The biggest environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, are claimed in the information film that launches the new internal development goals (see video).
The technology and instruments already exist to, for example, reduce climate emissions, yet this is not happening.
An internal development is needed to speed up the process according to the charity foundations Ekskäret and 29K and the sustainability agency The new division, which is behind the idea together with Karolinska Institutet, Lund University, Stockholm University and the Stockholm School of Economics.
23 abilities that will save the world
The idea of the internal development goals is that we all, and decision-makers in particular, need to develop five inner qualities and 23 capabilities in order to achieve the global UN goals in eight years.
The reason is that we need to train ourselves to care about other people and other species, to stop fooling ourselves and to think more about complex relationships.
Then we need to develop our inner compass, our critical thinking, empathy, trust and optimism.
Most things are going in the wrong direction according to the UN
In 2016, the UN set 17 extremely ambitious global sustainability goals that were to be achieved by 2030. But then came the covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine, which radically changed the playing field.
World hunger, species extinction and climate emissions, as well as almost all other measurable indicators of global goals, are now pointing in the wrong direction.
Scientifically proven methods to develop one's inner self
The methods that can develop the inner qualities will be launched in a handbook in September this year.
According to researcher Kristian Stålne at Malmö University, it will probably be mindfulness, meditation, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), sustainable consciousness training (SCT) and Nature quest (retreat in nature) because they have scientific support.
The methods will be evaluated in five countries where one hundred decision-makers will take a course over eight weeks.
The research is led by Professor Christine Wamsler at Lund University.
She has already tested the approach of one hundred EU politicians who, after taking the course, voted for a stronger climate policy.
According to Wamsler, the work with the internal development goals is a complement and nothing that will stop today's concrete environmental work.
She believes that the development of the gender equality issue in Sweden is a clear example of how quickly broad population groups can rethink.
Do we have time to wait for spiritual development?
According to the UN's climate panel IPCC, we only have a few years to reverse the emission curves to have a reasonable chance of keeping global warming below two degrees on average.
Who then has time to wait for millions of people to take development courses?
It is possible to influence the psychological development of many people so that they radically change towards a more sustainable life, but it remains to be proven and such research takes time.
Despite the fact that many Swedes are worried about the climate, the average Swedish son emits an unsustainable number of tonnes per year through his consumption.
Maybe it worked to transfer to the individual to limit his desires at the time most people in Sweden believed in the seven deadly sins and a punishing God?
Today, it is probably faster with economic instruments so that the sustainable choices become cheap and fun and the environmentally harmful expensive and shameful.
Of course, it requires a lot of courage from politicians - which is one of the 23 abilities that will be trained during the autumn's first internal development course.
In 2030, we know how it went.