More Sustainability, Less Moral Preaching

What do you imagine a good life will be like in 2040? The Sinus Institute for Market and Social Research in Heidelberg, Germany, conducted a survey to find out. The answers provided a surprisingly consistent picture. People from all walks of life want green landscapes, a high level of biodiversity and social security to be a big part of their future. “These are all topics covered by the global sustainability goals set by the United Nations,” says Kai Niebert, professor of natural science education at UZH. But policymakers are not giving enough consideration to creating this ideal world that people imagine. One reason for this is that, when it comes to issues of sustainability, the political landscape is deeply divided in many European countries.

Niebert says that this needs to change. “We need to make sure that politicians focus more on the internationally agreed goals and people’s hopes and dreams for their future so that Europe becomes sustainable.” Although many people dream of green landscapes, the transformation to create a more sustainable economy and society in Europe is only progressing at a steady pace, and things aren’t changing fast enough. 

The way forward has really already been set: the UN has defined 17 Sustainable Development Goals that all member states are expected achieve by 2030, Switzerland has defined its Objectives for a climate-neutral Switzerland by 2050, and the EU has launched the Green Deal, which aims to make Europe the world’s first climate-neutral continent over the next 25 years. But we’re still a long way from achieving the goals that have been set and time is gradually running out. Even though the level of ambition continues to grow, we need to do everything we can to achieve our goals within the set timescales, says Niebert.

Kai Niebert wears several hats. He conducts research and teaches at UZH, where he is Professor of Natural Sciences Education and Sustainability. At the same time, he sits as a scientific advisor on various committees of the German government that focus on issues of sustainability, and he is President of the German Nature Conservation Ring, the umbrella association for environmental organizations in Germany.

Niebert believes that one of the reasons why Europe is making such slow progress in implementing sustainability goals is a political culture war. “Climate change and sustainability are viewed by some parts of society and some politicians as lefty-green projects that they want to distance themselves from,” he says. “Conservatives and Christian groups have failed to grasp sustainability as one of their own issues, even though they really ought to.” The sustainability researcher says this is because it’s about preserving things and helping the natural environment to thrive. But ideological rifts are hampering the quest to find a common path to climate neutrality.  

These rifts don’t just apply to politicians, but to society as a whole. One factor is that sustainability issues are frequently individualized in the public discourse, but also in education. “We were able to demonstrate in a study that educational offers are more likely to prompt people to switch off and focus on what they have on their own plate, rather than asking the big and important questions of how we as a society can create structures that will enable and promote sustainable behavior,” says Kai Niebert.

The focus on each individual person’s approach to sustainability tends to split society rather than bringing people together in a constructive way. That’s because behaving in a sustainable way then becomes a moral question. It’s about how you feel like you’re a better person if you follow a vegan lifestyle and avoid air travel, says Niebert. “This is why in future we should give more focus and attention to what unites us; this doesn’t just apply to politicians, but to the world of science and society, too.”

Instead of moralizing on what constitutes sustainable behavior, we should find ways to make it easier to achieve. “When it comes to sustainability, the focus is often on the problems and not the solutions that we really need,” says Niebert, “and we should spend more time focusing on the latter.” This is because the best way for us to get rid of our cars is to have alternative forms of transport that are attractive. The same is true of the Sunday roast. Kai Niebert has noticed that the range of sustainably produced food available from Migros, Coop and other shops has got much bigger and in particular trendier, and this is a positive development. That’s because encouraging sustainable behavior by offering an attractive alternative is much more likely to be successful than preaching moral virtues and telling people what they shouldn’t be eating.

When it comes to a sustainable future, businesses have a key role to play. But they, too, are finding it increasingly hard to focus on sustainability. This was the conclusion of the economist Zacharias Sautner, whose research at UZH focuses on sustainable finance. “Investments in ESG financial products have come under pressure in Europe and some of them have declined,” he says. ESG is the abbreviation for Environmental, Social, Governance and denotes criteria for a sustainable commitment to the environment, social aspects and corporate governance. One reason for the declining interest in sustainable investments is that ESG financial products are increasingly perceived to be political – as an expression of woke capitalism that primarily seeks to implement moral principles, but pays too little attention to profit and risk. This school of thought is particularly prevalent in parts of the US, but increasingly in Europe as well. 

“But the assumption that sustainable financial products are mainly about moral values is wrong,” says Zacharias Sautner, “the focus is very much on economic interests and financial value.” The research conducted in recent years has made it clear that financial risks and climate-related losses for the economy, but also for individual companies, are increasing significantly as the climate changes. Business should therefore preserve its own interests by championing greater protection of the climate and preparing for different climate scenarios. “The longer we wait, the greater the damage and losses will be,” says Sautner. Even though the trend is currently going in the opposite direction, investors are increasingly aware of this fact. Many companies have realized that sustainability is a fundamentally important issue if they want to be successful in the long term. But this is by no means true of all businesses.

Sautner’s research shows that many companies still engage in anti-climate lobbying on a large scale. “Companies that produce a lot of CO2 in particular go to great lengths to prevent stricter regulations and an appropriate tax on carbon dioxide emissions, for example,” says the sustainable finance expert, “and they’re very successful at doing this.” But this is a real problem for these companies not just for moral reasons, but in particular for economic reasons, too. Their lobbying can have a negative impact on their reputation. But these companies also run the risk of missing the opportunity to transition to climate neutrality because they’re not reducing their emissions fast enough. They hope that their lobbying will be successful. “This also increases the risk that they’ll lose a huge amount of value in future,” says Sautner.

These are the reasons why investors should get more involved and demand that companies do more to champion climate protection. “In Switzerland, for example, there’s a great deal of potential in wealthy pension funds,” says Zacharias Sautner, “in which in principle we all have a stake and can actively demand that they do more to boost climate protection.” This then represents a commitment to sustainable structures that goes beyond everyday action and is also a good idea from a risk and environmental perspective. 

Kai Niebert is convinced that new policies are needed to provide fresh impetus to encourage businesses to embrace sustainability. For example, the EU’s Green Deal regulates everything down to the finest detail. “To use a metaphor: while the Americans will say we play soccer and score a goal, in Europe we also say that we score a goal, but it has to be an overhead kick in the 87th minute into the top right corner,” says the researcher, “which means we need to move away from regulating every single detail and make more general specifications when it comes to sustainability.” The level of bureaucracy needs to be reduced without downgrading sustainability standards at the same time – this is a big challenge.

Development policies also need to change. This is because our prosperity means we outsource many negative effects to the Global South. We really ought to take more responsibility, says Kai Niebert. During the coronavirus pandemic, the Global North lost a great deal of credibility in the South because it mainly looked after itself and cushioned the impact on its economy with massive investments after the pandemic. This has led to more inequality around the globe.

At the United Nations in New York, where the level of implementation of its sustainability goals is discussed once a year, Niebert heard representatives of African countries say: “We get money and infrastructure from China, weapons from Russia, and you Europeans just want to give us human rights.” It’s time for Europe to rethink its development policies and get back to being a reliable cooperation partner for the Global South, says the sustainability expert, and this also applies to climate protection.

Either way, the target set in the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015 to limit global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees is no longer achievable with any of these approaches. “We missed this target globally back in 2022,” says the UZH professor, “we now need to do everything we can to make sure we keep it below 2 degrees if we can, but we need to prepare for 2 degrees.” He thinks this is a responsible policy. This target will only be achieved if moral hurdles and ideological rifts are overcome and as many stakeholders as possible all pull in the same direction.