In Conversation with: Rosalind Skillen
In this interview Rosalind Skillen shares her experience as a youth activist and member to the EU delegation at the Y7 Conference in 2021. We talked with Rosalind also about intergenerational justice a key topic of interest to our project during year 2023 and 2024.
Rosalind Skillen is a climate activist from Belfast, currently pursuing a Master degree in Environmental Policy at the University of Dublin (Ireland). Also, Rosalind is a columnist at the Belfast Telegraph, a campaigner for Good Energies Alliance Ireland, and she attended COP26 and COP27 as a youth delegate.
Note: at the time of the interview Rosalind worked as an Outreach Officer for the campaign “Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful”.
JM: Hi Rosalind! Tell us about yourself, your work and current activities.
RS: I work for an environmental charity called Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful. I work with community groups to design and develop climate action plans. We are looking at different projects that they want to carry out in the short or long term and consider how their local environment is going to be affected by climate change. I also write for a newspaper on environmental action. As an environmental journalist, I cover different local stories related to climate change in the North of Ireland. And then I’m also involved and different climate activism pieces.
I have also participated at the Y7, which is the official youth engagement group to the G7. I was on the EU delegation specifically sitting on the climate track. So, looking at different environmental policy recommendations for G7 leaders.
JM: What are your reflections on the current presence of youth in contemporary environmental governance?
RS: The first thing I think it’s important to say is that youth is such a broad term. In some cultures, youth can range from 18 years old up to 35 years old. So, I think it’s hard to lump everyone into one category of youth. And I think sometimes that’s what happens. Typically, we see youth depicted in the media assuming an activist role, as being really good at organizing, pushing leaders to think beyond business as usual and to elevate their ambition.
And this is, of course, true. And young people are good at mobilizing together for a collective aim. But we also see that young people have a lot of expertise. I know a lot of engineers, scientists, and people with technical knowledge and expertise who are still within that category of youth. So, sometimes we need to distinguish who youth as a term refers to.
In general, young people are engaging effectively in environmental governance processes, but there is still a question of how much they’re being listened to. Often young people are “nice to have” rather than a “must have.” Sometimes they can be engaged in quite a tokenistic way. We saw that a lot at COP26 where young people were invited to speak on a panel and to provide input, but there wasn’t a sense that the recommendations were being taken further.
JM: Do you think youth involvement in contemporary environmental governance is effective/makes a difference?
RS: Yes, definitely. Young people are really effective and making a massive difference. For example with global climate strikes. And as well, I think young people have been really good at raising awareness about key issues, particularly with regards to climate justice. Young people have been good at getting media attention on climate governance. Which is important because the media have a huge impact and responsibility to communicate effectively on environmental governance and climate breakdown.
JM: Where do you see the greatest need for change when it comes to the inclusion of youth in urban governance?
RS: One of the improvements I would like to see is more capacity building for young people and investment in them as climate leaders. Sometimes young people are for example invited to a panel, but they haven’t always been trained in the specific technical language or been given the resources to participate in a meaningful way. It is important to make sure that young people understand the political structures and systems. Even though a lot of young people do, many also want to develop their knowledge and expertise further.
What I would also like to see is more intergenerational collaboration. More of a dialog between older and younger people and for young people to be seen as one of the many voices at the table rather than this distinct category.
In my context, a lot of the climate leaders who I look up to are older people and that is why I don’t like the way young people are sometimes pitted against older people. I’ve been asked things like “you must really hate older people because they’ve caused this crisis.” I think that’s very dismissive of the actions of older people who’ve been fighting against the climate crisis for 40–50 plus years. Especially indigenous communities who’ve been safeguarding our nature and biodiversity for so long. I think we really need to move away from pitting older people against younger people. Then, of course, it is important that older people support the work of youth.
JM: How do you understand intergenerational justice and how is it being considered in the advisory groups that you are part of?
RS: I actually delivered a TED talk on Intergenerational Justice last year, as part of TEDxStormont. I described it as the idea that present generations have a duty of care towards future generations. Asking us in the present to assess the future costs of our present actions. And I think it’s important to consider environmental governance and management through the lens of intergenerational justice because it invites us to think long-term.
Intergenerational justice is absent from a lot of policy discussions and campaigns. Especially right now with the cost-of-living crisis and the war of aggression against Ukraine. There’s a lot of acute problems and naturally, political leaders are focusing on trying to put out these fires. But we also need to look at them within the broader context of chronic, widespread issues and see that they’re not mutually exclusive.
In a more positive light, however, I know that Wales, for example, has a future-generations Commissioner. That is, someone with an advisory role in government whose job it literally is to think about how policy decisions are going to affect future generations. I think that’s really exciting, and something we need to see more of, maybe at a legislative level as well.
JM: Based on your current and past experiences what would be your best advice for people who want to include youth in environmental governance?
RS: Do it! Invite young people to conversations around environmental governance but, crucially, not just in a consultancy sort of role. What we need to see more of is young people being brought in at the beginning of a process, at the creation of the document or piece of policy you’re working on, as well as in the design and delivery of them. Not just at the end of the process to provide feedback on a finished product.
Something else which is valuable is dialogue. For example, as part of the Y7 EU delegation, there was no real opportunity for dialogue or to get feedback on our recommendations. Only when we handed over our communique for the G7, were we able to get some feedback. This constructive dialogue was really important for us. So, I guess my advice would also be to fuse the conversations, rather than keeping the conversations of younger people and older people separated.
In Conversation with is an interview series in which we host researchers, practitioners, activists, and others who are engaged in hands-on initiatives, projects, and similar actions in their local environments. We would like to give space to emerging topics and hear more from those directly engaged in initiatives seeking to make our urban areas safer, more inclusive, and sustainable.
This interview was moderated by our project communication officer Johanna Männikkö.
