This proposal seeksto move beyond the imperatives of growth by embedding intergenerational justice and environmental stewardship at the heart of public institutions. The immediate priority of tackling cost-of-living concerns sometimes leads policymakers to neglect the long-term objective of environmental sustainability, as if the two objectives were at odds with one another — whereas, as the Special Rapporteur argued in a report to the General Assembly on the “just transition” , they can and must be combined. This myopia locks societies into short-term, growth-dependent models at the expense of long-term social and ecological wellbeing, and undermines our capacity to confront climate breakdowns, demographic pressures and social fragmentation. The eradication of poverty, understood not simply as an income threshold but as a multidimensional condition transmitted across generations, requires institutional reform to align policies, incentives, and social expectations around the pursuit of human and planetary well-being.
This proposal to engender intergenerational solidarity in governance is grounded in the core principles and actions of the Declaration on Future Generations adopted, together with the Pact for the Future, in September 2024. It outlines the need to implement international and constitutional legal provisions on future generations such as the intergenerational equity principle, as confirmed by the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on Climate Change, and calls for strengthening democratic planning capacities that equip states with the information, strategic foresight units, parliamentary oversight communities, and indicators needed to detect emerging risks and evaluate trade-offs over time. At the macro-fiscal level, the proposal advances reforms to sovereign wealth funds and fiscal rules that safeguard future generations and enable governments to finance the transitions necessary for long-term resilience such as fossil fuel phase out, climate mitigation and adaptation, and social protection, and prevent locking low-income communities into debt- and fossil-fuel dependent development paths. By institutionalizing long-term governance in this way, the proposal aims to close the ‘tragedy of the horizon’ gap, ensure that today’s decisions respect planetary limits and expand the political space for ambitious poverty eradication beyond growth. It shows how pockets of innovation can be scaled into a coherent system of governance capable of redistributing risks, resources and voice across time.
A cross-cutting principle for all of these proposals is social dialogue. Democratic planning should institutionalize the role of trade unions – as democratic representatives of workers – on issues concerning jobs, working conditions and livelihoods, but also on braoder issues related to the world of work such as employment creation policies, the introduction of artificial intelligence or the organisation of a just transition. Social partners must thereby be central to policy discussions including in relation to wages, employment strategies and public investment plans, skills strategies, and just transition plans.
