An interview with Johan Pehrson

In a few decades the ocean will have more plastic than fish. This is a big problem and I and my friends decided to do a webpage to find out how bad it is. We were wondering what some of the politics do about this situation. Thereof I, Emilia Rydin interviewed Johan Pehrson, a politician in the Liberals. 

This is what he answered to our questions:

Do you think as a political party that it´s important for students to learn about the environmental problems at school?

• Absolutely! Everything starts with school, the students gets knowledge from school. The climate and environment are one of the great challenges of our time and it´s very important that everyone in the society gets knowledge in order to be able to help with the environment. We in the liberals mean that everything has it´s basis in knowledge in

Do you have any suggestions what you as a private person can do to reduce the plastic problem?

• We all need to change our consumption as private persons to reduce the problem with plastic. Therefor it´s important to think about whether you really need that extra plastic bag or straw. From our side as politics we can introduce new taxes on plastic and encourage the use of, for example cloth bags. Cloth bags was something the liberals recently helped to propel in the parliament.

How do you think the Swedish plastic consumption will look in the future, and how are we going to do to reach our goal?

• We think and hope the Swedish plastic consumption will continue to extenuate, but we are not there yet, and more measures is needed to achieve our goal. Several of food chains have for example changed their plastic straws to paper. And bags can also be made of environmentally friendly products. To reach our goal in reducing plastic consumption, politicians, private persons and industry and commerce work together. The politicians can force through new laws, but it´s the private persons themselves who decide what their plastic consumption should look like. The industry and commerce also have a responsibility to offer alternative solutions for plastic.

Do you think it´s good that young people today get involved in environment questions in the way they do, for example through school strike?

• We in the liberals defiantly think it´s good that youths get involved in important issues that they are passionate about. Even if we don´t generally encourages school strikes but young people really show that they care about the environment and wants an alteration.

Do you want to change anything in the environmental, and in that case what?

• The liberals don´t believe that individual countries can do enough themselves to work against climate change. We believe in cooperation within the EU to united solve these issues. We want to see a carbon dioxid tax and flight tax within the EU. We also want to see an EU -fee on the plastic that isn´t recycled.

What do you do yourself to contribute to a better environment?

• I try to travel more eco to contribute to a better environment. Today food waste is a major environmental obstacle thereby I´m careful not to throw away food and always eat what I have in the fridge at home. I don´t buy soda, I mean the water in the tap is good enough. I have lower temperature at home and try to buy more second hand.

Thank you Johan Pherson, politican in the liberals for taking your time to answer these questions

Emilia Rydin