The UK Government has announced their plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to reach a target of net zero. The most notable initiatives include investments in electrical cars and sustainable aviation, as well as expansion of nuclear programmes. IF Student Intern, Hanna Burt, analyses the plan from an intergenerational fairness perspective. Too little, too late… Read more »
Category: Future Generations
A safe climate is a Human Right – what now?
The United Nations (UN) has declared that access to a sustainable environment is a human right. But as established by IF supporter Alice Bordini-Staden, politicians must take action to ensure that future generations may enjoy this right. IF student intern, Hanna Burt, writes about the suggestions made by Alice and others to combat the intergenerational… Read more »
National Insurance: young people and lower earners hit the hardest
Yesterday, MPs voted to approve raising employees’ National Insurance Contributions (NICs) by 1.25 percentage points, breaking a key manifesto promise not to raise taxes. While the government marketed the rise as “progressive”, in reality it is an intergenerationally unfair tax reform which will affect younger generations the most. Lizzie Simpson, IF Researcher, explains. A regressive… Read more »
Young people, climate change and political power: comparing Germany and the UK
With the upcoming election marking a potential turning point in Germany’s future environmental policy, the country’s demographics give older generations more political power, says Deutsche Welle. If older generations are less concerned about climate change and less supportive of policies to change it, this is disillusioning for those hoping for more ambitious government action against… Read more »
The climate crisis requires solidarity between generations
Throughout the pandemic crisis, younger generations have taken a large hit to their quality of life in order to protect older generations who are most at risk of dying from COVID–19. IF senior researcher, Melissa Bui, explains how older generations can repay young people for their demonstration of intergenerational solidarity by taking essential and urgent… Read more »
It’s time for post-COVID payback for Australia’s young people
Australia has been called a “lucky country” thanks to very low COVID-19 deaths, but that has come at an economic cost to younger Australians who have not fared well. Think Forward, a newly established lobby group for young Australians who want politicians to prioritise and take action on issues of intergenerational fairness, argues that young… Read more »
Intergenerational equity: Covid-19 recovery within planetary boundaries
As Europe slowly emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic, Agata Meysner, Director of Generation Climate Europe, argues that we have a unique opportunity to redesign our economic system to fit within the Earth’s planetary boundaries and that the EU needs to move beyond the growth-oriented fossil fuel economy to create a green and just transition for… Read more »
Intergenerational tensions linger in Canada despite COVID-19 inspired child care breakthrough
Paul Kershaw, a policy professor in the University of British Columbia’s School of Population Health, and Founder of Generation Squeeze, explains how spending on older generations’ pensions is passing structural deficits on to young Canadians A victory for the generations raising young kids I founded Generation Squeeze a decade ago to shine light on the… Read more »
Is New Zealand trailing behind other countries on its COVID-19 economic recovery regarding children?
In this contribution to IF’s Worldwide Blog Week, Claire Dale, Research Fellow at the University of Auckland Business School, explains how young people, and specifically children, have so far been let down by COVID-19 recovery policies NZ’s ageing population As population ageing is occurring in most of the world, it is increasingly urgent to have… Read more »
We need to move beyond “Check Mate” and think long-term for future generations
Sophie Howe is the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales. In this contribution to IF’s Worldwide Blog Week, Sophie explains how the office of the Commissioner is helping to lead Wales out of the COVID-19 pandemic sustainably The world we live in is like a game of chess. Get your strategy wrong and you lose the… Read more »