Ethics & governance
Future Generations
The people who will live after us, recognised in sustainability ethics and law as having interests that present decisions must safeguard — most recently in the UN's 2024 Declaration on Future Generations.
Definition
Future generations are the people not yet born whose ability to meet their own needs the present generation must not compromise — the moral core of the Brundtland definition of sustainable development. The concept was given new institutional form in 2024 when UN member states adopted the Pact for the Future (Resolution A/RES/79/1, 22 September 2024), which includes a Declaration on Future Generations as an annex.
References
2024 institutionalisation
resolution details
Overview
What it means
Treating future generations as stakeholders converts sustainability from a preference into a duty: discounting the future less heavily, protecting irreversible assets such as biodiversity and a stable climate, and building institutions — ombudspersons, guardians, future-proofing laws — that represent the unborn in today's decisions.
How it is used
The concept anchors intergenerational-equity arguments in climate litigation, constitutional environmental rights, long-term infrastructure appraisal, and UN processes from the SDGs to the Pact for the Future.
Why it matters
Most environmental damage is temporally asymmetric: costs fall on people with no voice today. Future generations is the concept that makes that asymmetry visible and actionable.
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