German government ordered to protect future generations

Germany’s highest court has ordered its government to revise its climate change legislation by the end of the year, ruling that current targets do not sufficiently protect the rights of future generations. IF senior researcher, Melissa Bui, explains the importance of framing intergenerational fairness as a rights issue and urges other high courts to follow… Read more »

The intergenerational effects of air pollution

Exposure to higher levels of air pollution among mothers affects the likelihood of their grandchildren going to university 40 years later, according to new research from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). IF intern Hugh Nicholl looks at the implications of these findings from an intergenerational perspective and asks what the government’s… Read more »

Book Review: #futuregen

When Jane Davidson was Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing in Wales from 2007 to 2011 she became a leading architect of the groundbreaking Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act (2015). In her new book, #Futuregen: Lessons from a Small Country, she tells the story and relays her vision. Our reviewer, IF Research Intern Hugo… Read more »

Reflections on WIFW 2020: COVID-19 edition

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 »

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?

Plagues and Intergenerational Justice

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that future generations have to be protected by wise precautions – both medically and economically. Jörg Tremmel, professor at the Institute of Political Science at the Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany, shows how intergenerational interests are served by an assertive vaccination policy.

How a microscopic virus shines a searchlight on the world’s inequalities

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is unequal, hitting the most vulnerable the hardest – and nowhere is this clearer than in Africa. By David McNair, Executive Director, Global Policy, at ONE,“a global movement campaigning to end extreme poverty and preventable disease by 2030 so that everyone, everywhere can lead a life of dignity and… Read more »