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 »

What should a post-COVID-19 recovery should look like for young people in Germany?

In this contribution to IF’s worldwide blog week, Jörg Tremmel, Co-founder of Germany’s Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations, looks at a post-corona-Germany in three decisive policy fields: public health, public debt and the climate crisis.  Public health SARS-CoV-2 has changed fundamentally the level of acceptance for rigid public health measures in Germany (as… Read more »

Generation Covid: how can we build back better and fairer across generations?

In this article, Tan Suee Chieh, Immediate Past-President of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, explains how young people globally could become a “lost generation” unless policy shifts towards prioritising the long term. During a war it is usually the young who are sent to do the fighting. If you view the pandemic as a… Read more »

You may say “jam tomorrow”. But we say, “share today”

In this contribution to IF’s Worldwide Blog Week, IF supporter and Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography of the School of Geography and the Environment of the University of Oxford, Danny Dorling, argues that rather than promising growth tomorrow, policy-makers should give more to younger generations today Slowing GDP growth We tend to assume that there… Read more »