For a second year, the Worldwide Intergenerational Fairness Week (6–12 July 2020) has been marked by a series of blog articles from around the globe – this time focusing on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on young people. As the world tentatively emerges, blinking, from lockdown, the international public sphere seems in agreement: this… Read more »
Category: Environment
A Letter to Future Generations
Rebecca Freitag – Ambassador for the Stuttgart-based Foundation for the Rights for Future Generations and a former UN Youth Delegate for Sustainable Development – has asked herself this question: “How I will explain this historic, COVID-induced opportunity for a new beginning to my children and grandchildren – and how it finally turned out?” She imagines… Read more »
How will future generations remember COVID-19 – if they remember it at all?
Roman Krznaric is a public philosopher who writes about the power of ideas to change society. His new book explores the virtues of long-term thinking – essential for good intergenerational policy. Will the current COVID-19 pandemic be a critical landmark on the three possible paths that lead into the future?
COVID-19 warns us: we need global environmental law
COVID-19 is a warning to us: our behaviour risks the destruction of the planet, and the obliteration of humankind – and we need not just international environmental law but fully enforceable global law to prevent it. Sándor Fülöp is an environmental lawyer who held the office of the first Parliamentary Commissioner for future generations in… Read more »
What might a green recovery from COVID-19 look like?
As we move out of lockdown, the question of how the Government will choose to rebuild the economy looms large. IF researcher Melissa Bui explains why many climate experts and campaigners are calling for a green recovery, and she provides three examples of what that might look like
Green space inequality
With the majority of people in the UK still spending most of their time at home on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, open spaces have become more important as places where they can relax and enjoy some fresh air. However, as David Kingman explains, new ONS data suggest there are very big inequalities in the… Read more »
Earth Day 2020 and the lessons of COVID-19
It is Earth Day on 22 April – and the 50th anniversary of the first in 1970. Concerns over climate change may have been temporarily eclipsed by the COVID-19 virus, but – as the writer, young mother and IF supporter Melissa Jane Knight tells us, in this personal take – the COVID-19 crisis cannot obscure… Read more »
Earth Day in strange times
It’s Earth Day this week, and according to CarbonBrief the first three months of 2020 were the second warmest on record. With COVID-19 understandably distracting the world from conversations about environmental degradation and #climatecrisis, Liz Emerson, IF Co-founder, discusses the huge potential for the greening of the economy post-COVID
COVID-19: Why we cannot justify bailing out airlines
The UK government is facing increasing pressure to spend billions of pounds to unconditionally bail out the aviation industry during the COVID-19 crisis. IF researcher Melissa Bui explains how refraining from offering such carbon-intensive industries a lifeline helps tackle both COVID-19 and climate change
Should deep-sea mining be allowed to go ahead?
The Future We Need and the Goa Foundation are running a campaign to ensure that future deep-sea mining activity respects principles of intergenerational equity. The Intergenerational Foundation is supporting this initiative. Melissa Bui outlines the demands of the campaign and how individuals and organisations can show their support