Ewan Jones, member of the Alliance for Future Generations, and Jeremy Leach from the Intergenerational Foundation present findings from a recent public opinion poll on attitudes to future generations.

The findings, which were commissioned from Ipsos MORI by FDSD and the Intergenerational Foundation in November 2011, show that more than two thirds (67%) of British people believe the UK Government considers future generations too little in decisions it makes today.

• Read more on these findings

The Minister for Future Generations, Septima Tulisa, steps back in time from the year 2050 to give a stark warning about how the world might end up if we don’t start building long-termism into all our decisions. The Minister, played by FDSD Director Halina Ward, comes from a future where humans  left it very late indeed before they began to address the needs of future generations. Her plea is that we must not do the same…

The Minister’s speech was one of eight talks given at a “TEDx” event for young people on future generations and intergenerational justice, jointly supported by FDSD and held at London Zoo in November 2011.

• See all the talks
• Visit the event website

FDSD’s director, Halina Ward, gives an overview of what the organisation is doing to bring the needs of future generations into the heart of policy and decision making. She describes the problem of short-term thinking in UK politics and what FDSD is doing to address this, including its work in helping to found the Alliance for Future Generations.

The interview was filmed at the launch event of the Intergenerational Foundation at the House of Commons in October 2011.

In this video, Barrister Peter Roderick, along with FDSD’s Director Halina Ward and FDSD Trustee Dr Janos Zlinszky, discuss the implications of Peter’s report Taking the Longer View: UK Governance for a Finite Planet. The discussion was chaired by Philippe Sands, QC and law professor.

The discussion highlights the systematic failings of our short-term approach to law and democracy, which have culminated in a series of ‘crunches’ including high fuel prices and the risk of peak oil, high food prices, the financial crisis and the climate crisis.

Peter Roderick argues that Planetary Boundaries should be used as a legal methodology to protect out environment and society in years to come. Janos Zlinszky, who aside from his role as an FDSD Trustee heads the strategy and research team with the office of the Hungarian Parliamentary Commissioner for Future Generations, shares the inspiring precedent of that office.

Halina also briefly introduces the Alliance for Future Generations, a grouping formed with FDSD’s close involvement to ensure that long-termism and the needs of future generations are put at the heart of democracy.

The host and organiser for the event, which took place in June 2011, was Alliance for Future Generations member the Gaia Foundation.

Dr Bronwyn Hayward, FDSD trustee and Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, talks about the impact of New Zealand’s devastating Christchurch earthquake on democracy, and its  implications for ‘resilient citizenship’.

Bronwyn explores what makes for ‘resilient citizenship’ and ‘resilient democracies’, in a talk which will be relevant for anyone interested in reflecting on how best to equip democracy to cope with major natural disasters.

As part of FDSD’s involvement in an emerging coalition to promote long-termism and future generations in the UK’s policy and democratic processes, we’ve been thinking about how our history and heritage can inspire long-term thinking about our future. This is particularly relevant here in the UK, where we’re surrounded by well-preserved reminders of our history.

In this short interview, FDSD trustee and historian John Lotherington reminds us that our ancestors had a different sense of time; one which we would do well to recapture in order to think longer-term and in the interests of future generations.

Video courtesy of Ian Brown

An interview with Professor John Ruggie, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Business and Human Rights, during a three-day event entitled ‘Democracy and Sustainability in Emerging Economies: India as a Case Study’. The event, which took place in New Delhi in February 2009, was organised by FDSD (at that time known as The Environment Foundation), in collaboration with the 21st Century Trust, Salzburg Global Seminar, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, and in association with TERI’s 2009 Delhi Sustainable Development Summit.

Talking to FDSD Director Halina Ward, Professor Ruggie discusses how his work on business and human rights relates to democracy. Human rights and democracy are two sides of the same coin, he says; both describing the duty of governments to serve the needs and rights of the people. But business is poorly acquainted with the language of human rights, and can (deliberately or inadvertently) adversely affect both human rights and democracy. Moreover, when business causes the displacement of communities from their land and the disruption of sustainable livelihoods, it becomes an adversary of sustainable development too.

A conversation between Ian Christie, Vice-Chair of the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development (FDSD), and János Zlinsky, new FDSD trustee, and Head of Strategy and Research with the Office of the Hungarian Parliamentary Commissioner for Future Generations.

Amid UK worries about the new government’s cuts to the Sustainable Development Commission, Hungary appears to be taking a different approach. As János Zlinsky discusses, democratic Hungary is attempting to attach greater importance to long-term issues through the establishment of a ‘green ombudsman’. This is a watchdog role, aimed at safeguarding the constitutional right of Hungarian citizens to a healthy environment. Could Hungary’s example pave the way for a widespread shift away from democratic short-term thinking? And how could the UK go about following suit?

FDSD’s Halina Ward was in Copenhagen during the Summit, and she took the opportunity to ask a range of people their views on the relationship between democracy and climate change.

You can download and listen to the interviews by clicking on the links below.

We will be incorporating some of the ideas from these interviews into our project on the Future of Democracy in the Face of Climate Change to 2100.

Teresa Fogelberg, Global Reporting Initiative, Netherlands
3minutes, 12seconds; file size: 3.69MB

Professor Dr Atiq Rahman, Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies 
2minutes, 3seconds; file size: 962KB

Baboucarr Mbye, Stay-Green Foundation, Gambia 
1minute, 19seconds; file size: 619KB

Steve, medical student from Leeds, UK 
4minutes, 32seconds; file size: 2.07MB

Hannah Reid, International Institute for Environment and Development, UK 
5minutes, 40seconds; file size: 2.59MB

Marco Baravalle, Venice 
2minutes, 41seconds; file size: 3.10MB

Member, Democratic Alternative, Sweden 
5minutes, 15seconds; file size: 2.40MB

Varaidzo Dongozi, Zimbabwe 
1minute, 52seconds; file size: 877KB

Jody Boehnert, UK 
5minutes, 24seconds; file size: 6.21MB

Bolivian Klimaforum Participant 
4minutes, 45seconds; file size: 5.47MB (NB: Interview recorded in Spanish)

The Parliament has been working with WWF Scotland in a Climate Change Project which gave children an opportunity to learn more about Scotland’s changing climate in the light of the Climate Change Bill which was then going through the Scottish Parliament. The Bill received Royal Assent on 9th August 2009 and is now the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.

We are pleased, with permission from the Scottish Children’s Parliament, to provide a link to a video produced as part of that project. In it, members of the Scottish Children’s Parliament give their views on climate change and how to tackle it.