Future generations are cohorts of hypothetical people not yet born. Future

generation A generation refers to all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively. It can also be described as, "the average period, generally considered to be about 20–⁠30 years, during which children are born and gr ...

s are contrasted with current and past generations, and evoked in order to encourage thinking about

intergenerational equity Intergenerational equity in economic, psychological, and sociological contexts, is the idea of fairness or justice between generations. The concept can be applied to fairness in dynamics between children, youth, adults, and seniors. It can al ...

. The moral patienthood of future generations has been argued for extensively among philosophers, and is thought of as an important, neglected cause by the effective altruism community. The term is often used in describing the conservation or preservation of cultural heritage or natural heritage. The sustainability and

climate movement The climate movement is a global social movement focused on pressuring governments and industry to take action (also called "climate action") addressing the causes and impacts of climate change. Environmental non-profit organizations have enga ...

s have adopted the concept as a tool for enshrining principles of long-term thinking into law. The concept is often connected to indigenous thinking as a principle for ecological action, such as the seven generation concept attributed to Iroquois tradition.

Sources

The term refers to the impact which the currently living generation has on the world which future generations will live in, the world they will inherit from humans living today. This concept is referred to in the most widely quoted definition of sustainability as a part of the concept sustainable development, is that of the

Brundtland Commission The Brundtland Commission, formerly the World Commission on Environment and Development, was a sub-organization of the United Nations (UN) that aimed to unite countries in pursuit of sustainable development. It was founded in 1983 when Javier Pé ...

of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

on March 20, 1987: "sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." The use of future generations in international law is in part recognized by the

Charter of the United Nations The Charter of the United Nations (UN) is the foundational treaty of the UN, an intergovernmental organization. It establishes the purposes, governing structure, and overall framework of the UN system, including its six principal organs: the ...

which focuses on preventing the "scourge of war" on future generations. With the publication of

UN Secretary-General The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or SG) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. The role of the secretary- ...

's landmark Our Common Agenda report in September 2021, there has been a renewed interest in understanding, action for, and representing future generations in the multilateral system.

UNESCO declaration

Economics

Most capitalist approaches assume future generations will have increased prosperity. However, these assumptions do not bear out—most economic decisions are made with short term benefits in mind.

Legal rights of future generations

Most implementations of future generations focus on enshrining the rights and needs of future generations in law, in order to represent those unable to voice their needs. Several countries have tried enshrining obligations to future generations in law. In

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, this moral obligation is encoded as a legal duty in the

Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 (anaw 2) ( cy, Deddf Llesiant Cenedlaethau'r Dyfodol (Cymru) 2015) is an Act of the National Assembly for Wales that was given royal assent on 29 April 2015; it came into force in April 2016. ...

and in the role of the Future Generations Commissioner. The first commissioner

Sophie Howe Sophie Howe (born c. 1977) is the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, appointed in 2016. She had previously been a local councillor and worked as a special political advisor and deputy police and crime commissioner. Career Howe was el ...

modeled the role, proposing a number of new policies designed for future-thinking policy in Wales, including a 2020 ''Manifesto for the Future''. Similarly in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

the office of the Hungarian Parliamentary Commissioner for Future Generations was established in 2008.

Climate litigation

The rights of future generations are increasingly being protected in legal precedents as part of the global trends in climate litigation. Future generations were the defendant in the critical defendants in a 2018 case '' Future Generations v. Ministry of the Environment and Others'' in Colombia which protected the Amazon rainforest basin for future generations.

In popular culture

The rights of future generations were the inspiration for the principle plot device in

Kim Stanley Robinson Kim Stanley Robinson (born March 23, 1952) is an American writer of science fiction. He has published twenty-two novels and numerous short stories and is best known for his ''Mars'' trilogy. His work has been translated into 24 languages. Many ...

's ''

The Ministry for the Future ''The Ministry for the Future'' is a climate fiction ("cli-fi") novel by American science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson published in 2020. Set in the near future, the novel follows a subsidiary body, established under the Paris Agreement, ...

.''

References

{{Generation Cultural generations Futures studies