How best to translate ‘the green omstilling’

By Mik Aidt

Would using the word ‘green’ become an obstacle in the Australian setting?

While travelling in Denmark, I noticed that one particular expression consistently comes up whenever the Danes talk about their economy and politics, their work, or their daily challenges – ’den grønne omstilling’ , which is normally translated as ‘the green transition’ or ‘the green transformation’.

I started interviewing people I met about this phrase, asking them about my observation and whether my theory could be true – that this widespread expression den grønne omstilling has helped shape the Danish society’s unified approach to stepping into ‘climate emergency mode’ with real and government-regulated climate action.

I quickly realised that this expression has given everyone a shared sense of direction that deeply permeates Danish life. It has become part of the collective mindset in the country. I’d heard this mentioned before, but here was some evidence to that saying that “people make their decisions based on a narrative”.

‘Greenies’ as a negative
When I ask Australians what they think of the phrase ‘The Green Transition’, I often get the response that, “Green is not a word that can be used in Australia – it is already taken.” In this country  as in about 100 other countries around the world  we have one political party that everyone associates with the word ‘green’ – and it is divisive. The green colour makes some Australians see red, so to say, and many right-wing politicians see ‘green’ as directly synonymous with socialism. When they talk about “the greenies” they don’t mean it as a compliment.

The Danes do not have a political party called something like ‘The Greens’, so they wouldn’t feel that affiliation to something political in the word green. To them, green is synonymous with decarbonisation, circular economy and ecology – areas which the Danes haven’t politisised to the same extent as Australians have.

But hey, that particular party, the Australian Greens, originally chose this colour as their name exactly because they are keen to promote a green transition in our country. That doesn’t mean they own the word – or the movement. They are but one of numerous players who are working on the society-wide green reorientation, or green transition

Many Australian businesses, from small enterprises to large corporations, use “green” in a non-political sense to showcase their sustainability efforts. They talk about their “green commitment” and “green credentials.” “Green practices,” and “green certification” are common terms in industries ranging from agriculture to retail, and the Green Building Council is an industry body promoting sustainable construction.

Australians commonly talk about the greentech revolution, and greening the land. The term “greentech” is used around the word, including in Australia, to refer to technological innovations in the renewable energy and sustainability sectors, such as electric vehicle development or battery storage technology. The energy industry uses terms such as green hydrogen and green metals.

“The green grid” and “greening the grid” are emerging terms in the energy sector, referring to Australia’s evolving clean energy infrastructure, particularly in reference to integrating renewables into the electricity grid.

The Australian government talks about the green economy and uses the slogal ‘Go green with Australia’, the Climate Council talks about Australia’s green manufacturing opportunity. And in the United States, MIT publishes an annual ‘Green Future Index’ – a comparative ranking of 76 nations and territories on their ability to develop a sustainable, low-carbon future, measuring “the degree to which their economies are pivoting toward clean energy, industry, agriculture, and society through investment in renewables, innovation, and green policy.”

Australian universities often use “green” in their sustainability and environmental programs, such as “green science” or “green energy degrees”.

The well-known environmental group Greening Australia has been active for decades, and the term “greening” carries connotations of restoring and rehabilitating the land, rather than political divisiveness. And greenwashing is already a commonly accepted term to describe when companies boast to be sustainable when in reality they are not.

In other words, here and there, Australians actually do use the word green in exactly the same understanding as they do in Denmark.

Adding to that, if there’s one colour all Australians do love when they are sitting in traffic, it would be the colour green: in crossings, the green colour of the ‘go ahead, move forward’ signal is one that everyone understands  and appreciates.

“Green” is a word that is deeply ingrained in Australia’s vocabulary around environmentalism and clean energy. And just like we can talk about “giving something the green light”, I believe we would be able to easily reframe the term “green transition” to its Danish meaning of a phrase for the society-wide transformation, decarbonisation, circularisation, and innovation. “Green” remains that forward-moving, positive colour in our everyday lives.

We could also turn the argument the other way around: Since “green” is already used by many countries around the world as part of their sustainability lexicon, aligning Australia with this global discourse would help situate the country within the broader movement towards decarbonisation and the circular economy, linking Australia’s efforts with those of nations like Denmark, the EU, and others who refer to their transition efforts in “green” terms. Our language would be in sync with the international community.

In the United States, (where they also have a Green party), the campaigning term calling for a ‘Green New Deal’ did wonders and created history in American climate policy as it eventually lead to the ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ with billions of dollars now being invested in renewable energy and climate solutions. The green word worked well for the Amercians.

The EU also has introduced legislation they call the ‘Green Deal’, to phase out fuel cars, making room for electric vehicles and healthier air.

“The future will be circular, the future will be green 
– or there will be no future.”

Janez Potočnik, Co-Chair, International Resource Panel

So – what should we call it?
We could of course also cut through all the word-babble and keep it simple, calling it exactly what the Danes have named it: ‘Omstilling’. So: The omstilling.

If we are able to say ombudsman and hygge – which are original Danish words – and kindergarten – which is a German word – surely we would also be able to learn to say omstilling?

Or… what do you think? (Comments field is open for two weeks at the bottom of this page)

As of now, my own recommendation would be to simply talk about The Transition. A phrase such as ‘The Transition’ is not new in an Australian context. I already hear people, media and politicians talk about the transition often, only they don’t seem to perceive it themselves as a specific phrase.

We could leave it open whether or not to add an extra word in front of transition. Then wait and see what gets picked up and becomes used most frequently.

For instance, we could be talking about the global transition in some cases while at other times be talking about the local transition. Some might be talking about the green transition, or the ecological transition, or the sustainability transition – depending on what feels most relevant to them.

‘The Transition’ could be the phrase that holds it all together and creates that ‘unifying effect’ the Danes have experienced.

Currently, there are zero hits on the hashtag #theglobaltransition on several social media platforms. That is what we need in Australia now: a clean hashtag – and a rethorical renewal in the debate about how and how fast we take action on the escalating climate breakdown.

Phrases such as the transtition towards sustainability, or the sustainable transition, or the just transition could of course also work. It all depends on the context.

Transition Towns and Transition Streets is a global green movement that has been around for more than a decade, where Transition Australia is a central organisation for this movement in our part of the world – “inspiring and supporting local communities as they build a sustainable future,” as they write on their home page.

Having considered through all of these suggestions, I still end up thinking the green transition could be the winning – the most impactful and widely shared – phrase to use.

In this post on Linkedin.com, I dig deeper into my contemplations over how to translate the Danish phrase Den grønne omstilling:

Post on Linkedin

Hashtags

Hashtag usage numbers can indicate whether the use of a phrase is widespread and common – or not:

#transition: 3.4 million posts on Facebook

#GreenTransition: 26,000 posts on Facebook

#TheTransition: 14,000 posts on Facebook

#TheGreenTransition: fewer than 1,000 posts on Facebook

#GlobalTransition: fewer than 1,000 posts on Facebook

#TheGlobalTransition: fewer than 1,000 posts on Facebook

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