9.1 General context
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Main concepts
On October 14, 2015 in Spain a new Volunteering Law 45/2015 came into force with the intention of adapting to the needs of 21st century volunteerism giving coverage to a voluntary without qualifiers and establishing the areas of voluntary actions such as environmental and social inclusion in each Autonomous Region through the intermediation of the National Center for Environmental Education (CENEAM) and the European Youth Portal.
The following concepts are collected in the Spanish Sustainable Development Strategy:
Sustainable consumption and production: analyzing how countries consume and produce goods and services and identifying how and why these patterns of production and consumption contribute to environmental degradation. Applying sustainable consumption and production requires a set of actions such as clean production, energy efficiency, responsible chemical management, a sustainable public procurement policy, eco-labelling (in tourist accommodation, or products like soaps, shampoo, detergents and Energy Star labels or categories such as "AAA" in appliances), sustainable lifestyles and education for sustainable consumption (Code of Consumption of Catalonia), fair Trade, recycling or donating, to name a few.
Sustainable construction: The collaboration of several professionals in the construction of sustainable buildings in cities that will help them to make a more responsible use of the energy resources of buildings and houses, as well as the optimization of the social and environmental use of the territory.
Sustainable urban mobility: making urban mobility more efficient and sustainable through public transport, gentle mobility (walking, biking, public space) and accessibility for disabled children, the elderly and young people.
Social sustainability: The Spanish effort to try to maintain a joint model of social welfare and economic growth through job creation, greater social cohesion and poverty eradication.
Global Sustainability: International cooperation for sustainable development. It consists of increasing official development assistance (ODA) to 0.5% of the gross national income in 2008 and 0.7% by 2012; increasing the effectiveness, coherence, and quality of the Spanish cooperation policy; integrating a multidimensional fight against poverty.
Youth interest in global issues
In this era of globalised modernity, there has been an increase in the identification of the local and the global at the same time. In the data extracted from the Youth in Spain 2020 Report, on a scale of 0-10, young people identify themselves as belonging to their autonomous community with an average of 8 and as citizens of the world with 7.8. While they identify less with being Spanish (7.2) and being European (6.7).
In the eyes of the youth, environmental deterioration and the economic crises have become unbearable. Well-Being, peace and global security, human rights, cultural diversity, or
gender are part of the wide range of interests of the Spanish youth, which points at a citizenship committed to its environment.
In the same report, the degree of interest (0-10) they have in different political issues is indicated. Among the top six, the classic problems such as work (8.6), education (8.5), security (8.2) and housing (8) stand out. Equality between men and women (8.2) and climate change (7.8) are also very important.