OVERVIEW 

Imagine choosing a society to live in without knowing who you’d be and what chances you might have (as in philosopher John Rawls’ thought experiment to design a fair society). Now, extend that to intergenerational equity: imagine you’ll be born at some unknown point in the future. You’d want to keep all the options open - environmental, social, economic  - for future generations to flourish. Leaving a legacy of choice, not a burden of debt, is the only way to ensure fair shares for all, now and in the future.

SIGNALS

Intergenerational equity, or fairness between generations, is the idea that “the pursuit of welfare by the current generation should not diminish the opportunities for a good and decent life for succeeding generations.”

Discussion of the legacy we leave usually focuses on the environment, since young people will disproportionately experience the negative, and compounding, consequences of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. But intergenerational equity has to expand to include new challenges, like overburdened pension systems in ageing societies, the shifting nature of work, and even fair shares of non-material resources, like access to knowledge and fulfilling experiences. It must consider not just younger or future generations, but older ones as well; see for example the European Court on Human Rights’ ruling that the Swiss government’s failure to mitigate global warming violated the right to health and life of a group of elderly women.

Many governments are deliberately trying to incorporate longer-term perspectives into policy-making, such as Wales’ Well-being of Future Generations Act. Japan’s Future Design movement is inspired by the principle of seventh-generation decision-making practised in many Native American communities. Japan’s time rebels wear ceremonial yellow robes and imagine themselves living in 2060, even as they plan today’s towns and cities. Time banks worldwide let people bank hours to be redeemed in their old age, supplementing social safety nets and strengthening communities in the process. Citizens’ Assemblies factor future generations into decision-making, while intergenerational equity is a stated consideration in some government budgets.

Intergenerational justice asks us to look back too, to make reparations for historical injustices that disadvantaged present generations. African and Caribbean nations call for an international tribunal on atrocities dating to the transatlantic trade of enslaved people, while the African Union proposes as its theme for 2025 ‘‘Justice for Africans and people of African descent through reparations.” Reparations for climate damage might draw on the example of postwar Germany.

SO WHAT FOR DEVELOPMENT?

Global ecosystems risk collapsing decades earlier than anticipated, and inequality between and within countries has increased each year since 2020. Reversing these trends means taking a longer-term perspective. Legislation or dedicated bodies for intergenerational justice can make this happen - like the Welsh Commissioner for Future Generations; Parliamentary Committees of the Future; and citizen-based deliberative bodies. Should there be a UN envoy for future generations? Imagine half of all Parliaments were representatives of future generations, or politicians were obliged to assess the seventh-generation impact of their decisions - what kind of decisions would they be making?

Public spending choices, if motivated by intergenerational equity, might look very different. Basic income in exchange for conservation work could be a shrewd investment41 for future generations; $5.50/day paid to residents of protected areas in low- and middle-income countries would cost $478 billion – a potentially sensible investment considering the estimated US$44 trillion in global economic production that depends on nature. A basic income pilot for indigenous peoples in three Amazon communities aims to enable them to continue living in and protecting the rainforest. Cash transfers to poor households in Indonesia reduced deforestation. Universal basic income (UBI) can have disruptive effects, though; the unequal benefits conferred in randomized controlled trials have upset Kenyan communities.

If intergenerational equity is left unaddressed – if younger generations feel that snowballing problems like climate change or overburdened pension systems are left for them to deal with – public trust in institutions will further diminish, as will human agency, weakening the capacity needed to address these hard problems.

The Pact for the Future and the Declaration on Future Generations, to be agreed at the UN Summit of the Future, are a major opportunity to move towards intergenerational fair shares.