Values for sustainable future: transforming values in the context of climate change and global environmental degradation

This dissertation is an interdisciplinary project aimed to explore normative and empirical dimensions and underpinnings of a societal transformation towards sustainability and the underlying value shift in developed countries. This study attempted to build a holistic perspective of a value shift towards sustainability by tackling a constellation of approaches from philosophy and ethics, social and political sciences, international relations. The project looked into how a value shift could be a response to climate change and global environmental crisis, what gaps in the existing system of values should be addressed and what values should be developed, how values can be changed at individual and collective levels, what actors can advance the transformation and which tools they can employ. Finally, the project explored how environmental non-governmental organizations can advance sustainability values to the general public and also analyzed climate change campaigns of the WWF and Greenpeace in order to identify which values these organizations promote to the public through their outreach efforts.