by Natalia Atuesta-Escobar,
participant in UNDP’s Signals Spotlight youth consultation

In times of polycrisis, it is easy to succumb to extremes: unlimited optimism promising a utopian future, or paralysing resignation in the face of impending doom. Neither leads to the thriving planet I wish to pass down generations, a resource-full world where people and nature have endless possibilities. 
 
The truth is that challenges are not heralds of despair, but catalysts for progress. Look at nature’s most resilient plants; they developed drought tolerance in arid environments, not lush gardens. Entrepreneurs did not forge profitable businesses without solving customers’ needs, and Indigenous peoples did not introduce rotational crops into soils that were already nutrient-rich. Innovation flourishes at the borderlines, and a toolbox for the future is enriched by the solutions our ancestors found to the challenges they faced. Handing down this knowledge from generation to generation is the essence of intergenerational generosity: an impulse that gives plants a genetic reservoir for drought tolerance, and equips humans with resilience, curiosity, hope and innovation. The future is not bleak; it is full of potential, and we are the ones who can unlock it. 
 
Young people worldwide long for a world beyond promises and pledges, unmet targets, unaffordable policies, or hopelessness. Amidst the polycrisis, this could have been the generation that gave up. Instead, we chose to stay. We stay because our voices are needed to cut through the negativity, needed to refute empty promises of a future without failure, or one where technology has all the answers. If you are reading this, it means you, like me, are part of the “transition generation,” whose mission is to shift the narratives from scarcity to abundance, from fear to resourcefulness. A generation of resourceful trailblazers and bridge-builders who embrace a future that, while uncertain, is hopeful. 
 
I do not wish my children to inherit a problem-free world; that would mean the work is done, and their contributions would not matter. Instead, I would like them to enjoy a world they can craft, where new voices are opportunities and old voices are wisdom. I want our children to inherit a world they, in turn, can pass on to their children.