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Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations Issue 3/2005

(3rd English Edition)

ISSN 1617 - 1799 INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review Index of Contents

Commission for Future Generations in the Knesset – Lessons Special: Documentation of FRFG Event Learnt by Prof. Shlomo Shoham and Nira Lamay 35 nd th Young Leaders Congress, 22 - 26 June, 2005 in Berlin: The Committee for the Future - Future policy „Ecological Generational Justice into the Constitution?“ 4 by Dr. Paula Tiihonen 36

Topic: Institutionalisation of Intergenerational Book Recommendations and Reviews 38 Justice Responsibility for Future Generations: Scope and Limits by Prof. Dr. Dieter Birnbacher 22 Internal matters 40 John Rawls on Rights of Future Generations by Prof. Dr. Claus Dierksmeier 23

Intergenerational Justice Impressum by Ass. Prof. Emmanuel Agius 24 Publisher: Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations Justice Between Generations: Limits of Procedural Justice (Stiftung für die Rechte zukünftiger Generationen) by Prof. Michael Wallack 25 Editors-in-Chief: Jörg Tremmel, Yanti Ehrentraut, Frauke Austermann Principles of Generational Justice Editorial staff: Tobias Kemnitzer, Thomas Wiechers by Prof. Dr. Christoph Lumer 26 Layout: Katarzyna Opielka, E-mail: [email protected] Ockershäuser Allee 5, 35037 Marburg, Tel/Fax: 06421 97 22 76 The Impossibility of Intergenerational Justice Concept and Implementation: Jörg Tremmel by Prof. Dr. Wilfred Beckerman 27 Print: Druckhaus Marburg, Im Rudert 13, 35043 Marburg Printed on chlorine-free bleached paper. Towards a Pragmatic Approach to Intergenerational Justice in Postal address of Publisher Germany Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations, by Dr. Johannes Meier and Dr. Ole Wintermann 27 (Stiftung für die Rechte zukünftiger Generationen) Postfach 5115, A Constitutional Law for Future Generations - The “other” Form 61422 Oberursel of the Social Contract: The Generation Contract Germany by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Peter Häberle 28 Tel.: +49(0)6171-982367 Fax.: +49(0)6171-952566 The French Constitutional Charter for the Environment: An E-Mail: [email protected], Effective Instrument? Online: www.srzg.de by Prof. Dominique Bourg 29 The Journal Intergenerational Justice Review is issued three times Establishment of the Rights of Future Generations in National per year in German and one time in English. It aims at encourag- Constitutions ing the consciousness of our responsibility for future generations. by Dr. Jörg Tremmel 30 In addition, it informs on relevant developments around Intergenerational Justice and Sustainability. Moreover, it reports Rule Change and Intergenerational Justice on the work of the Foundation for the Rights of Future by Dr. Axel Gosseries 31 Generations (FRFG) as well as on projects that deal with Intergenerational Justice of other organisations, particularly Institutional Determinants of Public Debt: A Political Economy youth organisations. Perspective by Prof. Dr. Robert K. von Weizsäcker and Dr. Bernd Süssmuth 32 The annual subscription costs 25 Euro and has to be paid in advance. The cancellation period is three months until the end if The Economic Sustainability Indicator the year. For subscription, see last page. Membership dues of by Dr. Peer Ederer, Dr. Philipp Schuller, and Stephan Willms 33 members of FRFG include the subscription fee.

Institutional Protection of Succeeding Generations – Published contributions do not necessarily reflect opinions of Ombudsman for Future Generations in Hungary by Dr. Benedek Jávor 34 members or organs of FRFG. Citations from articles are permit- ted upon accurate quotation and submission of one sample of The Role of CPB in Dutch Economic Policy Making the incorporated citation. All other rights are reserved. by Rocus van Opstal and Jacqueline Timmerhuis 34 Sponsored by the German Federal Environmental Foundation.

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 2 Editorial

tional anchorage is needed. This is the demand of Prof Dr. Dr. Dear reader, h.c. mult. Peter Häberle, who is director of the Bayreuth Institute for European Law and Law Culture. Häberle's demand would In this third English issue of Intergenerational Justice Review imply a drastic rule change. The article of Dr. Jörg Tremmel from (IJR), we present to you an elaborate documentation of the the Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations justifies the "Young Leaders Congress - Ecological Generational Justice into need to institutionalise Intergenerational Justice. Focussing on the Constitution?". This highly successful event took place in changes of constitutions, it deals with Beckerman´s argument Berlin, Germany, from 22nd to 26th June 2005. Almost fifty par- that future generations cannot have rights. Prof. Dominique ticipants from all over Europe and beyond took part in the Bourg elaborates further on the constitutional anchorage of Congress, and discussed together with twenty international Sustainability by evaluating the effects of the French experts on environmental policy, law and economy persistent Constitutional Environment Charter. The entailed impact on cur- problems, developments and solutions. The unique spirit of the rent and future generations, namely transition losses, are dis- Young Leaders Congress can probably best be reflected by some cussed by Dr. Axel Gosseries, permanent research fellow at the lines of the final declaration which was formulated by all partici- Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique in Belgium and for pants: the Chaire Hoover d'éthique économique et sociale at the University of Louvain. Having introduced a 'morality test', he "One vision shared by the youth of Europe is that of applies his theoretical framework to three exemplary rule changes. Sustainability and Intergenerational Justice throughout the world. To continue with practical problems that hint at the desperate We came together to seek solutions for one of the paramount need for institutionalising Generational Justice, Prof. Dr. Robert problems of our time: political short-termism. …We agreed to K. von Weizsäcker and Dr. Bernd Süssmuth, both teaching at the form a network to further pursue these goals. We want to put Faculty of Economics of the Technical University of Munich, Intergenerational Justice and Sustainability on the political agen- outline the gravity of public debt for Germany and other states. da. Being young people from different countries, we will start ini- Especially the short-sightedness of politicians who prefer being tiatives to overcome the problem of political short-termism." re-elected rather than tackling fundamental issues constitutes an obstacle in solving long term problems. In order to raise the pub- As a preparation, the participants were provided with a reader lic's awareness concerning this lack, Dr. Peer Ederer, Dr. Philipp consisting of articles written by distinct experts of the topic, Schuller, and Stephan Willms, founders of the think tank among them speakers of the Congress. In this issue, we also 'Deutschland Denken!', developed the 'Economic Sustainability include these essential viewpoints. The complete versions of Indicator'. Another possibility to institutionalise generational jus- these papers will be published in an upcoming "Handbook tice is the establishment of an ombudsman for future generations. Intergenerational Justice". For the IJR issue at hand, we provide Dr. Benedek Jávor, Assistant Professor of Environmental you with precise and concise summaries of the papers. Sciences at the Department of Environmental Law at Pazmany As a starting point, Prof. Dr. Dieter Birnbacher, teaching at Peter Catholic University, Budapest, describes how this was initi- Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany, approaches ated by the Hungarian NGO 'Protect the Future!'. Having dealt the topic by analysing the ethical appropriateness of actual proce- with two non-governmental initiatives, the article by Rocus van dures to institutionalise generational justice. He reveals daily com- Opstal and Jacqueline Timmerhuis from the Netherlands Bureau placency to be a special hindrance within the attempt to take for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) introduces how a rather responsibility for future generations. Tying up to the ethical aspect independent governmental institution can trigger more long term Prof. Dr. Claus Dierksmeier, who teaches Philosophy at Stonehill- thinking. Another successful governmental institution is the College in Easton/Boston, USA, pleads for a moral-based, meta- Commission for Future Generations of the Knesset, the Israeli physical explanation. In his article he criticises John Rawls's rather Parliament. Shlomo Shoham, Professor at the Faculty of Law of rational theoretical approach in his work "A Theory of Justice". Tel Aviv University, and Nira Lamay, Deputy Commissioner for Prof. Emmanuel Agius from the University of Malta sets a frame- the Knesset Commission for Future Generations, evaluate this work of ethical principles that should be taken as a guide when young and worldwide unique establishment. Finally, Dr. Paula realising intergenerational justice. Moreover, he also takes John Tiihonen discusses origins, history and main tasks of Finland's Rawls into account, especially his 'just saving principles'. Michael Committee for the Future and evaluates its work. Wallack, Associate Professor of Political Sciences at Memorial Beyond this, we inform you about current activities of the FRFG University of Newfoundland, broadens the critique on Rawls and and YOIS and further important literature to the topic. proposes a principle of "Minimum Irreversible Harm". In this context, Prof. Dr. Christoph Lumer, Professor of Philosophy at We hope you will enjoy our third English issue of the University of Osnabrück, Germany, then develops five con- Intergenerational Justice Review crete moral axioms which come directly under practical scrutiny. Prof. Dr. Beckerman renews his critic from the last IJR that a the- Dr. Jörg Tremmel Frauke Austermann Yanti Ehrentraut ory of intergenerational justice is not only impossible but also unnecessary. Dr. Meier and Dr. Wintermann describe a pragmat- ic approach for reaching the aim of sustainability. Therefore German politics should look beyond national borders. To realise and assure the need of generation protection, a reform of the social contract into a 'generation contract', as well as its constitu-

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 3 Documentation "Young Leaders Congress - Ecological Generational Justice into the Constitution? Europe's Green Future in the 21st century"

- Berlin, 22th June - 26th June 2005 -

Contents: place from Wednesday, 22nd to Sunday, organisers and speakers. The simulation 26th June in Berlin. Almost fifty partici- game "Fish Banks Ltd." was one of the 1. Introduction pants from all over Europe and beyond more relaxed parts of the Congress. 2. The Elements of the Congress took part in this great event. Twenty inter- Furthermore, a Case Study Trip to the 2.1 Simulation Game Fish Banks ltd. national experts on environmental policy, German Parliament "Reichstag" including 2.2 Speech: "Ecology as a luxury - a good law and economy discussed persistent a short speech about the energy systems initiative at the wrong time?" problems, developments and solutions. of the building gave the chance to discov- 2.3 Presentation of members of the The Congress was structured as follows: er some sights of the wonderful city German Parliament the first main debate on Friday with the Berlin. The "Country Fair" sought to 2.4 Debate: "13 years after Rio - how far title "13 years after Rio - how far are we in show typical features as well as symbols of are we in achieving ecological achieving ecological Generational Justice Sustainability in each country and present- Generational Justice in Europe?" in Europe?" examined the current situa- ed the different nationalities in a humor- 2.5 Lecture: "The Idea of Generational tion of our continent. Markus Knigge, ous way. Justice in an ecological sense. Possibilities Fellow with Ecologic, moderated the Between the three main debates, we could of its institutionalisation" debate between Dr. Karsten Sach of the also hear other presentations such as a 2.6 Study Groups: Federal Environment Ministry of speech by Prof. Dr. Weizsäcker, the 2.6.1 Criteria for Intergenerational Justice Germany and Dr. Manfred Bergmann of Chairman of the Bundestag Committee 2.6.2 Constitutional Change the European Commission. on Environment, Nature Conservation 2.6.3 Commission for Future Generations The next day, the panel discussion "Bad and Nuclear Safety, about "Ecology as a 2.6.4 Ombudsperson for Future Genera- news are good news - the image of ecolo- luxury - a good initiative at the wrong tions gy in the media?" took place and created a time?". Also, we heard a lecture and a pre- 2.6.5 The European Union Strategy for lot stuff to talk about. Edgar Göll from sentation by Dr. Jörg Tremmel on the Sustainable Development the Institute for Future Studies, guided the "Handbook Generational Justice". Last 2.7 Panel Discussion: "Bad news are good discussion between journalist Matthias but not least, Ann Mettler, Executive news - The image of ecology in the Urbach from the newspaper TAZ, Jörg Director of Lisbon Council asbl., gave a media?" Geier, Deputy Secretary-General of the very enthusiastic speech on "How to start 2.8 Presentation of the intention of par- Club of Rome, and the Press Officer of a campaign in Europe". One afternoon, ticipants for a campaign in their own Greenpeace, Svenja Koch. the participants presented individual cam- country or Europe The final panel discussion on Sunday paigns for their own country or for the 2.9 Presentation: "How to start a cam- marked the end of the Congress and European Union. The participants, paign in Europe" Ann Mettler, Executive addressed the topic "25 years after among them several members of parlia- Director, Johannesburg - visions of an ecological ment, examined different constitutions Lisbon Council asbl. Europe in a sustainable world". regarding their "long-termism". The pro- 2.10 Panel Discussion: "25 years after Furthermore, five workshops were organ- posals for reform ranged from new para- Johannesburg - visions of an ecological ised. Dr. Jörg Tremmel of the Foundation graphs for Intergenerational Justice to Europe in a for the Rights of Future Generations new institutions. The Congress was a very sustainable world" (FRFG) held the workshop important step forward, because the 3. Feedback "Constitutional Change" and Torge developed concepts can indeed be realised 4. Declaration of the Congress Hamkens, the Vice Chairman of the by many of the participants. 5. Biographies of the speakers and mode- Global Contract Foundation, explained rators "The European Union Strategy for In this documentation of the Young 6. Epilogue Sustainable Development". The partici- Leaders Congress, we would like to pre- 7. Participants, Organisers, Sponsors pants could also join a workshop about sent summaries of the different events "Ombudsperson for Future Generations" written by participants for participants 1. Introduction which was managed by Benedek Jávor and everybody who is interested in the from Hungary. Prof. Dr. Wallack from the topic of the Congress. At the end of this Young Leaders Congress 2005 - one Memorial University of Newfoundland, documentation, the reader can find the leap forward introduced "Criteria for Intergenerational "Declaration of the Congress", which was Justice" and Nira Lamay of The Knesset formulated together with the Young "Ecological Generational Justice into the informed about the "Commission for Leaders. It includes basic problems and Constitution? Europe's Green Future in Future Generations". aims of Sustainability and tries to provide the 21st century" was the topic of the Beyond the level of political and environ- a thought-provoking impulse to develop Young Leaders Congress, which took mental education, we tried to create a own solutions and ideas. Just be willing to friendly atmosphere between participants, make one leap forward in the fight for a

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 4 and after each round bunch of observations concerning topical every group got an indi- social debates: We have been captured by vidual information from the hegemonial speech of economic the bank about their growth as the only rational means of profit or loss. At the advancing and developing our societies; all beginning of the game, intentions, action and promises we direct everybody caught a lot to it with no other criteria. From a finan- of fish and was more or cial point of view, from the resource side, less successful, but sustainable growth would have been pos- already in the second sible for a long time. During the 19th and round, fish got very little the 20th century, optimism gained space and in the 7th round the from the conservative viewpoint towards participants received a social change. Optimism got it first press release, which remarkable hit worldwide in form of the Photo: The Participants of the Congress announced the status of book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson in more fair-minded world. overfishing. A discus- 1962, followed by the Club of Rome with sion followed about the absolute and rela- its alarming book Limits to Growth of 1972. Authors: Tobias Kemnitzer, Jörg tive quotas, but without an agreement. Tremmel, Kristin Tecles, Yanti After the last round, there was a group, Talking about economic Sustainability in Ehrentraut, Frauke Austermann, Caterina which had the most capital, but they could the European context, or the lack of it, Bressa, Andrea Heubach und Thomas not really be called "winners" because if von Weizsäcker mentioned the chronic Wiechers from the FRFG we had continued the game, everybody financial deficit suffered by Eastern would have been a loser. The lack of fish Germany, as well as the unsustainable 2. The Elements of the Congress in the sea was just irreversible. The better solution would be 2.1 Simulation Game "Fish Banks an agreement between the Ltd." companies, to catch only that Thursday, 23rd of June much fish, that it is still possi- managed by Tile von Damm, "Per ble to keep the balance. Fish is Global" and Johanna Brinkmann, PhD- limited and "Sustainability" Candidate at the Chair for Economic was the conclusion of the Ethics, University of Halle-Wittenberg game. It became clear, that natural resources are not able The Simulation Game took place in the to grow as fast as economy in Friedrichstadt Church and started with an a capitalistic society. An agree- introduction given by Johanna Brinkmann ment between companies is and Tile von Damm on the game's rules. necessary to make fish-catch- Photo: Markus Götz-Guerlin (left) of the Protestant Academy introduces the ing efficient for everybody. The experts explained that the partici- two leaders of the Simulation Game Fish Banks Ltd. pants had to divide up in seven groups of One proposal is to create lim- about seven people. After that, each group its of fishing in order to create a natural financial flow between the north and the got some information sheets and the balance between men and nature. south of Italy. In Germany, regardless of game leaders explained that every group the party in power, there is 45 % more of constitutes one fishing company. As a (Summary by Kristin Tecles and Yanti consumption compared with production. next step, everybody got to know that the Ehrentraut, organisation team) This situation is far from being sustain- aim is to make as much profit as possible. able, even though examined just from the Each company had the same starting con- 2.2 Ecology as a Luxury - a good financial point of view. ditions of six boats and the equal amount Initiative at the wrong Time? of capital. Then the participants had to Friday, 24th June Von Weizsäcker remembered and chal- evaluate how to act. It was possible to Speech by Prof. Dr. Ernst-Ulrich von lenged the words of Indira Gandhi (1972) send the boats into the deep sea, to the Weizsäcker, Chairman of the Bundestag stating poverty to be the worst polluter. coast or to the harbour, but everywhere Committee on Environment, Nature The statement of Gandhi was following different costs had to be paid. Moreover, Conservation and Nuclear Safety the then actual perception, where the every group could buy further ships in dif- wealth growing by advance of time was ferent manners, e.g. from the bank or The Young Leaders Congress 2005 believed to automatically guarantee an end from other companies. As in real life, enjoyed a presentation by Prof. Dr. Ernst- to pollution after it would have reached a advantages and disadvantages occurred Ulrich von Weizsäcker about remedies certain peak. Von Weizsäcker disagreed to with each decision. In addition, the against dangerously ignorant attitudes this: "It does not work like this, not in the Simulation Game contained some surpris- concerning ecological and social rights of world as we now know it. Actually, they es, e.g. nobody could know how the Future Generations, mostly threatened by are the richest and "cleanest", in environ- weather would develop, how much fish political short-termism derived from vot- mental classic terms, who nowadays most would be left in the sea and how other ing cycles. amend and destroy environment due to companies would react. the volume of our consumption." The game was structured in ten rounds Von Weizsäcker offered a beautifully fresh

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 5 Von Weizsäcker named the indicator of of technological development: In Japan Kauch told us about the work of the ecological footprint as a descriptive tool in refrigerators are on the market that are German Parliamentary Council on order to piece together "the western seven times more effective than the ones Sustainable Development, of which he is impact" on global threats, such as climate sold in Europe. Another example is the a member. The Council was founded in change and loss of biodiversity. car industry. While General Motors is liv- 2003 but only started functioning in 2004. According to calculations behind the con- ing hard times, Toyota falls from one vic- The founding meant a remarkable change cept of ecological footprint, a wealthy tory to another. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in the parliamentary work concerning European citizen consumes four hectares the governor of California, has declared Sustainable Development, for before of the surface of the globe; an average his intention to enhance the carbon effec- responsible persons were only named by North American consumes more than tiveness of California until 2040 to 80 per the German Councillor. The new Council eight hectares, and an average Chinese or cent from actual levels. Further themes consists of members from all the main Indian less than one hectare. requiering prompt action are, inter alia, parties and has brought matters of sus- effective usage of water and metal tainable development closer to the daily Environmental problems are not just a resources. work of the Parliament. The next topics question of pollution; they are a question that are planned to be treated in the of resource usage. Von Weizsäcker was Unfortunately, Germany is not yet on the Council's work are biodiversity and the actually just heading for China, for the right track, as stated by von Weizsäcker. growing public debt. A new issue is the Chinese have just become conscious of Still, this message has not broken through; relationship between public investments the meaning of the effective use of there is a lack of information and aware- and demographical change. resources, a concept called "factor four", ness with respect to which questions. We and they want to change the patterns of need to start focusing on genuine factors The Council had made a study visit to their resource usage. The actual ideologi- affecting social dynamics, for example, the Sweden and Finland, where generational cal battle is being fought between trade actual structure of incentives provided for accounting is already being practiced. In unions and representatives of different architectures spur construction of expen- Finland, very different from the German industrial sectors. In Germany, for exam- sive houses and not being energy efficient. situation, experts are calculating how to ple, the industry is demanding more rights Von Weizsäcker appealed to us to bring maintain the public surplus the next 40 for CO2-emissions presenting themselves this message further, and to work for its years. Germany is still lacking a sustain- as the safeguard of jobs. practical implementation. able accounting system for future effects Why does it sound that sarcastic, asked of pensions, social security subsidies and von Weizsäcker. He elevated the Nordic (Summary by Tuuli J. Lehtinen, partici- public debt. The Council has been prepar- pant from Finland) ing action concerning internalisation of the external costs of our actions (indirect 2.3 Initiative of costs for instance the negative impacts of Members of the German traffic to the public health; impacts which Parliament to are not taken into account in fuel prices), Institutionalise Gene- but due to the premature German elec- rational Justice tions, Kauch stated he is wishing the next Council to retake the topic. With respect Friday, 24th June to this kind of initiatives of wide reper- Moderator: Dr. Jörg cussions, the importance of (at least) Tremmel, FRFG, European wide networks is paramount. Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations, To conclude, Kauch gave two responses Speakers: Michael on how to tackle the actual exploitation of Kauch, FDP, Liberal Free Future Generations' rights: 1) Adjusting Democrats party and Anna the criteria for public subsidies. 2) Photo: Jörg Tremmel, Michael Kauch Anna Lührmann (from left to right) Lührmann, German Creating an independent organ to alarm Greens. of economic crises and safeguard public Countries as a promising example repre- Kauch from the German Liberal economic Sustainability. senting the possibility for better future Democrats congratulated the organisers prospects: here, the best environmental for the entire Congress, especially its Anna Lührmann presented to the and competitiveness indicators are met. theme: environmental concerns have Congress the work of a group of young Other examples can be found in Asia, gained their position on every party's MPs for the Rights of Future Generations more precisely Japan, where the top run- agenda. The problem is the way in which in the German Parliament. The idea and ner-principle for effectiveness leaves com- each party picks up certain themes that fit the initiative was given two years ago by panies four years of transition time in best to the rest of their political program. Dr. Jörg Tremmel from the FRFG. order to switch to the most effective tech- In real (political) life it is common that dif- Lührmann stressed the importance of a nology: if a company does not comply, ferent groups share the same objectives, cross-party approach and cooperation in first it suffers a shame punishment and but then disagree on practical ways of order to take up the challenge. The two then, if needed, a fee. heading towards their realisation. The years' work has been intensive and marked topic of Intergenerational Justice is a by good spirit and common effective syn- Furthermore, von Weizsäcker appealed to good example for these disputes. ergies to struggle for Future Generations. Europe to face it's backwardness in terms The group of young MPs has been

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 6 preparing a law to change the constitu- rose the question of the role of a nation- formed by MPs, and a consultative one, tion. al constitution with respect to the actions formed by scientific professionals. A new paragraph 20b should be added to of national and international enterprises. According to Kauch's evaluation, the two the German Constitution, reading: How could ecological values be promoted Commissions enjoy good cooperation. on an international level? Kauch, giving an “The state must observe the principle of answer, emphasised the need to avoid Referring back to the session's title, the sustainability and safeguard the interests practicing any kind of environmental debate concluded with a rhetoric question: of future generations.” imperialism, in the sense of the economi- Could it not be the right time for ecologi- cally and politically strong countries going cal initiatives? The argument concerning Moreover, the existing paragraph 109 of to dictate codes of conduct in weaker protecting people's jobs does not need to the German Constitution shall be sharp- ones. Tuuli Lehtinen (participant) pointed be adverse to the principles of ecological ened to constrain public debtmaking out that national constitutions can, of Sustainability and vice versa. (changes underlined). course, also refer to the concerned nation's acts internationally respect to cer- Catherine Lippuner (participant) raised an "When making decisions with regard to tain value base. So does, for example, the important question concerning the possi- the budget, the Federal Republic of Finnish Constitution in its first chapter. ble inclusion of rights of Future Germany and its states have to pay atten- Generations in national constitutions: tion to the economic equilibrium, to the In Germany, there was just going on a What would it mean in practice? What principle of sustainability and the interests debate about the agreements on so-called actions might be taken in order to effi- of future generations." "flexible mechanisms" of the Kyoto ciently promote these rights in every day Protocol in order to mitigate climate functions of our societies? Would that Lührmann pointed out how difficult it is change: Should the foreign project devel- mean new directions to curriculum of the to make the party leaders cooperate. Still, opers apply their national legislation or schools? Kauch responded that education the group working for the constitutional the one of the receiving country? The is mainly a topic being dealt on a state change in favour of Future Generations strict German legislation concerning the (Länder) level, but there would be place has found 50 supporters from different packing materials of different products is and demand for consultations and aware- parties for the initiative of changing cer- an example of this debate on relationships ness rising campaigns at national level as tain parts of the German Constitution in and differences between national and for- well. order to safeguard rights of Future eign standards. With regards to other Generations. Very efficiently, the idea of aspects of climate change, there is an The MPs were asked how to build bridges the constitutional change was first kept acute need for an international tax on for cross-party cooperation. Their secretly from the public in order to pre- kerosene, at least on EU level. Transport answers revealed that cooperation for pare it well. At some point, the existence emissions in general, as well as the emis- them is not an objective per se. But they and the work of the group broke through sions derived from the residential sector, stressed that ability to compromise is to the public and there were already should be included in the existing emis- essential, as well as personal contacts remarkable titles drawn about it. sion trading systems. across party lines. Following a Spiegel report, several press articles were written. Even more journal- Further in the debate, Nira Lamay (speak- (Summary by Tuuli J. Lehtinen, partici- ists had to be rebuffed because of the pre- er) raised a question about the importance pant from Finland) mature elections. The premature elections of international trade conventions and the in 2005 have forced the group to post- role the European Investment Bank with pone the release of the campaign. respect to Sustainable Development pat- 2.4 Debate: 13 years after Rio - how far Lührmann feels, though, confident with terns on the international level. In interna- are we in achieving Ecological their cause also what becomes to a possi- tional trade relations, the more industri- Generational Justice in Europe? ble new Parliament; public support is on alised partner usually benefits most from Friday, 24th June their side. the competition. It seemed to be affirmed Moderator: Markus Knigge, Fellow that nowadays there is too much competi- with Ecologic, Institute for International Lührmann clarified the differences con- tion and too little cooperation and tech- and European Environmental Policy, cerning the means to fight for the shared nology transfer in international relations. Speakers: Dr. Sach, Federal Ministry of goals: For the Greens, public debt does the Environment, Deputy Director not necessarily mean a burden for Future Lamay, Deputy Commissioner for the General "International Cooperation" and Generations; it needs to be considered on Knesset Commission for Future Dr. Manfred Bergmann, Head of what the money is being spent. There are Generations of Israel, was also interested Evaluation of Transport, Environment many investments waiting for their realis- in the possibilities of working somehow and Energy Policies, European ers giving their benefits in years to come. objectively in a model like the German Commission Lührmann told us about her surprise one, where a Council formed by politi- about the Bundestag's Budget Committee: cians, is tackling rights of Future Dr. Manfred Bergmann and Dr. Karsten until 70-80 per cent of each year's budget Generations. In Israel, by contrast, the Sach discussed the actual state of affairs has already been bound up by past deci- Commission is formed by professional of ecological concerns raised to the pub- sions. experts without direct links political the lic consciousness at the UN Rio Summit parties. In Germany, as stated by Mr. in 1992. The debate was moderated by During the plenary debate following these Kauch, there are actually two commis- Markus Knigge. presentations, Ramil Aliyev (participant) sions for Sustainable Development: one Dr. Sach stated that the environmental

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 7 policy of the EU has been a success story, The question of EU-wide (environmen- At the beginning of the lecture, Jörg for example in terms of cleaning polluted tal) taxes is important, though taxes are Tremmel described the foundation FRFG waters. Lately, this success has, unfortu- still widely considered a strictly national as a Think Tank for Generational Justice. nately, turned into an obstacle for further topic. If implemented, they should base He mentioned its goals, which are to improvements. The EU has dropped off on unanimity, for example CO2-emis- achieve and fight for Generational Justice to sleep, and there are many challenges sions, it does not actually matter where and Sustainability. We got to know that waiting for a solution: the proper imple- they are emitted, but how much is pro- the foundation does scientific, but gener- mentation of the Kyoto Protocol, more duced. Anyhow, Dr. Bergmann estimated ally intelligible research on the interface regulated use of chemicals (REACH- there would not be any EU tax on energy between social science and politics. decree), new water politics, etc. It is also in the next five to ten years. Regulation Furthermore, Tremmel informed us that important to reflect concerning EU needs clear fields of responsibility, and the Think Tank has already published five actions with regards to the so-called third there is an equal need for more re- and books (the next will be the "Handbook countries. In the EU, it is also important deregulation in the field. It is also impor- Intergenerational Justice") and numerous to remember the dual system of environ- tant to consult different stakeholder position papers. After this introduction, mental policy at national and community groups before really regulating something. the speaker gave a definition of how the level. Implementing certain EU directives foundation understands Intergenerational mean high challenges at the national level. Dr. Bergmann finished his presentation by Justice and it says: "To FRFG, An example is the implementation of the defining the optimal procedure to solve Intergenerational Justice means that EU directive on integrated pollution pre- ecological problems: Defining of the today's youth and Future Generations vention which demands a change of vari- problem; analysing of different possibili- must have at least the same opportunities ous national laws in Germany. ties to solve it; synchronising the chosen to meet their own needs as the generation Dr. Sach stressed a case-sensitive ponder- mean to other actions and future invest- governing today.". In addition, Tremmel ing between different legal manners and ments; arousing public awareness for a put the focus on the ecological aspect and voluntary actions by pointing to differ- successful implementation in practice. pointed out some alarming facts, such as ences in business and private sector. It is the daily destruction of 55.000 hectares essential to take the internalisation of During the common debate, issues were Tropical Rain Forest or the daily extinc- external costs seriously. We need stronger raised like managing risk societies and tion of ca. 100-200 animal species. So he environmental impetus for future envi- business pressure, ill-proportioned prices asked the audience, "Why is institutionali- ronmental EU-policies. of flight and train tickets even in the EU, sation necessary?". He gave many reasons Dr. Bergmann stressed the need of keep- and peak-oil. Dr. Sach agreed with the for it, for example, that all mature democ- ing open different but competitive con- participants that there is a "perverse sys- racies face a paramount structural duct options for private selection for tem of subsidies" for example in aviation dichotomy, namely the tendency to pre- example in the transport sector (offering sector at the expense of other modes of serve the present at the expense of the equal subsidies for different ways of pub- transport. The two panellists contradict future. According to Tremmel, it is more lic transportation, etc.). about the need of assigning everything a and more important to protect Future monetary and neglecting ideal and inter- Generations because presently living gen- There is a need to balance environmental national value. Dr. Bergmann stressed the erations are capable of effecting the and social costs. There is also a huge need for always considering future losses future for thousands of years. extend of inappropriate behaviours of "loser-parts" of each environmental Furthermore, he told us that in key areas, towards nature: for example only one per dispute. Winners ought to compensate such as fiscal, environmental or educa- cent of all the water treated to be suitable losers. tional policy, as well as in the social secu- for drinking is finally really drunk. It rity system, it is likely that today's short- would be important to better sort out dif- Finally, Dr. Sach emphasised the impor- comings will have detrimental effects on ferent social functions taking into consid- tance of a socio-ecological tax reform. He Future Generations and today's youth. eration respective costs and effects on assigned the Congress participants an "The principle of democracy can conflict competitiveness. important task: we should turn all these with the maxim of Intergenerational good intentions into reality... Justice", said the expert, "politicians have to fulfil the desires of the present citizens (Summary by Tuuli J. - their electorate". Furthermore, Tremmel Lehtinen, participant from pointed out, that the neglect of the inter- Finland) ests of Future Generations is not a mis- take of the politician, but of the system. 2.5 LECTURE: "The Idea So, which ways are there, to implement of Generational Justice in Generational Justice? The speaker had the an ecological sense. idea of a legal barrier, which is needed to Possibilities of its institu- protect the overexploitation of nature. tionalisation" Generally, Tremmel sees two routes of Friday, 24th June improving the Constitutions worldwide Speaker: Dr. Jörg and with the focus on Europe: The first Tremmel of the one is to provide the protection of Future Foundation for the Rights Generations through textual changes for Future Generations directly in the Constitution (South Africa, Photo: Thomas Wiechers (standing), member of the organisation team, Dr. Sach and Mr. Knigge (sitting from left to right) (FRFG) Germany, Uruguay). The Constitutional

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 8 Court would then become a watch-dog important variables, such as changes in versible harm is seen as a criterion for fair- for the interests of Future Generations. population patterns. ness which requires the balancing out of The second one is to set up a new institu- an action and the harm it causes. Prof. tion like an Ombudsperson, an John Stuart Mill, the major exponent of Wallack emphasises the distinction that Commission, a Council or the like (Israel, classical utilitarianism, posits the idea of ought to be made between reversible and Switzerland, Hungary) and to create there- the long term interests of mankind as a irreversible harm, which he insisted by a new watch-dog. In addition, he progressive being. According to Mill, should not be given the same value. The became more detailed and explained mankind's long term interests are safe- question of what the 'minimum' irre- strategies how to start a campaign or an guarded if we keep liberal economics versible harm is presents itself as the sub- initiative in order to achieve his aims. working, leaving everyone to make his ject of political discussions. Finally, Jörg Tremmel finished his moti- own choices. One of the dangers of the One could perhaps argue that political lib- vating presentation with an impressing utilitarian view, however, is that there are eralism provides the opportunity for a quote, which was: "If one person has a instances in which Future Generations are better formulation of Intergenerational dream, it is a just a dream. If many people not effectively in a position to make their Justice than economic liberalism. have a dream, it is tomorrow's reality". own choices. Economic liberalism does Following Rawls (especially in Political not necessarily allow Future Generations Liberalism), Wallack acknowledges that the 2.6 STUDY GROUPS to make their own choices. The idea that task is to select criteria that can become Saturday, 25th June the market produces the best situation is the basis for an overlapping consensus, reflected in the thought of liberal econo- since it has to be acknowledged that in the 2.6.1 Workshop "Criteria for mists such as Pareto, who believed that pluralism of liberalism citizens do not Intergenerational Justice the market decides what is just between always share a common conception of Workshop leader: Prof. Dr. Wallack, generations through a progressive move what is just and what is good. Through Associate Professor of the Memorial towards the optimum level of utility democratic institutions, the liberal democ- University of Newfoundland through time for every generation. ratic framework should provide the opportunity for the public to discuss and The assumption throughout the work- John Rawls' conception of 'justice as fair- share ideas of justice. This further under- shop was that the criteria for justice ness', first put forward in A Theory of lines the initial assumption of the work- between generations can be established Justice (1971) is very useful for the formu- shop that criteria for Intergenerational within a liberal democratic set-up. lation of a theory of Intergenerational Justice can be established within a liberal Professor Wallack briefly analysed the key Justice since it highlights the priority of democratic set-up. Discussion and shared ideas of a number of theorists in the lib- equality, basic liberties and fair opportuni- ideas of justice can lead to consensus, eral tradition, starting with seventeenth- ties for all citizens. He reiterates the need which then acts as a basis for political century philosopher John Locke. For for impartiality ('the veil of ignorance') obligation and the legitimisation of policy. Locke, legitimate and just institutions are and states that economic and social This, in turn, leads to concrete action such those which a rational, free person would inequalities should be directed towards as the institutionalisation of the shared accept. Locke's philosophy calls for a kind offering the maximum benefit to the least concept of justice (including Generational of impartiality which requires us to reflect advantaged. Rawls' argument explicates Justice). It is in this way that the discus- on whether someone else in our position the necessity of a fair system of social sions about abstract concepts such as jus- would make the same choice. cooperation. In his later work, Political tice and fairness in political theory lead to Liberalism (1993), Rawls places a further the formulations of designs in the politi- For Locke, the implicit notion of equality emphasis on the conception of justice cal sphere. The criteria, or theory, focused does not run counter to private property, based on shared moral ideas and consen- upon in this workshop ultimately require a which he favoured believing that one sus. transition from theory to practice, or from could acquire private property from The workshop also briefly considered the criteria to policy. What emerged very nature through work, provided that there criteria for justice between generations as clearly in Prof. Wallack's workshop is that is "…at least as good and as much…" left. formulated by Tremmel and Beckerman. the notions of justice and fairness should This early formulation of Generational For Tremmel, the main criteria for relate closely to political practice and that Justice failed to consider a number of Generational Justice are the intergenera- such abstractions have to be concretised tional equality of life chances, and an through political action. As Aristotle intact and varied ecology. For reminds us in his Politics; people go, but Beckerman, justice between generations constitutions remain - they transcend occurs when Future Generations are time. The discussions of justice between protected from grievous harm and generations need to move towards the poverty while being guaranteed with institutionalisation of Intergenerational adequate "primary resources" such as Justice and its insertion as a constitutional breathable air and clean drinking water. principle. (Summary by Jean-Paul de Lucca, partici- Wallack's own position proposes the pant from Malta) notion of the minimum irreversible harm as a constitutional principle within a fair 2.6.2 Workshop "Constitutional system of social cooperation (see Rawls) Change" based on the principles of social justice Workshop leader: Dr. Jörg Tremmel, Photo: Prof. Dr. Wallack (right) with participants and solidarity. The minimum irre- Foundation for the Rights of Future

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 9 Generations (FRFG) year) and 50 per cent of the members of A counter argument is, that if a person At the beginning of the workshop, parliament. People can propose an initia- younger than 14 years can not be entirely Tremmel outlined constitutional change tive if 150.000 people agree. guilty for committing a crime, he should and its difficulties in general. He reflected also be unable to vote. However, in the US about the role of Constitutions for states As a third nation, Finland was analysed. 11 year old kids can be sentenced to and peoples and their binding power to The Finnish constitution was lately prison. Obviously the courts believe that succeeding generations. In the long run, changed in 2000, with the focus on envi- they are very capable to oversee the con- written law always follows the change of ronmental protection (section 20) and in sequences of their actions. People are in ethical beliefs of a people. After this short chapter 2 about basic rights and equality some countries able to vote in local elec- introduction, the workshop leader opened of people. Here it would be possible to tions at the age of 16. First studies of this the discussion with the participants about add the rights of Future Generations. experiment reveal, that there aren't any their country´s constitution, its deficien- Nevertheless, a change of the constitution negative outcomes. One positive effect is cies and how to improve it. needs the agreement of 5/6 of the mem- that pupils learn more about politics in bers of parliament or two sequences of a school because they get prepared for elec- We recognized, that the Ukrainian consti- ¾ majority. tions. There are 90 million children living tution contains a consciousness towards in the EU. Yet children as a group and past, present and Future Generations in Estonia has already an article about envi- adolescents up to 18 years are compara- the preamble. Moreover, the articles 3, 13, ronmental Sustainability (article 5) which tively invisible as citizens or as subjects 14, 16, 50, 66 deal with environment. says, that the one who damages nature has throughout the EU. They are excluded Although, there are references towards to pay for it. But it applies more to com- from the political decision-making environment in the constitution, they panies than to individuals. In this nation, processes which have an impact on them. don't have any impact on daily life. Big 1/5 of the members of parliament have A fair chance for participation for adoles- companies rather pay taxes instead of try- to take part in the initiative. cents could be one step forward in the ing to avoid damage to the environment. struggle for intergenerational justice. "Green tourism" is supported by govern- Furthermore, a 2/3 majority is needed ment, but not many other projects. For a and a referendum is facultative for a con- (Summary by Laura Memmert, organisa- constitutional change, one third of parlia- stitutional change. tion team) mentary deputies have to agree and, in addition, the court, too. A change of the In Bulgaria, article 18 of the constitution 2.6.3 Workshop "Commission for Constitution is thus very hard to achieve. deals with environment and article 54 Future Generations" defines a healthy environment to be a Workshop leader: Nira Lamay, Deputy human right. The Commissioner for Future Generations, Bulgarian parliament The Knesset consists of 240 mem- bers. "Straight away", maybe that is the most distilled message the participants could After discussing the dif- keep in mind from Nira Lamay's work- ferent situations in sev- shop. The development of the Knesset eral European countries, Commission for Future Generations, in the participants talked which Lamay heads the department of together with Jörg Law and Legislation, is a means for a Tremmel about differ- short-cut towards institutionalising the ent routes for constitu- rights for Future Generations. Initiated by tional changes. MP a member of the Knesset in 2002 the Tynkkynen T. Oras commission was put into reality shortly from Finland afterwards and since then gained consid- announced that he will erable influence on the legislative process. gather young colleagues Photo: Jörg Tremmel (left) with participants from all parties to dis- Although it is a commission of the cuss a multi-partisan ini- Parliament, it does not consist of mem- In Switzerland, the federal constitution tiative of younger MPs. The Romanian bers of Parliament but of experts. The preamble mentions the responsibility of MP George Baesu announced an initiative Commissioner is chosen by an adhoc the Swiss people towards Future to lower the voting age to 16. This committee of professors and members of Generations and national strategy. Article brought the discussion to the relationship the Knesset. As defined in the Knesset 73 mentions Sustainability with the words of adolescents´ rights and the rights of law, he or she has the authority to deal "to establish a durable equilibrium future generations. Unlike children, with every topic except for defence and between nature and its capacity for renew- Future Generations are not born yet and security. The commission acts as an advi- al and its use by humans." The aspect of can thus never speak for themselves. sory body within the legislation and is thus Sustainability is also mentioned in Article Older children, however, are able to stand fully embedded in this process. This 2. A constitutional change in Switzerland up for their rights but they are not allowed means, that as soon as a law proposal is needs a double majority, which means 50 to vote. As a tendency, lowering the voting issued in Parliament, the Commissioner per cent of the people (Switzerland age can help to implement will be informed, that members of the organises at least four referendums per Intergenerational Justice. commission are authorised to take part in

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 10 the respective committee and that its message: Tackle the institutionalisation of nature, mostly examining and monitoring opinion is attached to the bill when it the rights for Future Generations on vari- the implementation of respective bills and comes to voting. ous levels. An advisory commission policies. He should have the right to be According to Lamay the proximity to the thereby serves as a watchdog for civil soci- informed by various other bodies and for- decision-makers in parliament turned out ety within the parliament. eign states. to be the key to success. The access to At the end of the workshop you could see information, the ability to address people many surprised faces expressing "good to The concept of protecting the rights of directly and the chance to intervene at a know some shortcuts". The way to imple- Future Generations is rather questionable very early stage are powerful means to ment long-termism in politics will be long from a legal point of view as Future exert influence. The Commissioner plays a enough, though. Generations do not exist yet and from rather delicate role as she/he has to today's perspective they are not a legal remain objective and needs to cope with (Summary by Alexander Hauk, participant personality. As an ideal legal personality all parties in parliament. That is why the from Germany) we can only assume what Future person taking over this position needs to Generations will need. From today's view- embody integrity and neutrality. At pre- 2.6.4 Workshop "Ombudsperson for point, we agreed that their rights include sent, it is Shlomo Shohan, a former judge Future Generations" with high prestige across the whole politic Workshop leader: Dr. Benedek spectrum. Jávor, Ombudsperson for Future Nevertheless, some aspects which came Generations up during the discussions in the workshop remain to be debatable. Especially the The aim of this workshop was to question of democratic legitimacy and develop a suitable concept for a control. It is a matter of fact that people body/an organisation that would who are not elected influence the issuing take care of the rights of Future of laws. Competence is another aspect as Generations. We tried to feature its the seven members of the commission powers in detail. cannot be experts in every field they deal with. Lamay explained to us that most of The first problem we clarified was the things to be done are known. Still, in whether a commission or an some cases the issues are so complex that Ombudsperson would be more suit- Photo: Benedek Jávor (right) with participants trade-offs have to be considered carefully able. We made a short pro/contra and well-advised priorities have to be set, analysis. The result favoured an especially when it comes to budget. Ombudsperson. Although a Commission the right to participate, the right of free The Knesset Commission for Future has the advantage that it is an established choice and the fundamental human rights. Generations is a very pragmatic and there- tool within democracies, we nevertheless This helps us to have at least a general idea fore effective institution to protect the had some doubts about its flexibility and in whose name an Ombudsperson acts. rights of Future Generations. During its capacity to really implement long term The right of free choice is very important three years of existing the commission aims. Moreover, it is rather problematic because we don't know what Future has already achieved a lot. But it needs to that too many commissions exist. Generations really need. Therefore, they be backed by comprehensive approach An Ombudsperson generally exists in should be guaranteed the choice to say including a governmental strategy, opera- most democracies as well, being proven as what they need during time when they tive execution by a ministry as well as a an effective tool. Still, one has to admit really exist. In other words, current gener- constitutional change (Nira: "There can- that an additional Ombudsperson, next to ations may not leave burdens of any kind not be enough protection for sustainable the existing one, for defending the rights to Future Generations. The basic human development"). of Future Generations could create diffi- rights are elementary and articulated in Thus, for the outcome of the conference culties for the public: It is difficult for current documents. Examples are the Nira Lamay's workshop delivered a clear people to distinguish his powers from the right for life, right for health, etc. general Ombudsperson. Furthermore, we discussed existing inter- Nevertheless, we agreed that the national documents and movements from best choice would be to create an which rights of Future Generation can be additional, specialised derived directly or indirectly. Examples are Ombudsperson. His/her position the UN Charta of 1945, widespread ecol- should be located externally to ogy movement in the 1970s and 1980s, existing parliamentary systems and, the Brundtland Commission, the docu- furthermore, he/she should not be ment "Our common future" of 1987, the attached to any existing body. UNESCO declaration of responsibility of However, the person should be present generations towards Future elected by the parliament for a Generations of 1997, the International longer period than the parliament law association, or the "New Delhi decla- itself. The main reason is to be able ration" of 1999. to implement long term policies. Photo:Nira Lamay (right) with participants His role should be of consultative Another question which we discussed was

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 11 from which level (international, taken. In the end, he gave his personal Barosso, President of European European, or national) these rights can be evaluation: On the one hand, many posi- Commission, and he asks you to develop implemented. We had a look at several tive results have been achieved already, as guiding principles for Sustainable sample states (Israel, Finland, and Poland) for instance in the field of organic farm- Development for to renew the EU strate- that implement or try to implement them ing. On the other hand, there is much that gy." from national level. Taking into account still needs to be done. He made some sug- Some solution proposals were, for exam- the European context, and thus the differ- gestions: The EU Sustainability strategy ple, the cooperation with local communi- ent civil societies, we agreed on a bottom- needs to be integrated into the Lisbon ties, the combination of different govern- up implemention in more developed civil Agenda, the internal aims must be coordi- mental structures and the integration and societies and a top-down approach for nated more properly with the external promotion of environmental education. less developed countries (e.g. the CEE). aims, and global developments such as ter- Hopefully, the participants could get some However, this presumes that the existing rorism or further globalisation must better ideas and will help that these proposals legal frame on international (European) be taken into account. will find their way to realisation. level could be implemented. We just need In the second part of the workshop the to start the realisation as soon as possible. group mainly came up with the following (Summary by Julia Schlüns, participant "amendments" to the EU Sustainability from Germany) (Summary by Jan Handl, participant from strategy: Czech Republic) Internally, it is important to promote local 2.7 Panel Discussion: "Bad news are initiatives (applying a bottom up good news - the image of ecology in approach) and establish the EU as a fore- the media?" 2.6.5 Workshop "The European Union runner leading the global environmental Saturday, 25th June Strategy for Sustainable process. Furthermore, a friendly legislative Moderator: Dr. Edgar Göll, Institute for Development" base (i.e. institutions, laws, processes) has Futures Studies and Technology Workshop leader: Torge Hamkens, to be created. We should internalise the Assessment Berlin Vice Chairman of the Global Contract external environmental costs and close the Speakers: Jörg Geier, Deputy Secretary- Foundation gap between rich and poor. In addition, it General, Club of Rome; Deputy is necessary to support the free movement Chairman, Think Tank 30 The workshop was divided in two parts: of people worldwide. And, last but not Svenja Koch, Press Officer Greenpeace In the first part Torge Hamkens gave a least, we have to promote the rights of Matthias Urbach, Correspondent of the brief summary on the history and content Future Generations and justice in world German daily newspaper TAZ of the EU Sustainability strategy. In the trade. On the other hand, we All that we know about the contemporary also have to regard some world, we know through the mass media. Photo: Torge Hamkens (left) with participants external facts, such as the This is the opening claim of German soci- promotion of Sustainable ologist Niklas Luhmann in his book on Development via educa- the 'Reality of the mass media' from 1996. tion and public participa- If he is just partly right, ecologists should tion. better adapt this news media reality. Many We need to agree on sus- ecologists, however, seem hugely disap- tainable development pointed by what they find there. But what principles in the EU exactly is the problem with the news Constitution and to fos- media when it comes to ecological issues? ter cross-border environ- And what can we do to change this? mental cooperation. In this context, the promo- Set off by these opening questions from tion of long-term think- the moderator, one representative of Club ing and the provision for of Rome, one media coordinator of second part the group looked for possible the rights of Future Generations is one Greenpeace Germany and one journalist improvements of that strategy. basic step forward. After the explanation of the newspaper TAZ gave us their ver- of internal and external aspects, Torge sion of the drama. Listening to their wide- The EU Sustainability strategy, said Torge Hamkens summarised some points which ly differing viewpoints, one might con- Hamkens, was not one single document should be regarded as general tasks, such clude that they live in different worlds, but rather the result of a multilayer as "How is it possible to connect internal with little hope of ever meeting. However, process. As parts of that process he with external parts?" and "How can we it might be better to acknowledge the very named Cardiff 1998, the Lisbon Agenda integrate Sustainable Development strate- different sets of demands imposed these 2000, and the results of the Gotheburg gies into the Lisbon Agenda?". people from their work contexts. Summit of 2001. He subdivided the focal Furthermore, we have to ask ourselves Admittedly, when all is said and done, the points of the EU Sustainability strategy how to integrate recent global develop- journalist and his colleagues have all the into internal aims, such as public health, ments. cards on their hands. Ecologists have bet- natural resources and social exclusion, and With these thought-provoking impulses, ter learn that lesson. external aims, such as the Millenium our workshop leader confronted us with As a member of a Think Tank, Jörg Geier Development Goals. In both areas he the following task: "Imagine, you are a from the Club of Rome probably had less described the measures that are currently member of an advisory team to José of a stake in the day-to-day business of

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 12 global warming just will not do. possible to elect an "guardian" or "coun- From a personal perspective, I sellor". The new counsellor should act on somehow had the feeling that I had a European level but should also be con- heard these viewpoints before. It nected to national ombudesmen/institu- would be a strange day, after all, if tions in order to be interlinked with the one heard a lobby organisation countries. The general public can either such as Greenpeace saying that address the European they were satisfied with the level of Ombudsperson/Counsellor directly or attention they get from the media. with the help of national representatives. Their job is to strive for more In addition to the Ombudsperson, a Photo: Matthias Urbach, Edgar Göll, Svenja Koch, Jörg Geier attention to ecological issues, after Committee for Future Generations (from left to right) all. Likewise, you will not expect a should be created on the European level journalist, out of sheer moral com- as a body within the European Parliament news media than the other two panelists. mitment to the good ecological cause, to itself. This Committee should have the Perhaps for this reason, his presentation give up on his or her professional stan- power to freeze the law-making process was more an overview of some of the dards. These kinds of debates tend to get with regard to proposals which will have problems in today's 'information overload' you nowhere. Furthermore, there might detrimental effects on Future society. Information and news are ever- be more sensibility in listening to some Generations. A possibility to lobby in the more abundant, but they are increasingly suggestions from the audience. One European Parliament is the presentation coming from the same centralised sources, member of the audience made the point of the English "Handbook with high dependency on advertising rev- that, instead of complaining about the Intergenerational Justice" and after this, a enues etc. In this situation, it is not sur- news media, ecologists need to come up parliamentary committee, consisting of prising that ecologists find it hard to with attractive stories to tell. Backing this members of each party should be formed. attract media attention. Picking up from point, another participant of the Congress Which committees are there right now in here, Svenja Koch from Greenpeace pro- told about an American PR company, the European Parliament? We have com- vided some practical examples of the which succeeded in raising the level of mittees for Education, Culture, Sports, short-lived media attention cycle: who environmental awareness by working with Fisheries, Environment and Agriculture, remembers nowadays BSE? Of course, local-level news media. It seems, we have Budget, etc. Probably it is controversial if Greenpeace is famous for their spectacu- to work together with the news media and we really need two institutions larly media events, such as Brent Spar. journalists that we have if we want to pro- (Ombudsperson and committee). mote ecological thinking. After all, envi- A alternative solution could be to give the However, as Koch would insist, these ronmental issues have always been bad present Ombudsperson more rights. cases only serve to explain more far-reach- news, they have always been problems; ing problems to the public, and besides, this is their fundamental image. With such In Finland, a Committee for the future they have no connection to fundraising. a 'good' product on their hands, ecologists does already exist, but it should adopt a Worst of all, she complained, good news really only have to blame themselves if more active role. The realisation of an are ignored: Greenpeace-sponsored they fail to attract media attention! And by amendment in the finish constitution is refrigerators at McDonalds or Harry the way, I still remember both: Brent Spar very complicated. Many Ombudspersons Potter printed on recycled paper are sim- and BSE. for different things do exist, but maybe a ply ignored by journalists. With the criti- check-list for decision makers is needed or cism lined out, it was time for the TAZ (Summary by Anders Blok, participant more researches on long-term effects has journalist Matthias Urbach to defend him- from Denmark) to be done. self. Everyone complains about the media, he said, all lobbyists are the same, includ- 2.8 Presentations of the participants In Greece, Intergenerational Justice is not ing the ecologists. However, environmen- Sunday, 26th June mentioned in the constitution, but the tal issues actually do get reported, protection of environment, forests, mon- German voters still find them important, The participants grouped according to uments and the historical sights is and Greenpeace is actually good at using their home countries in order to devise referred. the media. But how can you expect to feasible models for several countries and Small steps are necessary because the have good news accepted when standard for the EU in order to safeguard the rights proper implementation of regulations is news criteria dictate that only bad news of Future Generations. more important than a new legislation. enter newspapers? And how can you From the demographic point of view, expect a small German newspaper to The presented solution for the EU level more children are needed. If there aren't report upon all small oil spills all over the doesn't include a change of the draft con- any children, we won't have a Future world, if they are insignificant and do not stitution, given the fact that its ratification Generation. The constitution should refer involve Germans? All journalists learn is jeopardized. Instead a combination of explicitly to Future Generations. these news criteria at school. Bad news an Ombudsperson and a parliamentary Committees already exist and a new one drive the political agenda, just think about committee was proposed. The existing for Future Generations has to be created. the fear of job loss to China and the East- Ombudsperson who is engaged with Furthermore, an Ombudsperson, with Asian Tsunami. But ecologists have real complaints about the present will not be controlling and auditing competences trouble finding an enemy these days, since replaced. He has enough work to do and should be created. He should be elected we have all become part of the problem. he has very limited resources. Instead of by parliaments and should be a scientist Picking George Bush as the culprit behind creating an extra Ombudsperson, it is also with experiences in Sustainability. In addi-

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 13 tion, we have to raise awareness for future attention. It is necessary, that problems. we have several Ombudspersons for sustain- What can be done to improve able development and Generational Justice in Malta? There are Intergenerational Justice. So, different ways: for example, references in we need at least two spe- the constitution and/or the setting up of cialised Ombudspersons and an institution. We won't achieve much if one general. there are no specific laws that is why changes also must affect laws below the For Russia, a change of the constitution level. constitution is no good idea, The best solution is a new institutional because it takes too much time set-up, but in this case, there is some and it is a bad period for mak- Photo: Ann Mettler gave a very enthusiastic speech reluctance by the decision-maker. The sec- ing change (3rd term of Congress about her personal experience ond-best solution is an office in the prime Putin). In the current constitution, you in the world of EU lobbying in Brussels. ministry to vet all laws to there long-term can find a lot about health, but not about The Lisbon Council is a small but by far effects. A third solution can be an amend- sustainable development and very vivid Think Tank focusing on public ment of the existing structure, namely to Intergenerational Justice. However, a finance and Sustainability of the social, enlarge the responsibilities of the com- change in the Federal Constitutional Law and especially the labour sector. The actu- missioner for the children. However, this is imaginable. This law would be created al situation in the EU is at all satisfying: institution has been established only by the Commission. There have to be ini- there are 90 million unemployed, and 18.6 recently so it will not be changed, soon. tiatives in 89 regions, in city parliaments % of them are young people. There are National Sustainability is already imple- and local governments. One important also countries like Poland, where this per- mented in Malta by an Ombudsperson for aspect is to raise awareness, e.g. by media centage is above 30. The Lisbon Council's sustainable development. His tasks are to campaigns. motto is: "Something needs to be done!". devise a national strategy together with key government entities. He is well In the constitution of Slovenia and Mrs. Mettler was listing some success-trig- respected, but he could need an assistant. Switzerland Future Generations or gering factors of the Council's work: The Sustainability are not mentioned, but there work was effectively focused from the The constitutions of Poland and the is a strategy for sustainable development. very beginning: the EU needs an econom- Czech Republic don't need to be changed. Don't make laws that can be broken, bet- ic reform. It is important to outline a Instead, a new Ombudsperson should be ter invest more in education. The idea is to lobby or campaign theme. "Better envi- created for Future Generations. This change first people's mind and then the ronmental policies" is too broad of an Ombudsperson has to be consulted constitution. objective. It is also highly essential to mandatory and every law should pass know the ways of media-functioning. through his office. He can delay, not veto Summarising these different solutions, it bills and add his opinion to it. The can be recognised that the participants In the Lisbon Council only two people are Ombudsperson should cooperate with want to make top-down as well as bot- working full-time, nearly each day one of NGOs and civil society opinions and deci- tom-up initiatives. For e.g. the Swiss par- the both gives and interview. Mrs. Mettler sion-making concerning Future ticipants, it seemed more appropriate to told us about an open letter from Lisbon Generations and sustainable develop- stir up a broad public debate before Council to Councillor Schröder, when ment. approaching MPs. In other countries, the Lisbon existed only one month. The letter Further rights for him could be to claim public debate would kick off when MPs was successfully received even by bigger the constitutional court if the rights of present a proposal to change the newspapers. Mettler teaches us, that it is Future Generations are infringed and the Constitution (like in Germany). It has to important to have the courage to talk right to propose laws. be considered whether or not a society is frankly and directly instead of being so He needs constant financial support already prepared for the new ethical goal polite that the very point of the message because the financial status might be the of ecological intergenerational justice. But gets lost. most important one. An Ombudsperson in all countries, campaigning will be neces- It is also important to analyse carefully the should be selected by the Sejm. (In sary to reach the final goal: a better pro- political day-to-day gossip, and then stay Poland, Sejm and Senate together form tection of the Future Generations. in phase of news cycle. Press releases are the parliament). Furthermore, an to be done quickly and distributed at the Ombudsperson has to have a PhD and (Summary by Jörg Tremmel, Yanti right moment. It is not enough to bring in good competences, should be indepen- Ehrentraut and Kristin Tecles, organisa- rational voices. We should take use of the dent and should have experience in sus- tion team) emotional power guiding human behav- tainable development. His term should be iour! We have to prepare ourselves for 5 years and it should not be possible to 2.9 Presentation: How to start a leading roles of our struggles, because dismiss him unless he/she committed a Campaign in Europe why should always the same old eminent crime. A way of realisation could be influ- Sunday, 26th June faces be invited to share their established enced by associations and lobbying or an Speaker: Ann Mettler, Executive ideas at each forum and board? initiative that comes from citizens. In Director of the Lisbon Council asbl. Mrs. Mettler also encouraged women to addition, it is possible to start a campaign gain ground in different fields of tradi- with advertisement in order to raise public Ann Mettler told the participants of the

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 14 tional male power. What we need now is action. advocacy and clearly formulated opinions on practical questions. Waste is a good example for According to Mrs. Mettler's observations, the crucial need to change our EU-politicians are "afraid" of pensioners. mentality: it needs to be The challenge is to get the young people understood as a crucial vote! The young should become aware of resource. We need mental their actual marginal societal position and switches also respect to tech- start acting in order to change it. The EU nology and services. needs watch-dogs for the interests of the Innovation is the only sustain- Photo: Benedek Jávor, Nira Lamay, Prof. Dr. Bernd Siebenhüner, youth. able way towards job creation Anna Lührmann, Timo Mäkelä (from left to right) Intellectual freedom would also be impor- and growth. We need to start tant in EU-lobbying. It is possible to have rethinking the planning of products. hope: Mr. Mäkelä referred to the strong success with a small team, but on the right-wing religious groups in the United other hand it would be important to have How should we proceed?, asked Mr. States starting to turn against the devastat- full-time workers in order to maintain the Mäkelä. It would be very simple to start: ing environmental politics of the path of the media cycle, inter alia. Mrs. we need to implement all those appropri- President Bush: the Bible states we were Mettler emphasised the importance of ate decisions we have already made, but created in order to cultivate and safeguard working with the business; it should not which have rested on theoretical level. the environment, not to destroy it. With be our enemy, and the ideas of sustainable Second, we need to search actively for all respect to the Common Agricultural development need to be widened from the possible synergies among economic, envi- Policy (CAP), the European Commission environmental sector to other sectors. ronmental and social development. We is preparing a reform where rural develop- need clear targets. We also welcome glob- ment is given special emphasis, and the (summary by Tuuli J. Lehtinen, participant al thinking in European decision-making. whole focus of production is turned from from Finland) We are to heal up our administrative cul- sheer production volumes towards real tures. Among the citizen are clear signs, needs. 2.10 Panel Discussion: expressed in different opinion polls, con- "25 years after Johannesburg - visions cerning worries and awareness of the peo- Mr. Mäkelä appealed to us that we need to of an ecological Europe in a sustain- ple towards environmental issues. 64 per understand economics. Economics is a able world" cent, for example, of the Europeans place universe with partly irrational lines. We Sunday, 26th June the goal of clean environment before are, for example, spending each year some Moderator: Jun. Prof. Dr. Bernd gaining competitiveness. 21 billion euros on oil subsidies. At the Siebenhüner, Carl-von-Ossietzky same time we keep on complaining about University Oldenburg Anna Lührmann and Benedek Jávor costs of some 3 billion, which we would Speakers: Timo Mäkelä, Director stressed the importance of checking the need in order to mitigate climate change. Sustainable Development and Integration soundness of global relations and rules. The sheer numerical economic indicator, European Commission Nira Lamay called for genuine watch-dogs the Gross National Product (GNP) is a Dr. Benedek Javor, Hungarian Initiative for sustainable development. We have dangerous development indicator. We for an Ombudsman for Future already heard enough talks and fancy need to ask ourselves clearly: which and Generations objectives. Promoting rights of Future what is the growth we want? We might Anna Lührmann, German Greens and Generations is a good and fresh angle, start by writing a letter to the member of the German Parliament from which to approach, again and with Environment Commissioner, Mr. Stavros Nira Lamay, Deputy Commissioner for new powers, sustainable development in Dimas, in order to point out the necessary Future Generations, The Knesset all of its sectors. focus on rights of Future Generations.

Timo Mäkelä emphasised one fact which During the final debate of the Congress, (summary by Tuuli Lehtinen, participant is dangerously ignored by so many actors importance and weight of our very own from Finland) nowadays: There is simply no sustainable visions and responsibility was stressed: We growth without real acknowledgement of need to face own sacrifices and compro- 3. Feedback the ecological limits of our world. Mr. mises in order to make a change. Mäkelä told us about his discussions with Everybody agreed on the need for rights Above all the evaluation forms show that Robert Watson, responsible of the UN of Future Generations to be included in the entire Congress was a great success. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment; the European legislation. The new strategy Especially the study groups and the panel actual situation of our planet does not for sustainable development of the discussion "Bad news are good news - the look too promising - we need to face it! European Commission is a proper tool image of ecology in the media? were con- In the EU, for example, 20 per cent of all strengthen these themes, for example sidered very interesting by the partici- the waste flows are illegal. Even 40 per through an extended impact assessment pants. The debate "13 years after Rio - cent of all our energy consumption is due procedure. how far are we in achieving ecological to the housing sector, which is growing Generational Justice in Europe?" got the strongly. It is important to mediate, which With in the EU, actions for gender equal- evaluation "fair". The Panel Discussion things go first and on which level. There is ity are already well advanced. Similarly, it is "25 years after Johannesburg - visions of only one way ahead: we need to face prob- time to start campaigning for intergenera- an ecological Europe in a sustainable lems, realise them and, above all, take tional equality. There are several signs of world" was even more popular and was

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 15 Study Groups Panel Discussion: "Bad news are good news - the image of egology in the media?" very boring very boring boring fair 4% 0% 0% 4% boring fair interesting 0% 3% 32% very interesting very interesting interesting 60% 50% 47%

described as interesting". 48 per cent liked "yes" but 61 per cent said, that this is that of Sustainability and the "Simulation Game Fish Banks" and 28 depends on external conditions like time, Intergenerational Justice throughout the per cent liked it even very much. One their personal priorities, the support of world. We came together to seek solutions aspect, that was a great compliment for other organisations and the interest of for one of the paramount problems of the organisers, was the result of the ques- politic parties. our time: political short-termism. tion: "Do you have the feeling you have Democracies face a structural problem, learned something more about the possi- We analyzed 37 evaluation forms of 48 namely the tendency to prefer the present bilities to institutionalise Intergenerational participants. and to neglect the future. Every party tries Justice?" which was answered with: "Yes, to obtain votes, and has therefore to con- completely" by half of the participants. Voices of the Participants: centrate itself on the short term perspec- The Congress met the expectations of 39 4. Declaration of the Young Leaders tive, namely the preferences of the pre- per cent of the participants absolutely and Congress "Ecological Generational sent electorate and the short-term inter- of 58 per cent quite well. People decided, Justice into the Constitution?" ests of influential groups. In this run for that the study groups "Commission for votes the Future Generation may be Future Generations", "European strategy" One vision shared by the youth of Europe neglected. Insofar politicians of all parties, and "Constitutional change" were most interesting of all.

One aspect, that was described as "fair" was the accommodation "Alte Feuerwache" in Berlin, while the "Friedrichstadt Church" got the adjective "good". In addition, the Congress venue "Haus Schwanenwerder" was considered as "very good" by most of the people. This was also attributed to the entire organisation before and during the Congress, too. Everybody agreed, that the Congress should be established as a peri- odic event and 68 per cent would partici- pate again. Finally, everybody answered, that they would you like to continue the work for Sustainability at once or proba- bly. The question "Would you like to start a campaign for institutionalising Generational Justice?" was answered in different ways: 39 per cent said clearly

Debate: "13 years after Rio - how far are Panel Discussion „25 years after we in achieving ecological generational Johannesburg - visions of an ecological justice in Europe?" Europe in a sustainable world“

very boring very interesting very boring 0% boring 7% 0% 10 % interesting boring very interesting fair 20% 33% 35% 15 %

fair interesting 40% 40%

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 16 who want to look more ahead than the or workshop. This was a pre-condition for Joerg Geier next election, can have a disadvantage in this documentation, which consists to 80 Deputy Secretary-General, Club of Rome; the competition with their short-term per cent of the work of participants. Deputy Chairman, think tank 30 thinking political rivals. Democracy offers We are really happy about our achieve- the possibility for discussion. A more sus- ments. We hope, that we can arrange fur- - Born in Heidelberg in 1975, Germany tainable intergenerational framework will ther congresses or similar events in the - Deputy Secretary-General at the Club of not end the political competition, because future and that our group of speakers, Rome, a global think tank this can also take place in the new frame- participants and organisers will be as ded- - Deputy Chairman of think tank 30, the work. icated as they were this time. youth link of the Club of Rome - Associate board member of the Voting periods must not be too long. 6. BIOGRAPHIES OF SPEAKERS European Support Centre of the Club of Otherwise the influence of the voters AND MODERATORS Rome becomes so small that it puts at risk the - BA in European Business (European core of democracy. However, as a conse- Dr. Manfred Bergmann Business Programme: University of quence of the technological progress, the Head of Unit Evaluation of transport, Applied Sciences, Muenster, Germany, in impact of current action lasts long in the environment and energy policies, conjunction with University of future and can have a drastically negative European Commission Portsmouth, UK) effect for many Future Generations. - MBA (Golden Gate University, San The framework for a fair future orientated - studied Mathematics and Economics at Francisco, USA) generational political system could be the University of Münster, there he also - Fulbright scholarship (2001-2003); vari- improved by an institutional establish- made his PhD in Economics (Dr.rer.pol) ous honours and prizes ment of Generational Justice and - since 1988: he has been working as an - Selection committee of the German Sustainability. We agreed to form a net- economist at the Directorate General for American Fulbright Commission (2003) work to further pursue these goals. We Economic and Financial Affairs of the - Managed project teams, attended and co- want to put Intergenerational Justice and European Commission. organised conferences on various issues Sustainability on the political agenda. - since 1998: he is head of a unit dealing concerning international affairs Being young people from different coun- with the economic evaluation of environ- tries, we will start initiatives to overcome ment, transport and energy policies Dr. Edgar Göll the problem of political short-termism. - in this capacity he was - amongst others Institute for Futures Studies and - heavily involved in the development of Technology Assessment Berlin (Adopted by all 48 participants on Sunday, the European Union's Strategy for 26th of June 2005) Sustainable Development (presently - born 1957 under review) and the European Climate - tool-and-dye-maker 5. EPILOGUE Policy, where he has - amongst others - - studied Sociology, Administrative contributed to the development of the Sciences and Social Sciences at Looking back, we can say with a fair hint European emission trading scheme. Universities and Postgraduate Colleges in of pride: the Young Leaders Congress has Bielefeld, Madison/USA, Speyer, John-F.- reached all its goals! The workshops, Johanna Brinkmann Kennedy-Institute of the Free University which were among the most important PhD-Candidate at the Chair for Berlin, received his PhD at the University events, were very popular. Participants did Economic Ethics, University of Halle- of Goettingen. not only listen but they were motivated to Wittenberg - since 1995: works as Scientific do something on their own. The enor- Researcher at the IZT within the fields of mous engagement of the Young Leaders - studied International Business and "Future Studies" and "Sustainable was even a little surprising to us. We Cultural Studies in Passau Development" hoped to attract people, who are interest- - publications on Corporate Citizenship/ - major research topics: Sustainable ed in Sustainability and Generational Corporate Social Responsibility and Development, Local Agenda 21, Future Justice, but we did not expect such a high Partnerships between the Private and the Research, Political Participation, degree of enthusiasm. Participants did not Public Sector Technology Assessment, Globalisation just listen and make notes during the - worked for different Development Aid - is on the editorial board of the periodi- debates but joined the discussions very Organizations in Southeast Asia and in cal "Zukünfte" (Futures), member of the actively. Moreover, the feedback shows Germany "Agendaforum for Sustainable that the Young Leaders Congress was Development in Berlin und Brandenburg" more than just interesting: it created a Tile von Damm and was expert in two consecutive Inquiry communication-base for young people Director of Perspectives on Global Commissions of the House of throughout Europe. It is important for us Policies (PerGlobal) Representatives of the State of Berlin to keep a balance between learning some- - studied Political Science in Berlin and focussing on Sustainability and Local thing about current problems and having Marburg. Agenda 21 a good time with people from other - participant on the UN-Summits on nations. Sustainable Development (WSSD) and on Dr. Benedek Jávor the Information Society (WSIS) Hungarian Initiative for an Ombudsman Furthermore, interest did not cease when - several publications on the future of the for Future Generations the Congress was over: many people European Union, global sustainable devel- agreed to write summaries about debates opment and the information society

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 17 - born in Budapest in 1972, MSc in biolo- -Member of the Parliamentary - main interests: international economics, gy from ELTE University Council on Sustainable transatlantic relations, developing coun- - 1993-1997: he studied cultural anthro- Development tries, renewable energies and urban plan- pology and human ecology -Member of the Committee on ning - assistant professor of Environmental environment Sciences at the Department of -Member of the Commission Svenja Koch Environmental Law, Pazmany Peter "Ethic and Law of Modern Press Officer, Greenpeace Catholic University, Budapest Medicine" - born in 1964 - 2000: he was a founding member of the -Vice Member of the - 1984-1986: classic apprenticeship as environmental NGO 'Védegylet - Protect Committee on Health and Social journalist at a daily newspaper in the Future Society' Security Northern Germany - 2000-2002: he worked as secretary of the - 1986-1988: scholarship holder of Henri- Society's 'Representation of Future Markus Knigge Nannen-Schule (7.course) Generations' (REFUGE) programme Fellow with Ecologic - Institute for - 1988-1995: she worked as editorial jour- - since 2003: he worked as spokesperson International and European nalist for environment amongst others at - he is author of several articles, including Environmental Policy the news magazine "Der Spiegel" and at 'Environmental crisis and the democratic NDR-radio state' (2000), 'To dress it and to keep it' - studied Urban and Regional Planning at - since 1995: Press Officer, Greenpeace (2003), writer of the handbook the Technical University Berlin, Germany - since November 2004: provisional 'Introduction to Environmental Ethics' and the Instituto Universitario di "Head of Communications", Greenpeace (all in Hungarian), editor of numerous Architettura in Venice, Italy. publications, e.g. 'Rights of Future - fields of concentration were: urban plan- Nira (Rachel) Lamay Generations' (2001) ning in developing countries and the Deputy Commissioner for the Knesset urban environment Commission for Future Generations Michael Kauch - 2000: he graduated; his thesis is about Liberal Free Democrats party and mem- urban identity in multiethnic societies, - born in Tel-Aviv in 1972 ber of the German Parliament, certified using Penang, Malaysia, as an example. - studied Law at the University of political economist - As a scholar of the German Academic Jerusalem, and is studying for her MA in Exchange Service (DAAD) Markus Political Sciences "Politics, Society and - born in Dortmund in 1967 Knigge enrolled at the School of Law" in Tel-Aviv University. - 1986-93 successfully passed university advanced International Studies, Johns - 1998-2000: she worked for the Central studies in economics at the University of Hopkins University as a graduate student. District Attorney as a Criminal Dortmund - during his two years of studies in Prosecutor. - 1994 Consultant for Public Relations for Bologna, Italy and Washington D.C. he - 2000-2001: she was teaching assistant at FDP- parliamentary group of the state focused on International Economics, the College of Management Business parliament in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Energy and the Environment. School. - 1995-1999 Economic Policy Consultant - he passed his final examines with distinc- - 2000: she worked as a legal advisor for for Bundesverband Junger Unternehmer tion. the Constitution, Law and Justice commit- (BJU, Federal Association of Young - 2005: he successfully participated at the tee of the Knesset. Entrepreneurs) Bucerius Summer School on Global - since December 2001: she works for the - 1999-2003: Chief Executive Officer for Governance. Knesset Commission for Future BJU - Markus Knigge gained work experience Generations, a commission she participat- - since 1989 Member of the German lib- during several internships in both public ed in the establishing of and in which she eral party FDP and the Young Liberals and private institutions: is deputy commissioner and in charge of - 1990-93 Vice Chairman of the Young -In Malaysia, he volunteered for a local Law, Legislation and International Liberals in Dortmund, Chairman of the NGO for which he developed a sustain- Relations, and coordinates Science and Liberal Students in Dortmund and able development strategy for a historic Technology Issues. Member of Students Parliament at the town centre. University of Dortmund -In 2004, Markus Knigge was John - 1993-95 Vice President of Young J. McCloy Fellow in Environmental Photo: Nira Lamay and Benedek Jávor Liberals of Germany Affairs and in 2005 Research - 1995-99 President of Young Liberals of Fellow at the American Institute for Germany Contemporary German Studies, - 1995-2001 Member of the federal board John Hopkins University. of FDP Germany - He is a member of the - since 1998 Chairman of FDP in Tönissteiner Kreis, an association Dortmund dedicated to the promotion of - since 2001 Chairman of the FDP young international leaders. Committee on Social Affairs - currently working on Economic - since 2003 Member of the German Globalisation and Sustainable Parliament Development. -liberal spokesman for Sustainable Development

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 18 Anna Lührmann - since 1996: he works for the European - Since 1991: Ministry for the Member of the German Parliament; Commission in Brussels, Belgium and in Environment, Nature Conservation and Initiative to institutionalise Generational Helsinki, Finland. Nuclear Safety Justice in the German Constitution - 1991-1993: Division " Protection of the Ann Mettler Marine Environment, International Water - born in 1983 Executive Director of the Lisbon Protection Law" - 1992-1994: she was part of a Council. - 1993-1997: Environment Attaché of the "Greenteam" (Greenpeace youth group). Permanent Representation of Germany - 1993-1999: she was member of pupil's - From 2000-2003, Ann Mettler worked at to the European Union council and in 1998 of the executive com- the World Economic Forum, where she - 1998-1999: Deputy Head of Division mittee" of the Hessian Land association most recently served as Director for "International Co-operation, Global of the Young Greens. Europe. Conventions, Climate Change" - 1997-1999 and 2001-2003: she worked - Prior to this appointment, she was - 1999-2004: Head of Division as Spokeswoman of the Hessian associa- responsible for the World Economic "International Cooperation, Global tion of the Young Greens. Forum's activities in the United States and Conventions, Climate Change"- partici- - 2000-2003: she was member of Alliance Canada. During her tenure, Ann handled pated in UNFCCC COPs 5, 6, 6 bis, 7, 8, 90/The Greens county executive commit- relations at the highest level with govern- 9 and 10 as the German chief negotiator. tee. ments of over twenty-five countries, - since 2004: Deputy Director General - 2000-2002: she was Delegate of the including six members of the G7. She "International Cooperation" Young Greens to the Federation of managed a team of six persons and was in Young European Greens. charge of the conceptualization, organiza- Jun. Prof. Dr. Bernd Siebenhüner - 2002: she was member of the federal tion and execution of economic summits University of Oldenburg executive committee of the Young in Europe and the United States. Greens. - In addition, Ann provided content input - assistant professor of ecological eco- - since 2002: she was chairwoman of the and regional expertise to four World nomics and head of the GELENA- German-Nordic Parliamentary Friendship Economic Forum Annual Meetings in research group on social learning and Group and member of the German Davos. Sustainability at Carl von Ossietzky Bundestag. - From 1997-2000, Ann Mettler held posi- University of Oldenburg - till 2004: she was also member of the tions on the Governmental Affairs (www.gelena.net). German Bundestag's Committee on the Committee of the United States Senate, a - deputy leader of the Global Governance Affairs of the European Union. strategic communications firm in Project (www.glogov.org). - since October 2003: she studies at Washington, DC and the Foreign Policy - a Ph.D. in Economics and Master's FernUniversität Hagen politics and organ- Division of the European Commission, degrees in Economics and Political isation. Brussels. Science - since September 2004: she is member of - Ann Mettler has contributed articles to - his research interests cover social learn- the German Bundestag's Budget The Wall Street Journal Europe, ing, Sustainability, corporate environmen- Committee. Handelsblatt, FT Deutschland, European tal management, organisational learning, Voice, USA and Europe in Business, the linking social and natural sciences, and Timo Tapani Mäkelä annual publication of the European studies of human behaviour. Director Sustainable Development and Council of American Chambers of Integration, European Commission Commerce, and the Discussion Paper Dr. Jörg Tremmel series of the Center for European Foundation for the Rights of Future - born in 1950 Integration Studies. She has also appeared Generations (FRFG) - master of Technological Sciences on 'Talk in Berlin', one of Germany's - born in Frankfurt in 1970 (civil/water, sanitation and land use) and major live TV talk-shows. - Master's degree in business administra- Post-graduate Diploma in Sanitary - A dual citizen of Germany and Sweden, tion from the European Business School Engineering Ann Mettler holds Masters degrees from in Oestrich-Winkel, - 1974-1985: he worked for Regional and the University of New Mexico, USA, and - Master's degree in political sciences from National Water and Environmental the Center for European Integration the Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-Universität Protection Agencies, Finland. Studies (ZEI) in Bonn, Germany in Frankfurt - 1986-1987: he was Senior Officer of - PhD in Social Sciences from the Ministry of Environment of Finland. Dr. Karsten Sach University of Stuttgart. Dissertation title: - 1988-1989: he worked for Ministry of Federal Ministry of the Environment, 'Population Policies in the Context of Mineral Resources and Water Affairs in Deputy Director General "International Ecological Intergenerational Justice'. Gaborone, Botswana. Cooperation" Teaching assignments on several universi- - 1990-1993: he worked for Ministry of ties. Environment of Finland in Helsinki, - born in Gruberhagen in 1959, Germany. - since 1997 he is Director of the Finland. - 1984: First Law Degree Foundation for the Rights of Future - 1993-1996: he was employed at the - 1989: Second Law degree Generations (FRFG), a non-profit and European Bank for Reconstruction and - 1993: Doctorate in Law non-partisan think-tank with the objective Development in London, UK. - 1984-199: Researcher and lecturer at var- of lobbying for the benefit of future gen- ious universities, mainly on environmental erations. law

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 19 About 70 volunteers and interns work in Prof. Michael Wallack - 1996: The Duke of Edinburgh Gold the foundation every year. FRFG was - studied at the City College of New York Medal of WWF International honored by the Theodor-Heuss-Medal in and the Syracuse University, USA - 2000: Honorary Degree from the 2000 and the Medal for Good Citizenship - since 1970 till now: associate professor Japanese Soka University of the town Oberursel in 2001. of political science at the Memorial - 2001: he received the Takeda Award - Responsible for the organisation of sev- University of Newfoundland "Techno-Entrepreneurial Achievement eral symposia and congresses (i.a. the - published in 2002 an article with the title for World-Environmental Well-Being" biggest youth congress at the EXPO 'Biological Innovation, Justice Between 2000), the Intergenerational Justice Award Generations and the Minimum 7. Participants, Organisers, Sponsors of FRFG and other projects. Invitations Irreversible Harm Principle' (in English), for talks from German President for the European consortium for Political 48 Participants: Johannes Rau, Minister of Justice Herta Research Magdalena Abraham, Ramil Aliyev, Alvaro Däubler-Gmelin (3x), Minister of Labour - published in February 2004 the article Barrio, George Baesu, Zlatko Blazevski, Walter Riester (2x), Minister of Health 'The minimum irreversible harm princi- Anders Blok, Christina Chronaki, Ljiljana Ulla Schmidt, Liberal Party Leader Guido ple: Green Intergenerational Liberalism' Cumura, Jean-Paul De Lucca, Yuriv Westerwelle und Rolf-E. Breuer (in English) in 'Liberal Democracy and Derev'yanko, Rainer Engelken, Piotr J. (Chairman of Deutsche Bank) Environmentalism: the end of environ- Golebiewski, Jan Handl, Alexander Hauk, - his main publications (all in German) mentalism?' published in the European Caren Herbstritt, Till Horstmann, are: 'The Generation Fraud' (1996) and Political Science Serie of Routledge Themistoklis Kossidas, Amit Kossover, 'Sustainability as a political and analytical Aleksandar Kostadinov, Tuuli J. Lehtinen, category' (2003). He edited the Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker Michael Liesner, Catherine Lippuner, "Handbook Intergenerational Justice" Chairman of the Bundestag Committee Olha Lukash, Ilze Millere, Natalya - many other of his articles were pub- on Environment, Nature Conservation Nesevrya, Peter Nestorov, Konstantina lished in books and journals, including, and Nuclear Safety, Club of Rome Papadimitriou, Jerneja Penca, Kairit 'You have only borrowed this land from Pohla, Katerina Perraki, Georgi Petrov, us' (1997), 'The generation of 1968'(1998) - born in Zuerich, Switzerland, in 1939 Crina Pungulescu, Yves R.Regez, Carsten and 'What is left of the past? The younger - studied Chemistry and Physics (1965 Riemeier, Isil Sariyuce, Julia Schlüns, generation discusses the holocaust' (1999). Diploma, Hamburg University) Yaroslava Sennikova, Nancy Serrano, - Member of e-fellows, Futur, tt30 in and Biology (Ph.D. Freiburg University, Anna Y. Shirokova, Monika Sokolowska, Germany, Thesis, AEGEE etc. 1969). Ivaylo G. Stoimenov, Robert D. Tesh, - 1969-1972: Interdisciplinary Research in Noriko Teranishi, Katrin Tomson, T. Oras Matthias Urbach Heidelberg K. Tynkkynen, Martien Van Gool, Steven correspondent of the German daily news- - 1972-1975: Professor for Inter-discipli- Wouters, Felix Zurro paper TAZ, with the focus on environ- nary Biology at Essen University mental policy - 1975-1980: Founding President of the 23 countries were represented: University of Kassel Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech - born in 1967 - 1981-1984: Director at the United Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, - learned journalism at the renowned Nations Centre for Science and Finland, Germany, Greek, Ireland, Israel, Henri-Nannen-School in Hamburg, and Technology for Development Latvia, Macedonia, Netherlands, Poland has a university degree in Journalism from - 1984-1991: Director of the Institute for Russia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, the Hamburg University, too. European Environmental Policy (IEEP) Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine - is capital correspondent in the field of in Bonn, London and Paris "Economy and Environment" of the - 1991-2000: President of the Wuppertal Organisers: German national daily newspaper TAZ. Institute for Climate, Environment, The event was organised by the - as a trained physicist, he has been follow- Energy Foundation for the Rights of Future ing up on environmental policy for eight - since 1991: Member of the Club of Generations (FRFG) in cooperation with years. Rome the Protestant Academy Berlin (EAB), the - reported among others on the interna- - since Oct. 1998: Member of the German Institute for Futures Studies and tional climate talks in Kyoto (1997) and Parliament Technology Assessment (IZT), Youth for Bonn (2001) -2000-2002: Chairman of the Intergenerational Justice and - other focal points of his work: finance Parliamentary Commission on Enquiry Sustainability Europe (YOIS Europe) and and consumer policy, as well as science "Globalisation of the Economy - AEGEE Europe. next to his work for the TAZ he is Challenges and Responses" German correspondent of "Environment - 2002-2004: Member of the World Foundation for the Rights of Future Watch", a newsletter for business and pol- Commission on the Social Dimension of Generations icy professionals Globalization The FRFG is a non-profit and non-party - he writes also now and then for scientif- - since Oct. 2002: Chairman of the research institute linking the academic ic magazines. Bundestag Committee on Environment, world with the world of politics. Through - at the moment his main focus neverthe- Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety its practice-oriented research it deepens less lies on his two little children: he left - 1989: he received, together with the the knowledge of Intergenerational his TAZ-office in February for a one-year Norwegian Prime Minister, the Italian Justice and Sustainability. Young acade- parental leave Premio De Natura mics and students from different back- grounds work on different interdiscipli-

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 20 Institute for Sustainability. A further goal of YOIS is Futures Studies promoting European integration. The and Technology organisation was founded in 2000 during a Assessment European youth Congress at the EXPO The Institute for 2000 in Hanover. (Involved activist: Futures Studies Carsten Wenzlaff) and Technology Assessment is AEGEE Europe an independent AEGEE is one of the biggest interdisci- and non-profit plinary student associations in Europe; it research insti- is represented by 17.000 students, active in tute, founded in 260 academic cities, in 42 countries all Photo: Organisers at work 1981. The mis- around Europe, which presents amazing sion of the IZT culture variety. AEGEE is a secular, non- is to conduct profit organization, not linked to any nary projects within the FRFG, such as interdisciplinary futures studies with a political party. All projects and activities the quarterly journal "Generational long-term impact on society. Future devel- are based on voluntarily work of its mem- Justice!", which is published three times a opments do not concentrate on single dis- bers. year in German and once in English. The ciplines or issues, but consist of various Aims: FRFG has published several books and interdependences and overlaps that have - to promote a unified Europe without organises seminars and discussions on a to be considered in research and action. prejudices regular basis. The FRFG is not a think The scientific work at the IZT has always - to strive for creating an open and toler- tank satisfied with describing the current been characterised by the combination of ant society of today and tomorrow situation, it also wants to change society basic research and practicable results. - to foster democracy, human rights, toler- actively. Its aim is to create more aware- (Involved activists: Prof. Dr. Rolf ance, cross-boarder co-operation, mobili- ness for Future Generations and to spread Kreibich, Dr. Edgar Göll) ty and European dimension in education. the ideas of Intergenerational Justice and (Involved activists: Kamala Schuetze, Sustainability. YOIS Europe Robert Tesh) (Involved activists: Tobias Kemnitzer, YOIS Europe is a European youth organ- Jörg Tremmel, Caterina Bressa, Thomas isation for Intergenerational Justice and Wiechers, Yanti Ehrentraut, Paolo Zucchini, Kristin Tecles, Andrea Heubach, Laura Memmert)

Protestant Academy Berlin The Protestant Academy in Berlin is an institution of the Protestant Church in Germany that advances dialogues on political, social and cultural problems of today and the future. By running an exchange of ideas between lifestyles, opin- ions, sciences, religions, philosophies and generations, the Protestant Academy greatly contributes to the political culture and encourages people to be part of a civil society. It also practices a long-term dia- logue on sustainable economy, environ- mental politics and Intergenerational Justice. (Involved activists: Rosalita Huschke, Marcus Götz-Guerlin, Robert Scheunpflug)

Photo: The participants on top of the German Reichstag

Main Sponsor: German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU)

Sponsors: Federal Ministry for Education and Research Protestant Academy Berlin Deutsche Telekom Körber-Stiftung Foundation for Rights of Future Generations

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 21 Responsibility for Future Generations: Scope and Limits by Prof. Dr. Dieter Birnbacher

ue to technological progress it is regarding different scopes. stock of resources without making further ever more possible to assess eco- provisions. However, ethically, this is not nomic, ecological and other How to fulfil this task sufficient because we neglect the natural D growth of populations and refrain from risks for future generations. Thus, we are To fulfil this task, the entire foreseeable improving future generations. In reality, obliged to face the responsibility and to future should be included. Moreover, our care for the realisation of intergenera- tional justice. In the following, “The best test for the consciousness of man is probably his Birnbacher approaches the actual proce- dures including ethical appropriateness. readiness to make sacrifices for future generations – whose Concerning daily decisions, we especially gratitude he will never receive.” have to overcome our daily minimalism Unknown and complacency in order to take moral responsibility for future generations.

Taking up the responsibility for future parents’ responsibility and neighbour love even the fulfilment of this minimum stan- generations ought to be broadened to distant love. dard is not always given. In economic The objects of responsibility can be dif- models future utility is often devaluated in Present activities catalysed by modern fered ideally in anthropocentric, patho- favour of present use by pragmatic con- technologies are affecting the lives of centric and biocentric visions. However, siderations. This vision can be objected future generations considerably; in a posi- in concrete situations these ideal visions while appealing to the principle of impar- tive as well as in a negative way. More and are, in case of conflict, focused in favour tiality of the moral point of view. The more things are entering the sphere of of the human being. conflict between pragmatic and moral human control, and we have a growing considerations confronts us with the possibility to detect early enough future Regarding the content of our responsibil- problem of too little motivation to take ity for future generations, responsibility for future generations. We we have to care for a sus- still favour the present and our nearest tained preservation of friends. We have to cultivate the motiva- the resources needed for tion for a future ethic by developing a human survival. consciousness of one’s own temporal Nevertheless, it need not position in the sequence of generations be so extensive that we and to create a generation-transcending have to take care of a sense of community. One possible way to cultural enrichment for fulfil this task is the model of a hypothet- future generations. ical future market. According to this, the Comparing the responsi- needs and interest of future generations bility for present genera- have to be represented on an institutional tions with the one for level, by spokesmen, group actions, court future generations, we decisions and commissions. Hopefully, can distinguish a maxi- this would be one effective step towards mal and a minimal realising generational justice. approach. In a maximal approach, we have to dangers and risks. These factors lead to an invest the resources of today, wherever Dieter Birnbacher is extension of our responsibility for future the welfare of future generations can be Professor for philosophy at generations. In spite of the difficulties like increased. the Heinrich Heine opportunity costs, restricted human ability University of Düsseldorf and foresight, modern collective agents Realising generational justice in daily in Germany. (present governments and leading indus- Contact: Philosophical life trial companies) have to take their respon- Institute, Heinrich Heine sibility for future generations. How to ful- In daily life, we follow the minimalist way, University; 40225 fil this task has to be based on fundamen- whereby we just have to preserve the Düsseldorf, Germany, dieter.birnbacher@uni- tal ethics and has to be well defined duesseldorf.de

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 22 John Rawls on Rights of Future Generations by Prof. Dr. Claus Dierksmeier

ccording to Dierksmeier, John rationalisation. To explain this method, In his book “Justice of Fairness. A Rawls’ theory on justice for Rawls uses several new concepts and prin- Restatement” (2001) Rawls mainly deals future generations fails to ciples, namely “the original position”, with the question in how far the present A “ the difference principle” and “the saving generation is bound to respect the claims explain the need to guarantee the rights of principle”. According to Rawls, everyone of its successors. Rawls refrains from the future generations. Intergenerational jus- desires to minimise the risk of losing out, concepts “mutual care” and “intergenera- tice cannot exclusively be explained by through schemes of a too unequal social tional agreement”, but creates a principle rational choice theory and sheer human distribution. Therefore, we make correc- to hand over to others what you also want self-interest. In contrast, a moral-based, tions on the result of the “natural lottery”, for yourself. However, this principle by guaranteeing a social minimum for means important restrictions for the self- metaphysical explanation is essential to everyone. Individual differences are interested rational ‘maximiser’. Why justify generational justice. accepted, insofar as every deviation means should an individual follow this principle an advantage for the whole community (= then? Reviewing Rawls’s Theory difference principle). We have to save money to organise certain social institu- A Need for Metaphysics and Morality The review of the theory of Rawls, devel- tions that arrange this justified distribu- oped in the 1960s/1970s, starts off by sit- tion (=saving principle). Rawls has divided the rationality concept uating it within a broader philosophical therefore in “reasonable” and “rational”. frame of that time period. In the seven- Detecting the Defaults Rational, refers to the maximising logic; ties, there was a movement that saw meta- reasonable, is related to value judgments physics as an obscure and irrational sci- The defaults in this theory of Rawls can and moral wisdom. Reasonable persons ence. Models based on a rational choice be summed up as follows: it justifies only desire a social world for their own sake, theory had to serve a more reason-based quantitative saving rates and not qualita- free and equal, where they can cooperate explanation of traditional metaphysical tive ones, and the contractual approach is with others in terms that everybody can topics. limited to our relations with other ‘physi- accept. However, this “reasonable” idea - In his book “A Theory of Justice”, pub- cally existing’ persons. Rawls was con- value judgements, moral wisdoms, and the idea of free and equal - is no longer com- patible with the methods of logic calculus All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those and game theory. Rawls did not manage to of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and justify responsibility for future genera- tions by mere individual interest. hence we often make troublesome changes without amend- The conclusion follows that responsibility for future generations, for instance with ment, and frequently for the worse. regards to the earth and its biodiversity, cannot be explained by the theory of Rawls but is still only justified by a higher /Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)/ moral metaphysical principle. lished in 1971, Rawls examines which scious of this lack, and tried to enlarge his societal structure serves the human inter- theory to cover responsibility for future Claus Dierksmeier is est best, based on the fundamental generations. He found a solution by for- Associate Professor for phi- assumptions of rational choice theories. mulating an emotional interest of ‘heads losophy at Stonehill-College Following Rawls, society is a cooperative of families’ for the immediate descen- in Easton / Boston, USA. venture for mutual advantage, where the dants. This interest results in a continuity Contact: Martin Institute mutual advantage is greater than the indi- from one generation to another. Within for Law and Society, vidual gain so that each and every individ- this chain, all generations can virtually be Stonehill College, 320 ual finds its interests better served within represented in the original position. It Washington St. Easton. rather than without a societal setting. The should be criticised that “an emotional MA, USA; [email protected] main problem of a society, continues interest in descendants” is not very ratio- Rawls, are conflicting individual claims. nal, and that Rawls makes adaptations on This issue has to be solved by principles his concept “original position” without of justice. According to Rawls these prin- clearing out the new conditions. ciples are not based on metaphysical, Ultimately, it thus needs to be asked moral ideas, but voluntary chosen by whether having no offspring would not be rational beings, applying a method of the most rational decision of all?

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 23 Intergenerational Justice by Ass. Prof. Emmanuel Agius

he article postulates a well-con- Rawls and Intergenerational Justice metaphysics of A.N. Whitehead whose sidered use of science and tech- vision of the past, present and future real- nology at the service of all In the next section the Rawlsian view on ity as a unified whole implies a new per- T intergenerational justice is sketched and spective on social ethics, can offer an eth- humankind - guided by the ethical princi- criticised. ical base for a theory of intergenerational ples of intergenerational solidarity, co- Rawls claims that a theory of justice has justice. His philosophical system puts operation, sharing, justice and equity. In to apply to all members of a society, emphasis on the fact that the acts of every this light the concept of ‘common heritage’ whether they are living intratemporally or individual are necessarily social and rela- is introduced and the implementations of intertemporally. However, his core princi- tional. A person is constituted by its rela- ple for the relationship between genera- tions and has no other existence than as a the Rawlsian ‘just savings principle’ on tions, the just saving principle, is counteract- creative synthesis of these relations. generational justice is criticised. Finally, a ing this aim by limiting the duties to suc- Whitehead’s philosophical understanding relational theory of intergenerational jus- ceeding generations. It is explained that of the universe as an interconnected web tice is proposed. according to this principle every genera- of relations as well as the ontological tion is expected to hand on to its interme- nature of the relational self offer a new Common Heritage Concept diate posterity a somewhat better situation paradigm of human society. This new than they have inherited. So the best way point of view implies that every society is Future generations need to be protected to create a better future is by improving seen as just one sector of a global com- because they are in a disadvantaged posi- the conditions of life now and passing on munity. Interdependence does not end tion with respect to the present generation the results to its descendants. with the nation or even the global com- who has the power to affect badly their Rawls alters the motivational assumptions munity. Relations extend not only over quality of life. Natural as well as cultural that he originally made regarding the con- space but also across time. Every genera- environments need to be saved for the tractual partners in order to get the just tion is related to all preceding and suc- well being of future generations. Each saving principle out of the original situation. ceeding generations which collectively generation is both a trustee of the planet He has introduced this methodological form the community of mankind as a for future generations and a beneficiary of change because he had reasoned that self- whole. its fruits. interested individuals in the original posi- One of the central notions of social ethics This implies obligations to care for the tion would disregard the rights of future is that of common good. Compared to the planet and certain rights to use it. Such generations and would choose not to save traditional view the concept of common obligations are formulated by the common anything for them unless it is assumed good is defined from a much broader per- heritage concept that was put forward for the that they already have affections for their spective within a ‘Whiteheadian’ system: it first time by the government of Malta in offspring in the original position. is the good of mankind as a whole. According to recent ecological awareness the “Future Generations should be inheritors, not survivors.” concept of com- /George Schaller, (1933-) mammologist, naturalist, conservationist and author/ mon good must include also the natural resources 1967. This concept is not a new theory of Rawls explanation of intergenerational of the earth. The atmosphere, the oceans, property, but in fact implies the absence justice in terms of the just saving principle the outer space and all the natural of property. Its key consideration is access has in a way restricted transgenerational resources belong to all generations. The to the common resources rather than moral relationship only to overlapping duty to share not only with the present but ownership of it. generations. His theory lacks the ability to also with future generations has to based The assignation of a proxy for future gen- provide an ethical framework to underpin on the concept of social justice, analogous erations to alert the international commu- the contemporary moral concern for the to welfare provisions for handicapped or nity of the threats to the well being of far distant future generations. In some aged members of the present society. future generations would be the most cases the just saving principle might rather be Social justice forbids any generation to appropriate step in the right direction to a threat to than a defence of the rights of exclude other generations from a fair safeguard the quality of future life. This future generations. share in the benefits of the common her- “guardian” should, as authorised person itage of humankind. or body, represent future generations at Whitehead and the Concept of various international committees, particu- “Common Good” Principles of Intergenerational larly at the U.N. level. Responsibilities The weakness of the Rawlsian theory indicates the need of a different approach To achieve justice between generations, it to intergenerational justice. The relational is important to recognise the following

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 24 principles of intergenerational responsi- Second, each generation should Let us hope that there will be some grati- bilities. The three principles were devel- be required to maintain the quality of life tude from future generations for the pre- oped by Prof. Edith Brown Weiss in her of the planet so that it is passed on in no sent one for the efforts taken to hand over book "In Fairness to Future Generations worse condition than the present genera- to them a better world. (1989), Tokyo/New York: United Nations tion received it, and should be entitled to University Press/Transnational Publi- a quality of the planet comparable to the Emmanuel Agius is shers". one enjoyed by previous generations. Professor of Moral Third, each generation should Theology and First, each generation should be required provide its members with equitable rights Philosophical Ethics at to conserve the diversity of the natural of access to the legacy from past genera- the University of Malta. and cultural resource base, so that it does tions and should conserve this access to Contact: Faculty of not unduly restrict the options available to the legacy from past generations and Theology, University of future generations in solving their prob- should conserve this access for future Malta, Msida MSD 06, Malta, lems and satisfying their own values. generations. [email protected]

Justice Between Generations: Limits of Procedural Justice by Prof. Michael Wallack

ichael Wallack investigates be regarded as just, in the present or reasonably well off-the conditions for lib- the difficulties of liberal theo- between present and future, are those that eral justice assumed by Rawls. ries with respect to the field of are to the advantage of the least well off. M And Rawls proposed that future harms be MIH Into the Constitution justice between generations. He criticises valued without reduction for futurity but Rawls’ remarks on Intergenerational he allowed as fair discounting for oppor- In response to Wilfred Beckerman's rejec- Justice and offers as a solution the tunity costs-at the interest rate applied to tions of any effort to include the future Principle of Minimum Irreversible risk free investments. Yet this discounting citizens in the protections provided by a Harm (MIH). He then evaluates would reduce all long term harms to zero system of constitutional rights, I note that cost and not protect future citizens. The Beckerman himself offers a theory of jus- Beckerman’s thesis on the impossibility of Rawlsian "difference principle" was tice for future citizens implicitly at least in a theory of intergenerational justice. intended to establish a right for the bene- his contention that we today have a moral fit of the least well off to see inequalities obligation to avoid doing severe harm to in the distribution of the most important future people. In my view, the minimum Modifying Rawls: The Minimum resources limited to those necessary for harm irreversible harm principle is an Irreversible Harm Principle the wellbeing of the entire polity. But example of such a commitment when and because of Rawls' support for opportuni- if it becomes part of a constitutional Both utilitarian and liberal democratic ty cost discounting his difference principle framework. In this way a constitution will contract theorists such as John Rawls have would not protect future generations. provide a fair system of social coopera- come to the question of justice between tion that will protect each generation and generations with the expectation that it Because I support the Rawlsian account not simply those now living could be addressed by a simple extension of liberal democratic institutions given in of the principles used to address distribu- his book , A Theory of Justice, but believe Michael Wallack is tive justice for contemporaries, but have in that his account of justice between gener- Associate Professor of the end required special assumptions ations is flawed, I offer a modification of political science at the about the benevolence of present day cit- his account which I refer to as the Memorial University of izens to provide a plausible account how Minimum Irreversible Harm Principle Newfoundland. Contact: future citizens are to be protected from (MIH). According to this principle irre- Department of Political harm by those living now. Utilitarians such versible harm is to be minimized and Science, Memorial as J.S. Mill assumed that benevolent citi- activities that are undertaken within this University of zens would value the long run interests of minimum are to be limited to the shortest Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL A1B 3X9, mankind enough to protect them. But feasible time and smallest feasible loci of Canada; [email protected] altruistic regard for the future may not be application. Cost benefit calculations a majority preference when more immedi- must be divided between reversible and ate interests take center stage. The "great- non reversible costs and the irreversible est good for the greatest number" may in costs need to be constrained by the MIH practice mean the greatest good for the principle rather than simply being coun- active and aware participants in a polity. terbalanced by benefits. I mean the MIH principle to be one principle among oth- Rawls contended that fairness always ers within a liberal democratic state, and I requires that the only inequalities that can mean it to apply only to polities that are

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 25 Principles of Generational Justice by Prof. Dr. habil. Christoph Lumer

rom a philosophical point of worse off. view, the implementation of gen- Principle 4: Limited commitment: Moral erational justice needs to be based commitment should reach at least a bit F beyond socially valid moral duties, on a moral framework. For this purpose, which are legally or socially sanctioned. Christoph Lumer develops in his article A further increase of commitment is five principles. The validity of these basic not a moral duty. The principle demands axioms is then tested with a special focus the maximum of what can be demand- on the gap between rich and poor coun- ed from rational subjects and helps to maintain achieved standards. At the tries. same time, it raises moral commitment in the historical long term. The Five Axioms Principle 5: Efficiency or economy principle: Moral commitment should be efficient Generational Justice is justice within a par- and employed where the ratio of cost ticular area, namely concerning the rela- and moral benefit is the most tions between different generations. favourable. Hence, in the simplest case, maxims of generational justice could be seen as the Generational Justice in Real Life? applications of norms of general justice. Applying the Principles the future generations of the First World These general norms are themselves will still be better off than the currently deduced from moral axioms behind them. The actual developments seems to lead to dominant ones - and thus, also a lot better Five such axioms should be presented and a reduction of the intergenerational sav- off than future Third World generations. explained to show briefly which demands ings rate (referring to pensions politics, Because of this, the ratio of cost to moral benefit within the Third World countries would be the most favourable. Besides “If you cannot realise your plans then you should get to know this, many damages provoked by the greenhouse effect only become social the future while considering the past and recognise the latent problems because of widespread poverty. through the evident. Planning in this way Therefore, direct investments in the Third World’s development would probably be will lead to understanding.” an efficient means to considerably reduce damages caused by the greenhouse effect. If these empirical hypotheses are right, it /Mo Di (about 480 B.C. until 390 B.C.), should be concluded as follows: According to the expounded principles, Chinese philosopher/ the morally most important and morally obligatory steps towards generational jus- arise from these principles: high youth unemployment, unrestrained tice are firstly, considerable support for Principle 1: Ethical hedonism: Only the wel- consumption of non-renewable the development of the poorest countries; fare of human beings and more highly resources, hardly restrained emissions of secondly, the containment of the anthro- developed animals is intrinsically morally greenhouse gases). This contradicts the pogenous greenhouse effect; and thirdly, relevant. principle of limited commitment, as it the reduction of youth unemployment. Principle 2: Beneficiary universalism: All infringes the informal duty to maintain However, it remains unclear how impor- human beings - and to a limited degree the intergenerational savings rate existing tant the reduction of the consumption of more highly developed animals as well - so far. Hence, it is a forbidden moral step resources is in proportion to these three should be equal beneficiaries of the back. Developments seem to lead to a measures. morality of a subject, independent from considerable lowering of welfare in the space and time. Thus, beneficiary univer- Third World countries. Therefore, the salism excludes among other things tem- usual justification of the consumption of Prof. Dr. Christoph poral discounting, that is, a lower consid- non-renewable resources, namely that Lumer is Professor of eration of the fate of future generations. future generations will profit the most Moral Philosophy at Principle 3: Prioritarianism: The moral from the thus paid progress, is not valid in the University of Siena in value of an action or a norm is roughly these cases. Italy. Contact: Universita' determined by the thereby produced di Siena, changes in human welfare. More precisely, Plausible assumptions concerning the Dipartimento di Filosofia, though, it should be given more weight is actual developments imply that even if Via Roma 47, I-53100 given to changes in welfare of subjects current policies are sticked to further on, Siena. [email protected].

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 26 The Impossibility of Intergenerational Justice by Prof. Dr. Wilfred Beckerman

Theories of justice imply ascribing rights erations cannot have rights to anything is locate our obligations to future genera- to somebody or to some institution or that properties, such as being green or tions in some theory of intergenerational group of people thus, if some class of wealthy or having rights, can be predicat- justice are doomed to fail. But this would individuals cannot be said to have any ed only of some subjects that exist. not necessarily mean that future genera- rights their interests cannot be protected In connection with the more specific jus- tions have no ‘moral standing’ and that we within the framework of any coherent tification given for the goal sustainable have no moral obligations towards them. theory of justice. The crucial argument development, namely that future genera- For rights and justice by no means exhaust can be summarized in the following syllo- tions have rights to specific assets, such as the whole of morality. Since future gener- gism: the existing environment and all its crea- ations will have interests and since it is 1) Future generations – of unborn people tures, a second condition has to be satis- true that our policies may affect these – cannot be said to have any rights fied: this is that even people who do exist interests we do have a moral obligation to 2) Any coherent theory of justice implies cannot have rights to anything unless, in take account of the effect of our policies conferring rights on people, therefore principle, the rights could be fulfilled. on these interests. 3) the interests of future generations can- Future generations cannot have any rights not be protected or promoted within the now, and when future generations come Wilfred Beckerman is an Emeritus framework of into existence their rights cannot include Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford any theory of justice. rights to something that no longer exists, and Professor of economics at The crux of the argument that future gen- such as an extinct species. So attempts to Oxford University.

Towards a pragmatic Approach to Intergenerational Justice in Germany

by Dr. Johannes Meier and Dr. Ole Wintermann

ddressing the challenges tributor side to the recipient side of the fiscal policy. To support the emergence of posed by demographic change social security systems, the current sys- such a fundamental consensus the in most industralized coun- tems will be stretched beyond a breaking Bertelsmann foundation has cooperated A with the ZEW, Mannheim, to build a tries leads invariably to issues of inter- point. That is why any debate on sustain- generational justice: Can we realistically able financing of retirement benefits and monitoring tool for public debt at nation- expect future generations to take good social security needs to focus on the qual- al and federal level. Secondly, automatic control mechanisms to prevent excessive ity of public budgets and the principles of care of their many elders? Are we impos- debt need to be institutionalized. intergenerational justice. It is becoming ing unacceptable levels of debt on future Specifically, the Bertelsmann foundation is generations? increasingly accepted that exploding pub- proposing a shared commitment to a per- lic debt violates the basic goal of intergen- manent combined surplus of 2% GDP In most industrialized countries the erational justice. for federal and state budgets. Thirdly, the increase in life expectancy and wealth sanctions for failure to deliver on such A pragmatic approach to intergenera- coincides with a drop of the fertility rate commitments must be clear and drastic. tional justice below the sustainability level of 2.1 chil- One example could the automatic increase in taxes when certain debt thresholds are dren per woman. In Germany 1.3 million Experiences from other countries reveal children were born in 1964. One and a crossed – a mechanism that has already opportunities to break out of this pattern been introduced in some Swiss cantons. half generations later in 2003 this number of increasing debt. In Sweden, for exam- Last but not least, we call for regular and had dwindled to 0.7 million children and a ple, a mandatory set of royal commissions long term evaluation of budget structures fertility rate of 1.4. supports the legislative process in the long at all levels, with special attention to term planning process. Long term socio- demographic robustness. Lack of fiscal sustainability of current economic projections form the basis of systems important laws. Furthermore a reform of Dr. Johannes Meier is member of budget legislation has led to a number of the executive board of the Life expectancy is certain to rise and automatic control mechanisms to prevent Bertelsmann foundation. Contact: the share of older people in society will overspending. These reforms have result- Bertelsmann Stiftung, D-33311 increase whatever the progress on inte- ed in a budget surplus after years of major Gütersloh, [email protected] grating migrants or increasing fertility deficits. rates in Germany may be in the coming Dr. Ole Wintermann is project years. Thus, the ratio of persons benefit- We believe that these experiences should manager at the Bertelsmann founda- ing from the social system to persons con- be translated into German fiscal policy tion. Contact: Bertelsmann Stiftung, and into new control mechanisms: First of tributing to the system is going to change Aktion Demographischer Wandel; all, a cross-party consensus needs to be dramatically ceteris paribus. As more and D-33311 Gütersloh, ole.wintermann@bertels- established that intergenerational justice mann.de more baby-boomers move from the con- invariably calls for fundamental changes in

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 27 A Constitutional Law for Future Generations - The “other” Form of the Social Contract: The Generation Contract by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Peter Häberle o realise and assure generation mutual influence between member state contract fixed in constitutional law. protection, a reform of the social constitutions and the supranational EU- Rendering the more abstract conceptuali- contract into a ‘generation con- level. Moreover, sub constitutional legal sations more concrete, there are certain T acts adopted by the European Court of spheres that desperately need a connec- tract’ and its constitutional anchorage is Justice play a role as well. tion to generation protection: the out- needed. The essay examines already The special difficulty regarding constitu- dated pension system, the demographic existing forms of explicit as well as more tional generation protection is its ambigu- change, nuclear waste, growing state implicit generation protection in numer- ity. The two opposing key notions are debts, (un)employment, as well as educa- ous constitutions. Moreover, it sets a the- obligation and exemption: On the one tion and formation. hand, generation protection implies oretical framework for analysing and norms and values that must be eternally Constitutionalising Generational evaluating already existing text passages valuable. On the other hand, these norms Justice – A Tightrope Walk and is therefore a basis for future consti- must not constrain the coming genera- tutional changes. tions’ liberty to design their future world. The conclusion gives an outlook focusing Thus, a compromising middle course on constitutional politics. Explicit as well Forms of Constitutionalising between a certain degree of “eternity as more indirect forms of generation pro- Generational Justice clauses” and sufficient flexibility is needed tection, like the notion of “cultural her- for generation contracts. itage”, are a normal expression of today’s As the topic of sustainability and genera- growing constitutional state. The conclud- tional justice becomes ever more relevant ‘Generation’ as a Concept - Setting a ing postulate recommends a balance in various spheres like environment, pub- Theoretical Framework between an anchorage of generation pro- lic debt or our demographic future, it is tection in constitutional law which is nei- time for an analysis from a very essential For the interpretation of existing and the ther ‘too tight’ nor ‘too loose’. The living perspective: the constitutional anchorage formulation of future law clauses on gen- conditions for future generations must be of generation protection with special eration protection, a theoretical frame constitutionally protected but not in a way emphasis on the ‘time’ aspect. needs to be set. Tying up to the above that the freedom of today’s generation to In the essay, a comparative text stage mentioned human dependence on nature design environment is constrained. analysis is applied in order to systematise as well as culture, the notion “generation” Concerning the comparative text stage the recent flood of literature on constitu- is defined from a universal, anthropologi- analysis, a certain degree of competition tional rights for future generations. Apart cal perspective. Not only citizens of partic- regarding constitutional law should be from the explicit use of the formula of ular countries are dependent of the pro- accepted. However, the need for all- “generation protection”, it is also focused tection of nature and culture but every embracing universality of generation pro- on more indirect clauses inhering ‘cultural human being all over the world. Thus, gen- tection - Kant’s ideal of a ‘world citizen’ - and/or natural heritage’. The preservation eration protection needs to be fixed in the may not be ignored. of both, nature and culture - with nature constitution of every state in the world. To illustrate this need for universality, the What remains to be seen in relation to the providing the basic resources for culture - needed generation contract is firstly its is essential to sustain human living condi- philosopher Hans Jonas is of great impor- tance, who modified Kant’s well-known context like patriotism, civil society, or tions for future generations and is thus environmental protection, and secondly part of ‘generation protection’. Categorical Imperative in terms of gener- ation protection: “Act so that the effects its forum which could be God, nature, or Concerning the systematic of the consti- history. tutional anchorage of generation protec- of your action are compatible with the tion, there is one striking observation permanence of genuine human life!”. Taking into account the changing tempo- We can thus be curious of how the “gen- regarding different text stages: eration contract” will eventually be Innovations towards generational protec- ral dimension of the notion “generation”, it must be recognised that more and more embedded in the state or even in one tion often first develop on a regional level, ‘world’ constitution. for instance in the German Bundesländer, generations of people live at the same time. Mutual responsibility is therefore before they enter the state wide level. Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Peter Another very topical sign of the intensifi- ever more topical and needs to be put into practice – which consequently renders the Häberle is Director of the cation of generation protection is its Bayreuth Institute for European expansion on the European level: anchorage of generation protection high- ly essential. Law and Law Culture as well Whereas its precursors, the treaties of as the Research Institute for Maastricht and Amsterdam, incorporated In the last paragraph of the theoretical framework, the importance of ‘culture’ as European Constitutional Law, generation protection only immanently, University of Bayreuth. the Treaty establishing a Constitution for a tangible constant connecting different generations is once more emphasised. Contact: University of Bayreuth, 95440 Europe now mentions it explicitly. Also Bayreuth, [email protected] on the European level, different text Culture, which unites tradition as well as stages can be observed in the form of a innovation, is the basis for a generational

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 28 The French Constitutional Charter for the Environment: An Effective Instrument? by Prof. Dominique Bourg

fter briefly situating the French environmental issues within the parlia- aspects regarding the assessment of cur- Constitutional Environment ment. The Charter was finally passed in rent state knowledge, and the adoption of Charter in the international February 2005. measures aimed at reducing the risk. A Leaving aside the controversies on formu- law context, Bourg introduces the institu- Relation to Future Generations: lation, for instance about the implementa- tional process used to draw up this text Strengths and Weaknesses of the tion order, the precautionary principle is and the connections it has with the gener- Charter most important for future generations and al theme of future generations. Then, he should guide public policy. In addition, for analyses three articles of this Charter With concern to future generations, the Intergenerational Justice to be realised, preamble is of particular importance. action must be taken immediately and and points out some of the reasons lead- With its global perspective, its object is without delay. ing to believe its effect will be limited. clearly the future of humanity. The pre- cautionary principle characterises best the A Gloomy Outlook The Charter’s Origin spirit of the preamble as it aims at pre- venting as much as possible the irre- Concerning the effectiveness of there are France was by far not the first country to versible deterioration of the environment. merely two options: Either it is effective include environmental protection and Almost all other articles are forward-look- or not at all. Unfortunately, the remedial Sustainable Development in its ing. Problematic might be the contrast role of Charter is virtually inexistent. The Constitution. However, there is a relative between the right “to live in an environ- reason is to be found within the proce- originality about the French approach as it ment that is balanced and favourable to modified the preamble with reference to a good health” and the set of personal new Charter. This Charter affirms the duties and government obligations within The future is here. It's just right to a healthy environment and the following articles. not widely includes a universal responsibility princi- Three particular articles, 3,4, and 5, should ple for ecological reparations. Despite this be examined in more detail to reveal the distributed yet. universalistic perspective, the effective- Charter’s strengths and weaknesses. ness of the Charter remains questionable. Concerning article 3, “Everyone has the The institutional process of the Charter right to live in an environment that is bal- /William Gibson (1948 - )/ reaches back to the 1970s. Nevertheless, anced and respectful of health”, a refer- the ‘Coppens Commission’ to formulate it ence to the notion ‘dignity’ was erased by was not set up until 2002. Concerning the the government, which reduces the text to dures in France for referring a matter to formulation, the head of state, Jaqcues the mere biological dimension. Moreover, the Constitutional Council: The signatures Chirac, stepped in twice. The first time, he ‘well-being’ was replaced by ‘health’ which of at least 60 parliamentarians are needed, recommended a modification of the pre- boils down to ascribing a therapeutic which makes it a very restrictive proce- amble combining two scenarios: The first virtue to the environment. A third point dure. This amount of ecologically vigilant one referred to a Charter having constitu- about article 3 is the redraft of the refer- parliamentarians is at the moment not tional value; in the second one, the right to ence to individual health into public given. Finally, recent bills that were passed a healthy environment was stated concise- health which can be objectified and con- by the Senate reveal that the Charter actu- ly, and an organic law (i.e., a higher level of trolled. ally changes nothing. The French effort of law than ordinary law) was introduced. In With regards to article 4, “Every person constitutional anchorage of the further course, the government rec- must contribute to repairing the damage Intergenerational Justice seems to stay a ommended either an organic law specify- he or she causes to the environment, theoretical opus that is not put into prac- ing the conditions in which the Charter under conditions defined by law”, the pol- tice. applied, or an extension of the rule of law luter-pays principle was broadened to a to the environment. Moreover, it was principle establishing ecological responsi- Dominique Bourg is a struggled whether the word ‘principle’ bility. A problematic aspect is the usage of philosopher and university should explicitly be mentioned, or if a ref- the word ‘contribute’ as it sanctions mini- professor at the head of erence back to conditions defined by law mal participation and makes minimalist the CREIDD (Centre of would be more appropriate. laws constitutional, which is too weak of Research and The debate about the drafting was rather an approach. Interdisciplinary Studies tense, especially concerning the precau- Article 5 gives a detailed definition of the on Sustainable tionary principle. Thus, there was a time precautionary principle. It is the only arti- Development). He also teaches at Sciences Po in span of one entire year between the adop- cle that is directly applicable under the Paris. tion by the Council of Ministers and the “conditions defined by law” and does not Contact: Troyes University of Technology, BP vote in the Assemblée Nationale. This define a constitutional objective. 2060, 12, rue Marie Curie, F - 10010 reveals quite a lack of enthusiasm for Moreover, the article identifies two TROYES CEDEX; [email protected]

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 29 Establishing the Rights of Future Generations in National Constitutions by Dr. Jörg Tremmel

oday´s generation has the capaci- tion. If they could make their interests in In the second solution a new institution is ty to affect the future more than the political decision-making process created which, for instance, is designated ever before in the history of valid, majority conditions in important ‘Ombudsman for Future Generations’, T political decisions would be different. ‘Committee for Future Generations’, mankind. This article justifies the need to Policy on energy may serve as an example ‘Ecological Council,’ ‘Future Council,’ or institutionalise Intergenerational Justice. here: At present, the form of power pro- ‘Third Chamber’. These kind of new insti- Focussing on changes with regard to duction, based on fossil fuels, as utilised tutions make sense if they really have the national constitutions, it deals with by today’s generation, facilitates a unique- power to protect future generations. This Beckerman´s argument that future gener- ly high standard of living, but today’s gen- means, for instance, that these institutions eration is thereby creating serious disad- can veto or at least freeze laws, or that ations cannot have rights. vantages for itself and future generations they can propose laws themselves. in the medium-term between the next fifty Without this responsibility the advisory The Structural Problem of to one hundred years. We already know system is merely extended. The two envi- Democracy: Future Individuals have today that this energy policy leads to ronmental councils of the German no votes increased levels of carbon dioxide in the Federal Government and the atmosphere. As a consequence, the natur- Sustainability Council which was appoint- al greenhouse effect is strengthened and ed in 2001 do not have the necessary The principle of democracy can, in its tra- temperatures rise world-wide. responsibilities. ditional and narrow form, conflict with Inundations, streams of refugees and new The question how such a new institution the maxim of Intergenerational Justice. conflicts will be the future results of this will be staffed through democratic proce- However, rather than changing the exist- short-sighted policy. Even if only the dures also requires special attention. ing principle of short legislative periods, future individuals, who are born in the Different countries will be more or less provisions for the rights of future genera- tions must be introduced into existing institutional practices. “Every democracy is, generally speaking, founded on a structur- The need to appease the electorate in reg- al problem, namely glorification of the present and neglect for ular elections in short intervals means that the future.” politicians direct their actions towards sat- isfying the needs and desires of the pre- sent citizens — their electorate. The inter- /Richard von Weizsäcker, former German president/ ests of future generations are therefore all too often neglected. next 200 years, could vote on the energy suited to either of the above proposed However, today’s hi-tech advancements policy, there would be a huge majorities solutions. This suitability is affected by a mean that the consequences of our pre- for a quick shift to renewables. Due to his country’s traditions and existing institu- sent undertakings, for instance nuclear limited lifetime a presently acting politi- tions. For Germany, a change in the energy installations, will project into the cian will not have to take responsibility for Constitution seems more appropriate than far future and can have a deeply negative the consequences of his actions and can a new institution. What is important is the influence on the quality of life of numer- also no longer be made liable for them. wording. Therefore the framework has to be ous future generations. Until now Do Future Humans “Have Rights”? German nuclear power stations produced changed. Of course, this must happen in 7,196 tons of plutonium waste products such a way that the core of the democrat- ic principle remains intact. According to Beckerman, the general (PU-239). Plutonium has a half-life period proposition that future generations can- of 24,110 years meaning that there will The Conversion of New Future Ethics not have anything, including rights, fol- still be a gram of today’s plutonium into Positive Law lows from the meaning of the present remaining in 789,471 years. Yet, even one tense of the verb ‘to have’. “Unborn peo- single gram threatens human health. If Changes to the constitution or the cre- ple simply cannot have anything. They one considers that humans have only writ- ation of new institutions – what serves cannot have two legs or long hair or a ten down their history since 10,000 years, the purpose better? In the written law taste for Mozart”, Beckerman writes e.g. it becomes clear how long the inheritance solution, the protection of generations to in the last edition of Intergenerational Justice of the present generations on the gener- come is written directly in the Review. The argument of Beckerman is ations to come lasts. Constitution. The Constitutional Court of correct, but of minor importance. It In today´s elections, those individuals, each country becomes the institution reminds us to use the future tense instead who will be born in the future, can not which watches over the rights of genera- of the present tense, i.e. to say: “Future participate. They are not taken into tions to come and weighs it against the Generations will have rights” instead of account in the calculations of the politi- interests of present generations respec- “Future Generations have rights.” It is cian, whilst he is organising his re-elec- tively. important to understand that

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 30 Beckerman´s argument cannot be used to are chosen. The full article analyses differ- Dr. Jörg Tremmel is the denounce the term `rights` and to replace ent drafts for implementing Scientific Director of the it by `needs`, `interests`, `wishes` and the Intergenerational Justice into Foundation for the Rights like. If future generations cannot have Constitutions with a special focus on the of Future Generations. `rights`, they cannot have ‘interests’ etc. initiative of young MPs in Germany. The He holds teaching assign- either. They will have interests, just as they group working for constitutional change ments at different univer- will have rights. If we want to favor the in favour of Future Generations has sities. term ‘interests’ over ‘rights’ we must find found 50 supporters from different par- Contact: Foundation for other arguments. The hint to using the ties for the initiative of amending certain the Rights of Future Generations, Postfach future tense instead of the present tense parts of the German Constitution in 5115, 61422 Oberursel, Germany; in the wording of Constitutional amend- order to safeguard the rights of Future [email protected] ments is just a minor aspect. It is more Generations. important what nouns, verbs or adjectives

Rule Change and Intergenerational Justice by Dr. Axel Gosseries and Mathias Hungerbühler

hen rules change, some lose tice. Theories of justice need to address change to take place, the less compensa- and others win. Sometimes, such types of concerns and find out tion should be due (predictability compo- losers and winners are dis- whether they are justified or not. nent). And the more the pre-existing situ- W ation should have been considered as tributed across generational lines. This Transition Losers, Transition Winners morally unjust by a standard agent, the raises a problem of intergenerational jus- less compensation should be due (legiti- tice. The authors argue that, in some To begin, the proper scope of the prob- macy component). Each of these compo- cases, the losing generations should be lem of justice at stake needs to be identi- nents has an underlying logic and the compensated for such losses. And they fied. We offer a precise definition of authors discuss the respective weight of “transition losses”, restricted to two cases each of them as well. illustrate it with three real-life examples. in which either rule change leads to losses This test is then applied to properly inter- in the expected return of investments that generational cases, which requires two Constitutional Rigidity and Rule were effectively made (when the person steps. The first one is descriptive. We need Change invested but would have not done so had to analyse the way in which some kind of the new rule applied at the moment of rule changes generate distinctively genera- Specialists of intergenerational justice investment), or in which the losses result tional impacts in terms of transition loss- have devoted some attention to constitu- from the opportunity cost of non-invest- es, some winning or losing more than oth- tions. In fact, they may be facing a real ment (when the person would have made ers. Such a generational impact assessment dilemma in this respect as constitutional such investments had the rule applied ear- is applied to three examples: cancelling rigidity can be seen both as a guarantee lier). Moreover, we circumscribe the issue mandatory retirement, phasing out the when the rights of future generations are of justice and rule change to defining right to early retirement and cancelling constitutionalized and as a problem since such a rigidity amounts to the imposition of norms by one generation on the fol- The future belongs to those who prepare for it today. lowing ones. In contrast, there has been less concern with theorizing the problem of rule change as an issue of intergenera- /Malcolm X (1925 - 1965)/ tional justice, rather then of mere coordi- nation. Yet, rule change, whatever its goals, raises general problems of justice. It whether and when transition losers should mandatory military service. Each of these always produces losers and winners as be compensated (typically by transition cases exhibits a distinctive intergenera- compared to the pre-change situation, e.g. winners). tional distribution of transition losses or when new environmental rules are intro- gains. duced, disadvantaging some while pro- A Twofold Compensation Test tecting others. In some cases, losers and Normative Implications winners are distributed along a genera- Having defined the scope of the problem, tional axis, which leads to genuine ques- a twofold test is defended. It is aimed at The second (and last) step consists in tions of intergenerational justice. For separating the cases in which compensa- drawing normative conclusions from this example, if debates about canceling mili- tion would be owed as a matter of justice impact analysis, basing ourselves on an tary service arise, the outrage of the last and those in which it would not. The examination of each of the two compo- draftees has to do with a sense of injus- more the citizen should have expected the nents of the twofold test (predictability

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 31 and legitimacy) as they apply to the three ously unacceptable. Hence, applying this Dr. Axel Gosseries is a examples. It is shown that regarding pre- second part of the test to our three exam- permanent research fel- dictability, the military service cancellation ples does not lead to any serious obstacle low at the Fonds case is especially interesting, as the time to compensating transition losers either. National de la lapse between the age allowing to predict Recherche Scientifique in such change and the intervention of such Of course, even in a clear case such as the Belgium and for the a change is comparatively short. military service cancellation one, this only Chaire Hoover d’éthique Admittedly, predictability also depends on leads to a ceteris paribus presumption for économique et sociale at national circumstances. Yet, the military compensation. Whether the generation the University of service cancellation example will require experiencing the most serious transition Louvain. special treatment, whatever the national losses is also extremely privileged in other context we are concerned with. respects should matter as well in consider- Mathias Hungerbühler Predictability should thus not be used as ing whether, all things considered, net is an assistant professor an obstacle to compensation in this case. transfers should be set up to benefit such at the University of As to the legitimacy component, none of a generation. Namur. Contact: the pre-existing regimes in the three [email protected] examples discussed turns out to be obvi-

Institutional Determinants of Public Debt: A Political Economy Perspective by Prof. Dr. Robert K. von Weizsäcker and Dr. Bernd Süssmuth

rowing public debt is a serious society's newborns and an expansionary financial scope, a potential decrease in constraint of the degrees of alignment of fiscal policy in order to solve aggregate capital, and problems of gener- freedom future generations have problems in areas like education, science, ational equity, there is no reasonable eco- G and research. Using historical and more nomic justification to opt for it. We raise to set their environment. Von Weizsäcker recent figures, we sketch the development profound doubt on standard justifications and Süssmuth outline the fiscal problem of public debt and interest payments for that can be found in the literature, like of public debt for Germany in an inter- the German economy from the 1950s to countercyclical use of deficits in order to national comparison. The shortsighted- the present. In an international compari- combat recessions, tax smoothing argu- ness of politicians who prefer being re- son the global dimension of the problem ments, and the temporal displacement of of excessive public debt accumulation is taxes. Based on recent data and indicators elected instead of solving this fundamen- highlighted. We identify debt rescheduling for the EU-15, institutional determinants tal problem is a main obstacle for possible practices by the exception of special of public debt are discussed along two solutions suggested by the authors. assets from the broadly worded constitu- central dimensions: First, the common tional constraint and scattered public lia- resource problem denoting the externality Public Debt – A Growing Threat bilities fostering window dressing prac- which results from the fact that govern- tices as German idiosyncrasies. ment spending is commonly targeted at There is a well-known antagonism specific groups in society while being between the conservatively budgeting Winning Elections – At the Expense of financed from a general tax fund to which politicians' and their opponents' view of Higher Debt all taxpayers, possibly including future the accumulation of public debt: An enor- Despite obvious disadvantages of debt ones, contribute. This problem of mod- mous amount of debt inheritance to a accumulation in the form of a tightened ern democracies is aggravated by the number and ideological range of ruling parties, institutional characteristics of the “The politician considers the next elections; electoral system, and the fragmentation of the budget process. Second, it is most rea- the statesman considers the next generation.” sonable to proceed from myopic foresight of incumbents, seeking to protect claims and power by instrumentally misusing /William Gladstone (1809 - 1898), English politician, public expenditures financed by issuing debt to maximize re-election probability. from 1867 onwards leader of the Liberals It is shown that the more frequently coali- in the House of Commons/ tions or ruling parties in a European democracy changed during the last two decades, the more the respective govern-

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 32 ment tended to accumulate debt. In addi- social welfare on the other. Recent pro- Robert K. von Weizsäcker is tion to this and other evidence, it is sug- posals of institutional reform, including Professor for Economics in the gested that this relationship is nonlinear, constitutional limits, balanced budget and Department of Business and i.e. convex, in nature: Both, too few and intertemporal rules, a debt tax, children Economics at Munich too frequent changes generate a negative voting rights, and the delegation of the University of Technology. performance. A further aggravation of budget process to an independent nation- the implied shortsighted calculus of al or supranational entity are outlined. politicians is foreseeable by the ongoing They are discussed and assessed with Bernd Süssmuth is Assistant demographic change in industrial soci- regard to maturity, effectiveness, theoreti- Professor for Economics in the eties. cal underpinning, and tractability. Due to Department of Business and an established theoretical foundation and Economics at Munich University Ways out off the Debt Dilemma experience in the field of monetary policy, of Technology. we suggest delegation being the most Contact: Chair for Economics, In sum, the quantitative study of institu- promising alternative to alleviate this para- Munich University of Technology, Arcisstrasse tional determinants reveals a fundamental mount fiscal policy problem of contem- 21, 80333 Munich, Germany; bernd.suess- dilemma of self-interests of economic porary democracies. [email protected] and political agents on the one hand and

The Economic Sustainability Indicator

by Dr. Peer Ederer, Dr. Philipp Schuller, and Stephan Willms

derer, Schuller and Willms term interests transparent for the citizens. Moreover, it describes the impact of any Net Capital handed down: present the ‘Economic _ Sustainability Indicator’ devel- given policy on economic sustainability. ( Real C + Human C + Natural + E Moreover, the indicator measures how Structural C – Debt C) per year alive oped by the German think tank much net capital is being passed on from Deutschland Denken! The authors criti- current generations to future generations Net Capital created or destroyed cize that welfare institutions, i.e. public as a percentage of how much net capital per generation: pension systems, disability insurance, these current generations have inherited. Net Capital handed down/ Net capi- poverty alimentation and health care, are If the indicator’s value is above 100%, tal inherited = economic sustainability then the current generations have index in % products of the 19th and 20th century increased the stock of capital for future which have not been adapted to today’s generations and if it is below 100%, then It is claimed that economic sustainability reality. they pass on less than they have inherited. is most appropriately measured on a per From a historical perspective, the capita basis. As a basic assumption of the Economic Sustainability Indicator has methodology, total economic output is Measuring Sustainability registered more than 100% in Germany seen as a linear function of the input (the already from the time of the Industrial four types of capital specified). This leads The fiscal patterns in most advanced Revolution. For Germany today, however, to the conclusion that the more of these economies are far from being sustainable. it only ranks at about 70%. types of capital are being used, the more The political system is blind for long- economic output can and will be created. range developments that impact the well Components of the Indicator It remains to be seen whether this indica- functioning of an economy. tor will become accepted enough to influ- Austerity measures that intervene in pub- The indicator contains five sets of capital: ence the public’s consciousness for future lic investment rather than in public con- real capital, human capital, natural capital, generations. sumption increase future difficulties structural capital, and intergenerational because of the loss of future returns on debt. In the following, it is explained how Dr. Peer Ederer, Dr. Philipp Schuller, and current investments. the Indicator and its components, evaluat- Stephan Willms founded together the think tank For the fundamental change to be ed from an entirely economic point of ‘Deutschland Denken!’ realised, a majority of the voters must view, are measured. recognise the need for a change. This is The formula for calculating the Economic supposed to happen with the help of Sustainability Indicator is: expert knowledge in the policy process as well as in the political process. The Economic Sustainability Indicator is Net Capital inherited: supposed to provide the needed connec- (Real C + Human C + Natural + tion of expert knowledge and political + Structural C – Debt C) per year alive communication. It should make long-

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 33 Institutional Protection of Succeeding Generations – Ombudsman for Future Generations in Hungary by Dr. Benedek Jávor

enedek Jàvor describes one possi- of interest vindication that are based on ing other similar institutions. Until the ble way to institutionalise genera- the active participation (realized through political will to set up the ombudsman’s tional justice, namely by estab- some kind of mechanisms) of the con- office is gathered, Protect the Future! has B cerned groups. However, there are special founded and is operating ‘REFUGE’ lishing an ombudsperson for future gener- legal institutions which can ensure the (Representation of Future Generations) , ations. In Hungary, this idea was initiat- representation of the interests of those a civil initiative representing the coming ed by the NGO ‘Protect the Future!’ of which Jàvor is a founding member. “The world desperately needs appetite for the future.”

Taking responsibility for Future Generations /Clyde Collins Snow (*1928), US-American physician/

The existence of our moral obligations towards future generations may be groups with no or very low capability to generations in the spirit of the bill. approached in several ways. The moral vindicate their interests. One of these is REFUGE has been working for nearly responsibility to provide coming genera- the institution of the ombudsman which, five years and releases its results in annual tions with the conditions for life can be owing to its peculiarities, can surmount reports similar to those of the existing justified through the broadening interpre- the legitimacy problems relating to the Ombudsmen in Hungary (1). Finally, tation of general human rights, through representation of the future generations. Protect the Future! makes a proposal to the general comprehension of democratic study and analyse the possibilities of set- principles, by the concept of the common The Answer: An Ombudsman of ting up an EU-level office of the heritage of human kind or by relying on Future Generations European Ombudsman of Future Rawls’s theory of justice. This responsibil- Generations. ity, however, will only become reality if we In Spring 2000 the Hungarian association, are able to convert it into real actions. Protect the Future!, initiated the establish- ment of such an institution, the office of Benedek Javor is How to Institutionalise Generational the ‘Ombudsman of Future Generations’ Assistant Professor of Justice? in Hungary. The proposal that was pre- Environmental Sciences sented by Protect the Future! in the form at the Department of One inevitable step for achieving this is to of a draft law has been roaming in the Environmental Law, build the protection of the interests of cobwebs of political decision making Pazmany Peter Catholic the future generations into our current since then, and there is hardly any chance University, Budapest. decision making mechanisms institution- of its realization in the short run. Moreover, he is founding ally. The coming generations do not member and spokesperson of the environmental presently exist, therefore their interests The idea is, however, still on the agenda NGO ‘Védegylet-Protect the Future Society’. cannot be represented by today’s models and may provide an example for establish- Contact: [email protected]

The Role of CPB in Dutch Economic Policy Making by Rocus van Opstal and Jacqueline Timmerhuis

he article discusses the role of the focusing on studies that also affect future times even arguments designed primarily Netherlands Bureau for generations. to reach a preconceived goal. Moreover, Economic Policy Analysis politicians are often short-sighted, giving T Preventing Short-sightedness for priority to the short-term effects of their (CPB) in economic policy making in the Future Generations decisions, for example with a view to the Netherlands. Having outlined the history next elections. This can be detrimental for of the CPB and the formal status it has In a democracy, politicians decide on eco- long-term developments and the position within the government, its independent nomic policy and quite rightly so. In the of future generations. position is highlighted, which is rather political debate, however, it is difficult to distinguish objective arguments from nor- Influence through Information – how unique in international comparison. the CPB works Moreover, the work of CPB is described, mative or political arguments or some-

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 34 months preceding general elections in the Netherlands is, in international compari- “The future is the time when the burning issue is no longer son, a rather unique event. CPB studies on the sustainability of government finances today’s problems but rather their solution.” in the long run and on cost-benefit analy- ses of government investment programs play an important role in Dutch econom- /Wolfgang Mocker (*1954), German journalist and author/ ic policy making. In this way, the CPB contributes to more long-term thinking In the Netherlands, politicians, unions, vant for decision making. within the Dutch government. This is one employers’ organisations and the general In most cases this amounts to sketching possible and effective step to gurantee public see the benefits of separating polit- the relevant trade-offs that politicians sustainability for future generations. ical arguments from economic ones. This face, as it is often very hard to find policy is why the CPB, the Netherlands Bureau measures that are Pareto-improvements. Rocus van Opstal is Head for Economic Policy Analysis, plays an In other words, most policies having a of the Domestic economy important role in Dutch economic policy positive effect in one field, will have some and public finance sector of making. Founded immediately after the negative effect in another field. the Netherlands Bureau for Second World War, it was originally In presenting the effects of policy Economic Policy Analysis designed as a planning agency to facilitate options, along with the effects on the (CPB). the post-war reconstruction of the Dutch short term, CPB only provides information economy, CPB soon evolved into a centre for policy makers. CPB does not provide Jacqueline Timmerhuis is of economic information inside the gov- direct policy recommendations. Rather, it Executive secretary and ernment and, at the same time, an inde- tends to take an academic approach, stat- spokesperson of the CPB. pendent institute for economic forecast- ing facts and pointing out the expected Contact: P.O. Box 80510, ing and analysis. CPB provides politicians effects of different courses of action, but 2508 GM The Hague; and policy-makers in- and outside the refraining from normative judgments. [email protected] government with information that is rele- The analysis of election platforms in the

Commission for Future Generations in the Knesset – Lessons Learnt by Prof. Shlomo Shoham and Nira Lamay

n their article, Shlomo Shoham and cept of the rights of future generations. It politicians in Israel. Among the civil soci- Nira Lamay relate to the realisation is funded by the Knesset’s own budget ety, however, it was more popular, espe- and the respective circumstances of and leaded by a Commissioner. cially among non-governmental organiza- I The Commission has important authori- tions as their agents. Parliamentarians the Commission for Future Generations ties regarding the parliamentary legislative started to appreciate the Commission as in the Israeli Parliament. process in almost every area except mat- an establishment that influences public It is explained that the Commission for ters of defence and foreign affairs. This interest and establishes the concept of Future Generations of the Knesset is a includes the initiation and drafting of bills, future generations that had not been worldwide unique establishment, which later to be submitted by individual parlia- introduced before to the public. Indeed, mentarians. It also enjoys the right to the concept found its way into political is, by definition, designed to protect the demand information from every inspect- communication and the media. Thus, it rights of future generations at the par- ed government-related institution under soon became an important tool in posi- liamentary and governmental level. the law of the State’s Controller. Along tioning the Commission and the concept with the general authority to advise the of future generations. An Institution for the Rights of parliament regarding any matter that is of Nevertheless, a conceptual framework to Future Generations special interest for future generations and work with was not enough. Thus, the its physical location within the parliament, Commission had to define the identity of The establishment of the Commission is this created a whole new dimension in the future generations which included “spe- characterised as the result of a top-down parliamentary, executive and public levels cial interests” for them. For this purpose it process. Thus, the Commission was not in Israel. adopted the concept of “Sustainable born out of a public campaign or discus- Development” as a platform and received sion but emerged from a parliamentary Struggling to Get Accepted vast research support from the academic initiative, attempting to consider long- sector and NGOs. Sustainable term implications of legislation. The initi- The Commission struggled its way to Development is promoted by the ation of the parliamentary institution public awareness with considerable Commission within the parliament, but itself probably made it possible to estab- efforts. Stepping out of the survival also vis-à-vis the government and the lish the institution and introduce the con- dimension was not easily accepted by public and business sector. However, the

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 35 tal organisation. Its most important task in creating functioning frameworks for “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” long term national planning and decision- making regarding issues of Sustainable Development. This is linked to the goal of /Alan Kay (*1940), US-American computer scientist/ passing on values and knowledge as well as a different dimension of thinking futu- re to all governmental and, above all, public levels. concept was not sufficient since it does The Main Function not refer to specific issues that have a Shlomo Shoham is Judge direct effect on the future. As an example, One of the Commission’s main goals is to (ret.) and Commissioner the implications of technological develop- incorporate the right to Sustainable for Future Generations of ment on society and ethics are mentioned Development (rather than ‘only’ environ- the Knesset. Contact: which includes among other things the mental protection, for instance) in the Knesset, Commission for issue of human reproductive cloning. One constitution as well as in a future constitu- Future Generations, of the guiding principles of the tion that is now drafted. Although its Jerusalem Israel; Commission’s work is creating legislative authorities vis-à-vis the government and [email protected]; mechanisms within the decision-making with regards to executive actions is not process relating to different subjects of specifically defined in law, the holistic and Nira Lamay is Head of Sustainable Development. A main rule of ethical conduct of the Commission Law and Legislation & that principle is achieving a financially brought it to cooperate with the govern- International Relations in independent decision-making process of ment. This cooperation takes place before the Commission for a specific government ministry. The the government introduces a draft legisla- Future Generations. Commission also seized the advantage of tion to the parliament. Thus, it can influ- Contact: Knesset, its unique location to become a facilitator, ence the executive actions in real time. Commission for Future channelling information and ideas into the The Commission’s power to change is Generations, Jerusalem Israel; parliament and to the parliamentarians in partly founded on the fact that it is a [email protected] person. governmental and not a non-governmen-

The Committee for the Future - Future policy by Dr. Paula Tiihonen

iihonen discusses origins, history lished at the beginning of the 1990s, four methods that future research has provid- and main tasks of Finland’s years after a citizens’ initiative proposing ed. Committee for the Future. She the creation of a futures research unit had T failed. Nevertheless, the struggle for Concrete Policy Schemes and Issues gives account of concrete policy schemes acceptance continued and culminated in and issues that the Committee has dealt the granting of permanent status to the The different projects of technology with, presents an excerpt from the back- Committee in 1999. Over the years, the assessment can be categorised into three ground paper of the latest future dialogue Committee for the Future has become an generations, which include, among others, and, finally, tries to evaluate the work of established forum at the core of the par- the projects Plant gene technology in food pro- liamentary system that enjoys the power duction, Energy 2010, and Regional innovation the Committee. of initiative. It consists of 17 parliamen- activities. In the course of the different tarians and has great freedom in setting its projects, active involvement of the parlia- Origins, History and Main Tasks own agenda after every election, with the mentarians has increased considerably, e.g. only requirement that the agenda contains parliamentarians visited some of the The urge to create a parliamentary body something new and important to the peo- USA’s most important universities and that promotes sustainability stems from ple. The overall aim is to make policy, research centres, formed arguing panels in the fact that politics try to preserve the rather than to do research. Its main task in a Delfi study and arranged meetings with status quo as voters are supposedly against this connexion is to hold a dialogue with companies and discussions with other new things and change. However, this is the Prime Minister’s Office and the Members of Parliament. not the case and therefore active involve- Government on future related issues, The Committe has discussed different ment of Members of Parliament is which has significantly broadened the issues, e.g. the major changes of Finnish required, who speak out against tradition- Government’s view of the future. economy, and different success factors for bound governments. Thus, the parliament Furthermore, the Committee was success- Europe and for Finland, in particular, in can serve as a forerunner and an active ful in establishing technology assessment the information society. Globalisation, player for a new society. For this reason of future technologies in the Parliament Information and technology, the human the Committee for the Future was estab- with the aim to make use of the latest aspect in innovation, and governance, are

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 36 all-permeating factors with an influence on future success- in an all-encompassing sense. These factors are in turn influenced by powerful actors, so that it is important to bear moral responsibilities for the effects of ones choices. In the full article, some examples of issues that the Committee has handled are illustrated in more detail, for example, major global environmental, and structural problems, demographic trends, and the future of Finnish knowledge society. I discuss the latter and thus firstly analyse the “big pic- ture” of the rival economic systems of the past fifty years using a US American study (Brooks, 2005). It is stated that the American model is going to be chal- lenged, whereas the European model is unsustainable. Secondly, every committee has discussed unemployment, but one can criticise that the signals that the projects provided were not taken seriously by the decision-making system of Finland. Thirdly, the Committee gave the plenary five basic hypotheses of problems of the question whether population policy is a of taking global responsibility and the Finnish welfare system to discuss, e.g. that private or a public issue, or else, if the conflicts involved, e.g. world poverty and morbidity follows social dividing lines. I problems of population development are distribution of work, youth unemploy- conclude that the Finnish welfare model primarily economic. Despite the relative ment, world tax, the participation in does not meet all the goals set for it and homogeneity of the Finnish society, pop- peacekeeping and peace-building, and that “the important task of politics in this ulation policy has nevertheless been an global administration. The paper draws new e-world is to provide old and new easy issue to address. This, however, will the conclusion that in order to guarantee solutions and options from all these e- change in a globalised world. peace and stable population development, things”. Furthermore, according to population as well as human welfare, it is most impor- forecasts, the population in poor countries tant to ensure a favourable development Latest Future Dialogue will increase significantly, with the effect in an open global economy. that the world markets will shift from rich The topic of the latest future dialogue was to poor countries. If the problems of an Has it been a Success? demographic challenges. In order to illus- ageing and shrinking society are supposed trate the controversial discussion among to be solved by increased immigration, a Firstly, the Committee has taken its place the committee, Tiihonen lists the titles of proper discussion of values has to be ini- in the Finnish parliamentary system as an the background paper and cites some of tiated, and possible alterations of Finnish innovative political body, a forum that has its openings. In the first part, Starting identity must be analysed. In the second shown that initiatives within democracy points, it is warned that population policy is part, Global responsibility, it is argued that can be taken with parliamentary measures. generally a very sensitive issue. It touches the developed industrial countries should Secondly, the Committee for the Future the values of the population and the most pursue long-term global interests rather serves as an excellent forum where parlia- permanent institutions of society, such as than short-term national advantages and mentarians can expand their knowledge family, and therefore has to be considered fight the battle against disintegrated coun- beyond everyday politics and beyond carefully before it is implemented. tries and construct good national adminis- problems that are confined to Finland. Furthermore, it bears controversial ques- trations as a requirement for a more just tions right from the start, such as the world. The paper gives several examples Dr. Paula Tiihonen is Committee Counsellor to We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is the Committee for the Future in the Finnish not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are Parliament. tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is Contact: Committee Counsel to the to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, Committee for the Future, FI-00102 Parliament of Finland, and pass them on. Finland; [email protected]

/Richard Feynman (1918 - 1988)/

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 37 Book Recommendations and Reviews

Index of Contents Presentation of Handbook Intergenerational Justice in European Parliament 39 A Poverty of Reason: Sustainable Development and Economic Growth Justice and Environment by Wilfred Beckerman 38 by Andrew Dobson 39

The Environmental Ethics & Policy Book The World in 2020. Power, Culture and Prosperity by Donald VanDeVeer & Christine Pierce 39 by Hamish McRae 39 one or two decades even more resources probably undesirable given today’s state of Wilfred Beckerman: were available because new resources have knowledge (accentuation in the original). If A Poverty of Reason: been found. He also mentions the extinc- we wait, however, new knowledge will Sustainable Development and tion of animals as a process we cannot arrive, and it will become much clearer Economic Growth change anymore, because “98 percent of what action are best.” (p. 47). Beckerman all the species that have ever existed are asserts it would be absurd to change any- believed to have become extinct already, thing right now, for instance, reducing car- Reviewer: Julia Scheide but most people do not suffer any sense bon emission because it would cause more of loss as a result. How many people lose harm than benefit. n recent years the concept of “sus- sleep because it is no longer possible to Altogether, Beckerman wants to give rea- tainable development” has promoted see a live dinosaur?” (p. 2). sons for not supporting the idea of sus- Ia great expansion of bureaucratic This argument neglects that it is not the tainable development. He thinks there are activity at the regional, national and inter- same if a thunderstorm causes a destruc- much more important problems in the national level. The sustainable-develop- tion in a forest or if man does the same world that have to be solved first. With his ment movement claims to support envi- deliberately. Just because there have been opinions, he is an outsider – and rightful- ronmental and human well-being, but A five “waves” of species extinction in evo- ly so. In 1993, 600 of the most eminent Poverty of Reason: Sustainable Development and lution, man has not the right to add a sixth scientists of the world, among them the Economic Growth by Wilfred Beckerman one. majority of nobel prize winners still alive, argues, that this would not be the case. Furthermore, Beckerman talks about cli- issued a dramatic Warning to Mankind.It According to Beckerman, support for sus- mate change. On the one hand, he agrees states: “The earth is limited. Its capacity to tainable development is challenged by the that there is a climate change. But on the sustain a growing number of us is limit- confusion about its ethical implication other hand, he argues that “up to a point ed.” The new paradigm of finiteness puts and a flagrant disregard of the relevant a warmer climate is likely to reduce mor- classical economists like Beckerman or factual evidence. tality and disease in developed countries.” Julian Simon in a dilemma. Some of the Throughout seven chapters on 76 pages (p. 35). He also mentions that today more foundations of their discipline – e.g. that Beckerman argues in a fervent, but often houses are destroyed by hurricanes only there are no limits to growth – must be exaggerating way against the concept of because there are more houses today than rethought. But that is a problem for those sustainable development (SD). He points decades earlier (cp. p. 34). economists, not for science. out for example that “sustainable develop- Beckerman often speaks about the devel- ment has become an all-embracing con- oped countries. For instance, he explains cept to the extent that it has no clear ana- that developed countries should not lytical bite at all.” (p. 4). reduce their carbon emission because that Firstly, Beckerman argues that sustainable would cause their GNP to decline. But development is not measurable at all developed countries need a rapid growth because there is no clear conceptual basis of incomes (cp. p. 38-39). to begin with (cp. p. 7). Without doubt As another important topic Beckerman there are many competing definitions for mentions the “precautionary principle”. SD. But it is also true that the UN He argues against the precautionary prin- Commission for Sustainable ciple by stating that there would be much Development as well as many nationals more poverty in the world, if we followed councils for SD have established clearcut the precautionary principle. “The harmful indicator systems to define if a state is effects of applying the precautionary prin- sustainable or not. ciple in the past would have included, for Beckerman secondly mentions finite example, severe restrictions on thousands resources and the predictions of scientists of innovations such as vaccines and about the lasting of finite resources. He antibiotics that have saved millions of argues that such prognoses have usually lives.” (p. 44). As an alternative to the pre- Beckerman, Wilfred: A Poverty of Reason: been false or exaggerated. Every time cautionary principle Beckerman suggests Sustainable Development and Economic when a scientist predicted that the world the following, “The alternative to the pre- Growth. The Independent Institute, Oakland, would run out of a certain finite resource cautionary principle is not non-action but California: 2003. within the following decades, it finally informed action. Drastic action to reduce turned out to be humbug because after climate change today, for example, is

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 38 Book Recommendation Beginning with a readable introduction to help foster empirically informed, state-of- ethical theories and how they relate to the-art proposals Donald VanDeVeer and Christine environmental concerns, The Environmental - Internet Environmental Resources Ethics and Policy Book, Second Edition casts offering guidance in how to use the Web Pierce a revealing light on the relevant empirical to investigate issues and write effective “The Environmental Ethics & and normative presuppositions that papers Policy Book“ underlie policy recommendations. And - A glossary defining philosophical and whether these recommendations are made scientific terms needed to understand by economists, biologists, ecologists, this cross-disciplinary field o offer some guideline how policies for the philosophers, engineers, or politicians, - A time Chart providing a broad geolog- protection of future generations can or VanDeVeer and Pierce do not hesitate to ical perspective on evolution and change Tshould be implemented, the FRFG rec- cross disciplinary boundaries to spotlight New Previews introducing 18 subsec- ommends this interdisciplinary work of refer- and clarify issues. tions and Sidelights that examine impor- ence. A valuable interdisciplinary source for stu- tant, related issues” dents of philosophy, environmental stud- - from the back cover - “At the leading edge of refreshing and ies, and policy studies, this second edition illuminating environmental debate… also includes: Donald VanDeVeer and - Twenty-nine new essays – many chosen Christine Pierce: “The VanDeVeer and Pierce’s environmental for their path-breaking content, others to Environmental Ethics & ethics source book is a wake-up call that represent diverse views, and all for their Policy Book“, 1998 helps each of us explore questions about accessibility to readers of varying back- Wadsworth Publishing responsible treatment of the planet and grounds Company: Belmont, 650 pages, the nonhumans that share it with us. - Greater emphasis on relevant sciences to ISBN 0-534-52524-5

“Environmental sustainability and social, author critically examines the claims of Book Recommendation or distributive, justice are both widely the ‘environmental justice’ and ‘sustain- regarded as desirable social objectives. But able development’ movements that social Andrew Dobson: can we assume that they are compatible justice and environmental sustainability “Justice and the Environment. with each other? In this path-breaking are points on the same virtuous circle, and study, Professor Dobson, a leading expert concludes that radical environmental Conceptions of Environmental on environmental politics, analyses the demands are only incompletely served by Sustainability and Dimensions complex relationship between these two couching them in terms of Social Justice” pressing objectives. of justice.” Environmental sustainability is taken to be -from the back cover- or further elaboration on the conceptuali- a contested idea, and three distinct con- sation of environmental protection and ceptions of it are described and explored. Andrew Dobson: „Justice Fsocial justice, the FRFG recommens this These conceptions of it are then exam- and the Environment. work by Andrew Dobson, who is Professor of ined in the context of fundamental dis- Conceptions of Politics at Keele University, UK. Especially inter- tributive questions such as: Among whom Environmental esting is to explore whether these two concepts are or what should distribution take place? Sustainability and Dimensions of Social at all reconcilable or rather contradictory. What should be distributed? What should Justice”, Oxford University Press 1998, 262 the principle of distribution be? The pages, ISBN 0-19829482-4

order continue to shift, some countries among them demography, the environ- Book Recommendation will flourish and some will falter. ment, the role of government, technolo- Determining which nations will experi- gy and natural resources – and analyzing Hamish McRae: ence economic growth and property in their effect on the world in the next “The World in 2020. Power, the next century – and understanding quarter century, he makes a powerful Culture and Property” why this is of vital interest to econo- and original economic case for good mists, investors and business leaders. In behavior. The World in 2020, acclaimed commenta- In the year 2020, all having embraced amish McRae is a journalist, award- tor and best-selling author Hamish market capitalism, the North American, ed with important prices, and associ- McRae paints a vivid competitive land- European and East Asian countries will Hate editor of the London scape in which culture and values will be be engaged in fierce economic competi- ‘Independent’. To get an idea how the world the new sources of advantage for the tion. With each nation increasingly able may possibly look like in economic, cultural as industrialized nations. to imitate the others, innovations will well as power distributive terms, the FRFG rec- Grounded in the experience of a twen- cross borders within mere days and ommends this book – also to raise the reader’s ty-five-year career interpreting the inter- weeks, removing technological prowess awareness whether this picture presents future national financial and economic scene, as a source of sustained advantage. generations as being endangered. McRae’s argument for the future begins McRae sees the “old motors for growth” with a thorough examination of the pre- – land, capital and natural resources – “As the foundations of world economic sent. Identifying the forces for change – being replaced by more qualitative assets

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 39 – quality, organization, motivation and the other. Thus the leading world eco- - from the back cover - self-discipline of the people. Everywhere, nomic powers of the next generation are Hamish McRae: “The governments will take a less active role in just as likely to include China and World in 2020. Power, the social and economic life of the nation. Australia as the United States and Japan. Culture and Properity”, In such a world, the best predictor of suc- Provocative, realistic and accessible to the Harvard Business School cess will be how a nation strikes a proper reader, The World in 2020 shows us not Press, 1995, 281 pages, balance between creativity and intellect on only where we will be in the next twenty- ISBN 0-87584-604-1 the one hand, and social responsibility on five years, but how we will get there.”

The FRFG is going to present its upcom- tive to institutionalise Intergenerational ing publication, the “Handbook Justice, also on the European level. Presentation of Handbook Intergenerational Justice”, to the The presentation will presumably take Intergenerational Justice in European Parliament (EP). With this pre- place in November 2005. For registration, European Parliament sentation, the FRFG seeks to gain support please contact the FRFG by e-mail under of young parliamentarians from all politi- [email protected]. cal groupings within the EP for the initia- Index of Contents

New Staff Members 40 European Volunteers 41 Award for Intergenerational Justice 2005/2006 41

Frauke Austermann from studying, I am involved in the stu- Germany, much more is done for old peo- dent association of ES. Having worked as ple than for the youth. Both generations I am 20 years old, coming a board member, I joined two, the Cultural often struggle instead of collaborating from Ahrweiler, a small Committee and Student Forum Maastricht. and benefiting from each other. Not only town in the west of The latter is an annual student conference this experience aroused my interest for an Germany. After my A-lev- with participants from all over the world. internship for the FRFG. Tying up to my els in March 2004, I My home town is not such an internation- study program, I am interested how to worked for a French hotel chain. Back in al environment. However, precisely here, I realise generational justice on the Germany, I enrolled in European Studies regularly get in touch with the universal European level. Among others, my main (ES) at the University of Maastricht/The problems that can occur between differ- task concerns the third English issue of Netherlands. I have just finished my sec- ent generations. Being one of the places the journal “Intergenerational Justice!”. ond semester by the end of June. Apart with the highest age average in entire Raphael Bernhardt At the moment, I study computer science important that there are people engaged at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. for the rights of future generations – and I am 20 years old and I live However, I will change programs and who would suit better to do so than the in Struth, a small village in continue my studies in sociology. As a current young generation? I am glad to Thuringia. In 2004, I preparation I am now doing an internship make my contribution to Generational received my University- at the FRFG. It is to show me essential Justice. Concerning my future study pro- level graduation. Furthermore, I had train- insight in scientific labour and the work of gram, I hope that I will gain meaningful ing as an assistant for computer science. a young, international think tank. It is experiences.

Andrea Heubach but most notably of practical meaning. boundaries towards other disciplines have I am 26 years old and I Current generations design their lives at to be transgressed; particularly the border studied Political Sciences, the expense of future generations. between theory and practice. During my Philosophy, Public Law, Political decisions that are made today can literature research to the topic of and Philosophy at the have implications on lots of coming gen- Intergenerational Justice, I came across Johannes Gutenberg erations. We can only influence towards the FRFG. In doing an internship, I want University in Mainz. the future. Future generations will have to to make my contribution together with Having recovered from the stress about face the consequences of irreversible Jörg, Tobias, and the other volunteers on my thesis, I decided to work on the topic decisions that are made today. It is time the way to realise Sustainability and of justice between today’s and future gen- for the discipline of Philosophy to deal Intergenerational Justice. erations. The topic is not only interesting extensively with the topic. Moreover,

Carsten Kipper (FRFG) from Mid- August until Mid – semester. Before starting my studies, I October 2005. I used to live in Niddatal accomplished a two - year traineeship in a I am 24 years old and a near the small town of Friedberg / bank in Frankfurt am Main. volunteer at the Hessen. Since October 2003 I have been My goal here at the FRFG is to increase Foundation for the Rights studying Political Sciences at the Freie the attention necessary for a topic as the of Future Generations Universität Berlin, now entering my fifth rights of future generations. In this point,

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 40 I firmly disagree with the non – ratifica- worldwide) and the increasing state debts foundation like FRFG is one of my fields tion of the Kyoto Protocol by some of in Germany. of interest and so are Public Relations or the strongest economies (most of them After my studies I see a variety of job pos- Consulting. I have also done a short with a significant share of CO2 emissions sibilities for myself. The working for a traineeship in this area before.

Lisa Marschall in the course ‘Languages, Business Studies NGO that provides basic education for and Cultural Studies’ in Passau, with the children, who - mostly for financial rea- I am 22 years old, and main focus on Spanish & English, World sons - cannot attend any ordinary school. originally from Tübingen. Politics and Business Studies. However, I With this internship I hope to gain valu- Soon after I had finished spent the last academic year in Limerick, able experience in a related area and I am my a-levels, I decided to Ireland, and will continue my studies at looking forward to ten enriching weeks. In leave this idyllic university the University of Granada in October. In my free time, I like playing the violin and town and moved to my favourite city, the future, I would like to work in the field the piano, as well as playing tennis, cycling, London, where I worked as receptionist in of development politics. This idea mainly and walking our family dog. a Health Centre and later in a restaurant developed when I was spending several for about six months. In 2003, I enrolled months in Guatemala, working for an

Kristin Tecles about the Foundation for the Rights of by the idea of an European network, Future Generations and I liked the top- fighting together for one idea. In school, I After I finished school in ics “Generational Justice” and was interested in the subjects German, March 2005 I was looking “Sustainability” immediately. In my opin- English and Social Studies, which show for an interesting occupa- ion it is very commendable to be socially my preference for languages and politics. tion till I start studying in engaged and I liked to support the idea Now, I am looking forward to an intern- October. Accidentally, I got to know of a juster world, especially for our chil- ship in the Foundation for two months. dren. Furthermore, I was very impressed Leaders Congress and Jakub Kochowitz are European Volunteers in the „Ecological Generational motivated to make their FRFG’s International Justice into the contribution in realising Volunteers Office Constitution“, which is Intergenerational Justice documented in the issue at and Sustainability. The hand, or the our latest book project ‘European rom February release, the “Handbook Volunteers Service’ is until July this Generational Justice”. financed with support of Fyear, the two Moreover, the two young the European Union. first European vol- Europeans attended a lan- unteers enriched the staff of our guage course to enhance If you are also interested International Volunteers Office (IVO). their skills in German. to work as an intern with- Yanti Ehrentraut from Belgium and in the international atmosphere of the Caterina Bressa from Italy have worked Already in September, the FRFG will wel- IVO, you can send your application six months for the FRFG’s various pro- come two new young European volun- (including letter of motivation, curricu- jects, among them the journal teers. Coming from Italy and the new EU lum vitae with photo, references) every- Intergenerational Justice Review, the Young member state Poland, Novella Benedetti time to the FRFG.

research questions should be answered: “Voting Right from Birth” The FRFG invites tenders The FRFG defines a “Voting Right for the Award for 1.) Does the democratic principle demand from Birth” as a right that every citi- a “Voting Right from Birth”? Which mod- zen must be entitled to. According to Intergenerational Justice els and procedures are conceivable? the principle ‘One Person – One 2005/2006 Vote’, the deputy suffrage as well as 2.) Does a “Voting Right from Birth” direct suffrage for persons below 18 he Foundation for the Rights of encourage the realisation of generational years without the possibility of a Future Generations (FRFG) offers justice? deputy belong to the definition. Tan award for Intergenerational Justice, endowed with 10.000 Euro. By 3.) Which societal obstacles and provisos Intergenerational Justice calling this prize, the FRFG aims at against a “Voting Right from Birth” are to The FRFG perceives encouraging research on Intergenerational be expected? How can they be overcome Intergenerational Justice according to Justice. practically? the definition of the ‘Handbook The topic for the award in 2005/2006 is Intergenerational Justice’ as a state, in Intergenerational Justice and “Voting The following explanations should offer which the chances for future genera- Right from Birth” help to answer the questions. tions to satisfy their own needs are at least as high as these chances were for To deal with this topic, the following Definitions the precedent generations.

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 41 These definitions should help to avoid ous models that are thinkable to introduce studies and politics lessons in schools fundamental misunderstandings. They are a “Voting Right from Birth” should be - to what extent a “Voting Right from not binding for the participants of the analysed in a comparative way. Within this Birth” would encourage democracy as a competition; alternative definitions examination, also aspects of the election way of life. should, however, be well reasoned and procedure can be taken into considera- ought to take into account relevant litera- tion, for instance postal vote or suffrage To question 3) ture. for foreign nationals. Here, it is to present which arguments General Remarks To question 2) against a “Voting Right from Birth” exist. For the draft strategy to impose a “Voting Up to now, about one fifth of the popula- The workings should depict the implica- Right from Birth” historical experiences tion of most industrialised countries is tions of a “Voting Right from Birth” as can be taken into consideration, for exam- excluded from suffrage. The discussion of well as the realisation of Intergenerational ple the introduction of voting rights for the different models and procedures Justice. Aspects of the analysis can be women or for coloured people in the should constitute an essential part of the - taking into account the demographic USA. work. The workings ought to treat the change, to what extent a “Voting Right Finally, it could be outlined which con- topic from in an interdisciplinary way, that from Birth” would influence the decisions crete constitutional changes would be nec- is, from perspectives of Political Sciences, and actions of politicians and political essary to realise the “Voting Right from Law, History, and Sociology. Moreover, parties in the sense of more sustainability Birth” and how a necessary majority could the international context needs to be and long-term thinking; be won over. adhered to. Therefore, team works are - to what extent a “Voting Right from particularly welcome. Birth” would lead to the establishment of To participate in the competition, you new parties that align their program aimed need the respective forms which can be To question 1) at the interests of new groups within the requested by sending an e-mail to electorate; [email protected]. The workings should comment on - to what extent a “Voting Right from whether the democratic principle Birth” would have implications on the dis- demands a “Voting Right from Birth”. It cussion of politics within the family; needs to be differentiated between active - to what extent a “Voting Right from and passive suffrage. In this context vari- Birth” would have implications on social

have to speak on behalf of future genera- education issues. tions? If you can’t vote, you are not con- The simple answer is: we don’t. We don’t cerned? claim to know the truth about what life The campaign can’t stop here future generations want to live. But we We offer two solutions: first of all, we Karsten Wenzlaff, President of YOIS agree that the current economical and need to decrease the voting age rapidly. If Europe, explains why YOIS supports political operating system of our planet is young people can’t vote, they are not the implementation of ecological restricting future generations in deciding heard. Some people fear that young peo- intergenerational justice in the consti- how they want their life to live. Resources ple can be influenced easily and lack the tution. He cautions not to stop after are being wasted, natural habitats polluted, maturity to make well-judged decisions. the conference, but take concrete steps social security systems cannot sufficiently But this is not true: in countries like very soon. deal with the ageing of our population. Rwanda where half of the population is Our global operating system can create a less than 18 years old, it is no surprise to About YOIS lot of wealth, but the distribution of see two children delegates at the national wealth is very unequal. At YOIS we parliament, elected by the children and YOIS is short for Youth for believe that our generation needs to make young people under 18. They show no Intergenerational Justice and an effort to solve these problems, so that sign of immaturity; actually these dele- Sustainability. It is network unlike most future generations don’t have to pay for gates ensure that the country promotes other networks: We are not affiliated with the mistakes we made today. sustainable development. any political party; our members are school students, students from all disci- Intergenerational justice is easy to define: The problem of children and young peo- plines and young professionals. We work all generations receive the benefits and ple voting is not immaturity, but that international and have a global perspec- bear the costs from the changes of society adults often treat young people as some tive. We believe that future generations and from technological innovations. But it sort of underdeveloped human who have should have the same possibilities as pre- is difficult to implement. To ensure the no political opinion. In most cases this is vious generations. principle of intergenerational justice, all not true either. In 2002, a campaign called generations need to have an influence on “Ich-will-wählen” (I want to vote) was But what does that mean? Sometimes, we political decisions. Most political decisions started. It asked young people under 18 to are asked: If future generations are not are short-sighted. Yet young people often give reasons why they would like to vote. born yet, how do you know what they have remarkable long-term views con- Some of the most thoughtful and sophis- want in the future? What right do you cerning the environment, global peace, ticated justifications came from 12 and 13

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 42 years old – they felt that a democracy can of intergenerational justice with life. and want to try new approaches to achieve not arbitrarily exclude a portion of the that aim. population from active citizenship. Intergenerational Justice and the I suggest that Youth NGOs in Europe, MDGs among them YOIS, start the next step in Be Aware: Future Generations! raising awareness for ecological genera- The method of YOIS is talk about eco- tional justice. Remember: good news Voting is one thing, but democracy has its logical intergenerational justice in the don’t have to be bad news, most local deficiencies. Like Churchill said framework of global development. In my newspapers are happy to have their pages “Democracy is the worst form of govern- opinion, the Millennium Development filled during the summer gap. Why not ment except for all those others that have Goals (MDGs) of the United Nations are write short articles about ecological gener- been tried.” The problem of democracy is one step to realise intergenerational jus- ational justice? that unborn generations have no votes at tice: provide education, decrease maternal Also, most members of European parlia- all. This is a problem we cannot solve with death, and promote sustainable develop- ments are happy if they can convey a pos- simply reforming the voting procedures ment. YOIS coordinates the efforts of itive image of Europe at the local and or the access to voting rights. We need to youth NGOs working the MDGs. regional level. Why not invite them to create awareness for intergenerational jus- speak at universities about Europe’s effort tice. Some countries have introduced This is part of our overall contribution to to save resources and discuss with them Ombudspersons or advisory councils, an initiative called the Global Marshall the implementation of ecological genera- some have parliamentary committees Plan. The Global Marshall Plan aims at tional justice in the framework of the dealing with intergenerational justice, and creating a world-wide Eco-Social Market European Union. some have included intergenerational jus- Economy, creating the funds for the One last method that YOIS would like to tice in their constitutions. implementation of the Millennium propose to the participants: let’s create a Development Goal and distributing library of concrete examples of intergen- YOIS supports the campaign of the wealth through an introduction of a Terra erational justice in the European context. Foundation for Rights of Future Tax on resource consumption, a marginal Examples from Finland or Greece, Generation to introduce intergenerational Tobin tax on international capital transfer Switzerland or Russia, easily available on justice in constitutions across Europe and and other very practical solutions. the Internet could serve as a starting point in future treaties of the European Union. for a future discussion on these issues. The first step was the congress in Berlin in The next step June. But the next step has to create more We offer a network of active people from awareness and needs to take the dialogue I give these two examples to show that very diverse backgrounds and skills. We to the young people in Europe. It’s not YOIS is an organisation that addresses a connect old-aged academics and motivat- enough if three dozen young leaders talk lot of different issues. But we don’t want ed young people, professionals and volun- about the implementation of ecological to address a big ‘’anything whatever’’. We teers. In short: we try to live intergenera- generation justice at a conference. The would like to co-operate with NGOs who tional justice in our daily work. Join us. campaign has to fill the abstract meaning believe like us in intergenerational justice www.yois.de

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In July 2005, the Economic and Social FRFG is very proud of this distinction FRFG granted "Special Council decided to grant Special and looks forward to a productive cooper- Consultative Status to the Foundation for ation with the UN's Economic and Social Consultative Status" by the Rights of Future Generations. The Council. The relationship to the United organisation may now designate official Nations will certainly be helpful on the the ECOSOC of the representatives to the United Nations - to way to institutionalise Intergenerational the UN Headquarters in New York and Justice on the global level. United Nations the offices in Geneva and Vienna. The

INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE Review 3/2005 43

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