LINGCLIM Research Group with three Presentations at Beyond Oil Conference

Beyond Oil is a biannual international and interdisciplinary conferance organized by the Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation (CET) at the University of Bergen. This year's focus was on "Prioritising Climate Action". What does it mean to prioritse climate action – for the individual, our economy, our political decisions, and our societal institutions? How do we mobilise the societal change necessary to make prioritisation of climate action a reality?

Three members of the LINGCLIM research group contributed to the conference with their presentations. Project leader Kjersti Fløttum held a presentation on "People's Expressed Motivations for Action and Change of Everyday Lifestyle". Based on data collected in a representative survey through the Norwegian Citizen Panel, Fløttum explained what motivates Norwegians to take climate actions in their everyday lives, and what makes others not to change their lifestyle.

Ida Vikøren Andersen, postdoctor at the Institute for Foreign Languages, contributed with a talk on "The Function of Fear: Climate Anxiety, Fear, and Worry in Youth's Public Response to Climate Change". Andersen presented an analysis of debate articles on climate change, written by young people between 2016 and 2020, to discuss which insights are leading to fear among the young.

Research assistant Jana Paulina Scheurer held a presentation titled "School as Key Arena to Promote Climate Action", based on a school survey conducted earlier in 2021, to propose how schools can contribute in both educating and practically supporting students to take climate actions. All three agreed that the conference was a great opportunity for interdisciplinary networking, and for spreading of results from the ongoing CLIMLIFE research project.