Young people across the globe don't want to work for big polluters, their peers in Serbia find wages more important than environmental values and not having to work in an office

The Deloitte Global 2021 Study reveals that climate change and environmental issues are Gen Z`s main concern ( the generation that by some definitions includes the young people born between 1997 and 2012). Young people across the globe feel that environmental topics take precedence over unemployment and healthcare.

Wages before environmental protection

However, ecology isn`t a priority for youth in Serbia. The “Survey on position and needs of youth in the Republic of Serbia”, conducted on a sample of 1,500 respondents and published on the Ministry of Tourism and Youth`s website, showed that ecology ranked sixth among topics that attracted the largest interest, right after personal development (a priority for 21% of youth), employment (13%), health (12%), entrepreneurship (12%) and safety (9%).

– The data from 2022 demonstrate that 7% of young people were interested in taking courses on environmental issues. In the past eight years the interest for environmental topics ranged between 5% (in 2016) and 8% (in 2019), Ministry of Tourism and Youth told eKapija.

The National Youth Council of Serbia (NYC) also states that for youth in Serbia attitude towards the environment isn`t a deciding factor when choosing employers.

– Young people in Serbia choose those job that primarily provide them money for a more decent life, which isn`t cheap for a young person living in this country, Ivan Bjelic from NYC states for eKapija.

Jovana Bozickovic from NYC explains that young people in Serbia are living a precarious existence and often choose jobs out of necessity.

– A large number of young people are working in a job unrelated to their degrees, they do unpaid internships, in other words, when they are employed it`s usually under “work for hire” or fixed-term contract. The business community has an obligation to provide quality internships to young people that include not only adequate financial compensation, but also provide learning experience and mentorship and, to, later, offer working conditions and salaries that make for a decent living, Bozickovic said.

Having said that, she continues, young people do think company`s values as well as the attitude towards employees` mental health are important.

– The coronavirus pandemic has truly changed the way businesses operate and it has proved that various forms of employment are possible, which turned out to be a significant detail for young people, such as the possibility of working remotely, our interviewee points out.

Number of young people participating in environmental campaign is in decline

Struggling for existence, decent living and working from home leaves little space for environmental action. The said survey shows that youth in Serbia thinks that the biggest problem for environmental protection in their surroundings lies in the low level of environmental awareness (37%), as well as air, soil and water pollution (28%). These two issues have ranked the highest in each survey year (2020, 2021 and 2022). Still, only 8% of young people have actually participated in environmental campaigns in the last year, which is the lowest percentage in the five survey years. The biggest percentage was in 2019 (13%).



The Youth Strategy 2023-2030, adopted back in January of the current year, gives a lot of attention to active participation of young people in society as well as supporting development of environmental programmes, the Ministry says.

– We will work on developing and implementing projects by and for young people that focus on raising environmental awareness, understanding the significance of reducing air,soil and water pollution, implementing the green economy approach, fighting against negative effects of climate change, positive environmental attitude and reforestation campaigns through interdepartmental collaboration and active participation of young people, the Ministry explains, pointing out that in the 2014-2023 period, they have financed 17 environmental protection projects by youth associations through public contests with a total of RSD 27,500,000.


Companies use false advertising, but the young people don`t notice that

Taking into account the relatively low level of environmental awareness among young people, there needs to be far more projects such as these, as well as adhering to the law, Ivan Bjelic from National Youth Council believes. He is of the opinion that the state policy is oriented towards industry, mining, tire factories and similar activities that seriously harm the environment with their operations. He notices that young people aren`t that familiar with the meaning of “greenwashing”that companies use to shirk responsibility for devastating impact upon the environment.

– Imagine you`re a director of a tire factory. Each year, you produce large amounts of hazardous waste, contaminated waters and, of course, huge amount of gasses that go into the atmosphere and pollute the air. You have either evaded punishment for that or you had to pay a paltry fine but you haven`t rectified you mistakes. Then you decide to hand out air cleaners as a part of the campaign to advertise your company as “environmentally responsible”. People accept those machines knowing you helped them breathe cleaner air indoors, forgetting you were also responsible for them not being able to breathe clean air outside and as a result, they now need air cleaners that you are offering them. Great deal of people in Serbia aren`t aware of such trends, Bjelic notices.

He advises employers that it`s not only important to show they care about carbon emissions and the quality of water, soil and air that get contaminated during industrial activities, but to actually put effort in preventing pollution so later on, everyone would have less work to do on tackling the issues generated in the process.

– Healthy environment is the best result possible. Emphasizing other results isn`t necessary if the environment is healthy. That`s why it`s crucial to introduce mandatory legislation and penal policies aimed at pollution and degradation of environment, and to also employ the existing good clauses in order to sanction the polluters, Bjelic concludes.

Climate change permeates all sectors of society

The Ministry believes that actively engaging young people in matters of environmental protection should be a priority. Staying informed works – 60% of young people have heard of “sustainable development”, an increase compared to the previous four survey years. 46% of young people in the member states of the United Nations have heard about the sustainable development goals and this percentage has grown since 2020 when it was 43%.

– Environment and climate change are the topics that permeate all other sectors and spheres of life, and thus we need coordination, communication, understanding, participation and support of various parties and institutions on all levels. Young people have a instinctive interest for environmental issues, which is becoming increasingly relevant on a global level and directly impacts the future generations, the Ministry says.

From everything mentioned and through direct communication with the young people, the Ministry has drawn a conclusion that what`s important to people in this age group is to have a job, preferably in their field of study, earn a satisfying income and for employers to create opportunities to improve their employees` well-being, which certainly includes being environmentally friendly.

Marija Dedic