Manar Alsaif

If I ask you to imagine your life and the world in 2050, assuming we have achieved net zero, what do you see?

Do you think about how your house will look? What sort of technology you will have to heat your home? What public transport will be like? Or do you think about what your health will be like? How your family will be? What your career or retirement will look like? If you’ll be able to afford to go on holiday? If you’ll be experiencing a lot of joy or a lot of worry? 

Most people think about the personal stuff, and do not see how decarbonisation bears on these personal elements. And while I concede that there are some people who do have a vision for what a green, just, equitable future looks like, we do not have a clear collective vision of this. We have disjointed sub-elements of the vision: that there will be plenty of green spaces, that biodiversity will thrive, that people will not be exploited, that air quality will be good, that public health will be better, that we will have better transport, that cultural heritage will not be desecrated, etc. But we tend not to see the greater vision of how all these sit together, and we tend not to see how it will affect our lives. We especially miss out on how it might, dare I say, improve our lives collectively.

There are so many people around the world working on sustainability and achieving the sustainable transition. How amazing would it be to see everyone’s efforts coming together and actually making it happen. But is it possible when we don’t actually see what we are trying to make a reality? How can we focus and hone in on what needs to be done when we don’t know what we are working towards? We need a clearer vision of the future that we are trying to build, and more clarity on how all the sub-parts build the whole. And we need this vision to work for everyone, so we need to build the vision together. 

This cannot remain the task of a select few sitting in government or universities or even industry. There is no better source of information of what is best for people than the people themselves. Co-creating the vision, feeding in as many voices and perspectives as possible, is the only real way to attempt an equitable transition. But how can we do that? I would argue this is where we really need to step beyond science and technology. Yes the humanities and social sciences have a major role to play here, but it seems we’ve forgotten how important the arts are. Yes we can ask people and do studies and all that, and we definitely need to do more of that. But could we also tap into everything that is signalled through people’s art? Could this be a route to have the perspectives of those who are not part of the discussion? Those who are not even engaged, because they will still be affected by the transition (or lack of it), just as everyone else will be. Could we feed in many more perspectives and be more inclusive in co-creating the vision, and then do better at communicating the vision? 

Is it time to better understand how to deploy art for the sustainable transition?