Climate-friendly mobility: A possibility for nurses?

Abstract

Compact city strategies and public transport are important climate change mitigation solutions that may increase the availability of climate-friendly mobility but also the cost of living in the city. An in-depth understanding of housing choices and climate-friendly mobility is key for the potential of mitigation strategies. This study explores 28 nurses’ daily mobility and their climate-friendly possibilities in Oslo. For climate-friendly mobility, Oslo is a critical case offering both ambition and success but also incurring high costs of living in the city. Nurses are middle class; while they cannot work from home and have varied shift schedules. In the study, this position is used to explore whether climate-friendly mobility is for everyone. I use spatial capital as a concept to discuss how nurses balance climate-friendly mobility and car use. This exposes dilemmas of climate change mitigation solutions and how they are differently available to people. Nurses’ access to climate-friendly mobility, as well as their competence and appropriation, is shaped by personal residential choices and is structured by policy and economy. Thus, climate change mitigation solutions should consider diverse life situations and mobility aspects beyond mere access.