Iceland holds the chairmanship of the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2023 and, on the occasion of that chairmanship, the Ministry of the Environment, Energy, and Climate initiated a Nordic project with the main goal of mapping and strengthening the work of older people in the Nordic countries in the field of climate issues. The idea was based on the knowledge that groups of seniors in Sweden had been active in this field and the belief that this activity could be further promoted by connecting more groups in all the Nordic countries, including Iceland.
In recent years, the proportion of seniors in the population of the Nordic countries has been increasing, along with the rising average age and relatively low birth rate. People of retirement age tend to have more free time and are better off financially than younger people. In addition, older people are now generally in better health than their peers were a few decades ago, and these people also have a lot of experience and knowledge that can undoubtedly be useful in the climate debate. The active participation of older people in activities of this kind serves to enrich their own lives and, at the same time, improve the living conditions of future generations. The experience and knowledge of older people are resources that societies miss out on by not utilising.
The Ministry of the Environment, Energy, and Climate is, naturally, the Ministry of Climate Issues in Iceland. However, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour Market deals with the affairs of the elderly, so it was decided that the ministries would work together on the project. The majority of the funding was supplied by the Nordic Council of Ministers, in connection with Iceland's chairmanship programme.
The project in question is the first Nordic project in this field. The project contributes to the vision of the Nordic Council of Ministers for the year 2030, in particular, to follow up on a green initiative in the Nordic region and to promote social sustainability in the Nordic countries. Simultaneously, the project contributes to the Nordic countries attaining the twelve main goals that the Nordic Council of Ministers has set for the period 2021–2024.
The project was completed in 2023 and was divided into three phases. First, a summary of the parties, collaboration, and projects of seniors in the Nordic countries in the field of climate issues was prepared; second, a seminar on seniors and climate issues was staged; and third, a final report was composed, including basic information from the first phase, highlights from the seminar and recommendations to the authorities in the Nordic countries on how to support the collaboration of seniors on climate action. That report is presented here.