues they care about,” Goldschmidt said. “You just need to admit and face that these are issues that we cannot solve in a single country.”
Skov-Hansen said Denmark needs to do its part internationally.
“Denmark is slowly destroying our climate, nature and biodiversity,” she said. “The government is not making any real legislation in this area. And the legislation that does exist is just given exemptions so that large companies can still pollute and destroy our nature and climate.”
📣 FOUR REASONS WHY YOUR VOICE ON EUROPEAN ISSUES MATTERS 📣
1. Your freedom of movement
All citizens of EU member countries have the ability to live and work and travel freely anywhere in the EU.
2. Your education
The European Union allows its citizens to study at any EU university under the same conditions as nationals. Under the ERASMUS program, the EU spend 1.2 billion euros for university students to study in other countries. In 2022 alone, some 372,000 students took advantage of this program.
3. Your money
The politicians elected in the European Parliament help shape the EU budget deciding what issues to prioritise. The European Union has allocated 50 billion euros for Ukraine assistance and 118 billion euros for climate change initiatives. For youth in particular, the EU funds employment schemes, regional development programmes and urban regeneration projects.
4. Your rights
In March the European Parliament passed a law that would ban artificial intelligence applications that violate citizen rights to privacy and their identities, such as the scraping of CCTV footage for facial recognition, and it would require transparency when AI is used. A new policy is pending approval by member states that would force manufacturers to provide easy ways to get products repaired and allow third parties access to spare parts needed to repair broken or damaged products.
Fighting climate change requires common solutions.
The European Union can set common ambitions and rules for what and how we should solve the climate crisis, she said.
“Even if Denmark were 100% green and climate-friendly, we would still have a climate crisis, so the climate crisis must also be solved collectively,” Skov-Hansen said. “The climate crisis is a global problem and therefore needs to be solved collectively by all countries.”
Moreover, she added, the European Union has the ability to sanction countries that do not live up to international obligations. “This is important because without the ability to sanction, legislation is pretty meaningless,” she said.
Goldschmidt aims to represent young people on issues such as the environment as well as accessible transport across the European Union if elected.
“You have a lot of conversations in Denmark around the nexus between climate and environment and nature,” he said. “And I think it’s visibly clear in Denmark because we are such a heavily industrialized agricultural nation.”
Youth need to take charge.
Goldschmidt believes that young people feel betrayed, as they will be inheriting the country that has applauded itself for its environmental actions.
“But in reality, it’s much more one of the countries that are most hard hit by being a big emitter of climate gasses, by being heavily industrialized with no room for nature left and having an agricultural sector that is strangling—almost literally strangling—all life,” he said.
Almost half of Denmark’s land is used to grow food for livestock, according to the Danish Society for Nature Conservation. This means that agriculture is one of the top three sectors responsible for the country’s greenhouse gas emissions (along with transport and the energy sector), making up 22%.
And it’s the most intensively cultivated land in the EU.
By 2030, Denmark aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 70% compared to 1990 levels. In a statement in April 2024, Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities Lars Aagaard said that agriculture will likely account for almost half of Denmark’s emissions in 2030.
“Therefore, we must continue to have a carbon tax on agriculture to reach the 2030 target and fulfil the ambition of the agricultural agreement,” Aagaard said.
Solutions must be long term.
Frida Kristensen, an 18-year old living in Jutland, believes Europe should work towards long-term solutions, particularly around the environment and welfare.
“The EU has a lot to say when it comes to the climate, and although I’m really happy that something is being done, I think we could do more,” Kristensen said.
From Vejle, a coastal town in Jutland, she said that she’s seen firsthand how environmental and climate policies affect the areas we live in.
“A big event in Vejle these days is that life in Vejle Fjord is dead. This is partly due to the large amount of nitrogen discharged by agriculture,” Kristensen said. “Why isn’t something being done about it before it’s too late?”
She said that there are restrictions on nitrogen. “And yet we have ended up here,” she said. “It makes me uncomfortable about the future if this is how it is prioritized.”
Kristensen said it is not just the fjords that are being exposed to nitrogen.
“It’s also our groundwater that is affected,” she said. “I can see that it would hurt farmers’ production right now if there were more rules and restrictions, but I’m sure that no one would rather buy their water in bottles because they can’t drink what comes from the tap.”
Three questions to consider:
- Why do Danish youth believe their government can’t solve its climate problems alone?
- What can the European Union do to propel climate change initiatives in Denmark?
- Can you think of a problem in your country best solved by your national government and one that needs a transnational solution?
Amina McCauley is News Decoder’s Climate Education program manager. Born in Australia and living in Denmark, Amina has a background in reporting, media analysis and teaching and a particular interest in the relationship between humans, their environment, and the media.
Wh-Y Vote 2024 is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
