Becoming good ancestors

What will it take for generations alive today to become better ancestors, asks writer and campaigner Jonathon Porritt. Tackling the climate crisis, of course, but changing how we live our lives and prioritising the future is also vital. Running out of time The vast majority of parents would hope that they’re doing everything they can… Read more »

Democratic rotation: could a lottery system revitalise US political institutions?

The American political system is gridlocked and its democratic norms are shaken. In the second of two articles for IF’s Worldwide Blog Week on renewing the legal and political institutions of the United States, Julia M. Puaschunder, an economist and psychologist at ​​Inter-University Consortium of New York, considers the history of the lottery system in… Read more »

Net Zero: are we unfairly “discounting” the future?

Bill Anderson-Samways is a former researcher at the Social Market Foundation. He recently co-authored a report on how to pay for the transition to Net Zero, On Borrowed Time, with John Hobby, a researcher at the Intergenerational Foundation. In this blog, he argues that the UK’s high discount rate pushes the costs of Net Zero… Read more »

Jaded ‘Jeunesse’: abstention, protest and the generation gap in French politics

Sarah Pickard is a Senior Lecturer at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris and is the author of Politics, Protest and Young People. In this blog, she assesses the role of young people in French politics, especially during the presidential and legislative elections earlier this year. Voting and protest Young people’s political participation has been… Read more »

Abolishing stamp duty can help us achieve intergenerational equity

In this contribution to IF’s Worldwide Blog Week 2022, Andrew Dixon, Founder of Fairer Share, a UK-based property taxation campaign group, explains how abolishing stamp duty can make society fairer for younger generations. Growing gerontocracy The basis of our society, as well as many foundational economic models, is that people will tend to vote in… Read more »

The search for nuclear waste repository sites: an incredibly momentous decision

Jörg Tremmel is a Co-founder of Germany’s Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations. Milena Weber is a student of Global Environmental and Sustainability Science and Political Science at Leuphana University in Lüneburg, while also working for FRFG. In this joint piece, they look at how the German government is approaching the storage of nuclear… Read more »

When the old suffer too: the cycle of intergenerational inequality

Danny Dorling is the Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography of the School of Geography and the Environment of the University of Oxford, and the author of many books including All That Is Solid, Inequality and the 1%, and Injustice: why social inequality persists. In this blog, he explains how inequality between older and younger generations… Read more »

Introducing our Worldwide Blog Week 2022

​​Every summer, the Intergenerational Foundation hosts a Worldwide Blog Week, inviting writers here in the UK and from around the world to contribute to a week-long discussion on issues of intergenerational fairness. This international and cross-cultural dialogue deepens our understanding of the many frontiers of intergenerational justice, and helps us to understand how academics and… Read more »

The leadership will change – will any policies?

Alec Haglund, IF researcher, explores whether the 2022 Conservative leadership race will provide an opportunity for a renewed national debate and discussion about solving the country’s problems. Empty talk For a democracy to be healthy and thriving, there must always be space for an open discussion about how to improve people’s lives and how to… Read more »

It’s “Zero Hour” – Join the campaign this week

Amy Heley, Campaigner for Zero Hour, explains why she needs your help tomorrow (14 July) to bring attention to the Climate and Ecology Bill Zero Hour is the campaign behind the Climate and Ecology Bill. We are running a cross-party campaign, supported by MPs and Peers from across all major parties, to promote a Bill… Read more »