MONTREAL, June 1 (UPI) -- Young adults have specific ideas about making a sustainable world and are willing to make lifestyles changes to create such a world, a U.N. report says.
The United Nations Environment Program surveyed 400 young adults between the ages of 18 and 35 on their sustainable values and their willingness to change their behavior to maintain them.
Four Canadian and American universities collaborated on this international survey, which found that young adults in the New York City area, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Montreal share the dream of a better-balanced way of life, with just and humane values, and fulfilling work, family and social lives, a release by Concordia University in Montreal, one of the participating schools, said Wednesday.
Young adults from all three cities said they believed certain measures require collective action to encourage different behaviors to respond to global problems such as climate change.
While 60 percent believe they could influence public policy, they say communication is lacking.
The study suggests the collective values of each of the three urban centers, along with those of other regions in the world included in the UNEP survey, offer valuable sources of information for the development of public policy, the Concordia release said.