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Tag Archives: future generations

Magic, Manifesto and Stories

There  is a magic that is created when ideas, imagination and vision come together. There is definitely something magical about the historic Schloss Leopoldskron-an estate by a calm lake with majestic view of the mountains. Man and nature coexisting in …

The sustainability wheels are coming off our democracy: shall we fix it?

Nicolò Wojewoda is Consultation and Research Officer at FDSD. This post was originally published on the blog of Otesha UK.

Imagine this. You’re merrily queueing at the local coffee shop for a shot of espresso, while grinning from ear …

The ethical tragedy of climate change without democracy

In his review of Stephen Gardiner’s A Perfect Moral Storm: the Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change (LRB, 24 May), Malcolm Bull airs a much needed discussion as to how far democracy can respond at all adequately to the challenge …

Committing to the future we want

Paragraph 57 of the so-called ‘zero draft’ (the first, un-negotiated text) of the document to come out of this year’s UN Conference on Sustainable Development, The Future We Want, refers to the creation of an Ombudsperson or High Commissioner …

Committing to the future we want: full discussion paper on a High Commissioner for Future Generations at Rio+20

FDSD’s Halina Ward has been working to further develop earlier summary proposals for a High Commissioner for Future Generations at this year’s UN Conference on Sustiainable Development (‘Rio+20′).

In a new discussion paper, she makes the case for a High …

The future of democracy in the face of climate change

Halina Ward

This paper is the final report in FDSD’s major two-year research project on The Future of Democracy in the Face of Climate Change.

The paper draws on Papers One to Four to find answers to the question: ‘how

Intergenerational fairness, housing and planning policy

New think-tank the Intergenerational Foundation (IF) landed with a big splash today as they launched their new report Hoarding of Housing. The big headline is that there are now 25 million unoccupied bedrooms in British homes.

Meanwhile, the government …

UK government commitment to sustainable development: taking stock in the Potemkin Village

red tape on greenThe UK Coalition government’s approach to sustainable development looks increasingly like a Potemkin village. Its smart websites and fine rhetoric hide the misery of the social fallout from cutbacks in our age of austerity, slow progress on environment, and …

A Different Sense of Time

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 …

FDSD and WWF-UK call for stronger role for Parliament in sustainable development

Press release

WWF-UK,  FOUNDATION FOR DEMOCRACY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

PRESS RELEASE

EMBARGOED TO 00:01 GMT, 10th January 2011

Non-governmental organisations call for stronger role for Parliament in sustainable development

Today’s report from the Environmental Audit Committee (1): “Embedding Sustainable Development across Government” …

Taking the Longer View: UK Governance Options for a Finite Planet

Peter Roderick

“We take the long view in so many ways. We get educated. We have children. We build. We buy houses. We talk about “making a living”, a continuing, dynamic, creative process. We contribute to pension schemes. We imagine …

Clegg’s Horizon Shift: the new politics of the future

clockofthelongnowUK Deputy Prime Minister Clegg today delivered a key speech in which he called for a ‘horizon shift’. Our political culture, he said at the Institute of Government, “and in many ways our society more generally – has become

Thinking about future people

clockofthelongnowFDSD Vice-Chair Ian Christie and I headed to the home of former trustee Sir Geoffrey Chandler and his wife Lucy for lunch yesterday. And our conversation turned to intergenerational thinking, and to the challenges of integrating long-termism and regard for …

UK Civil society call for a ‘new politics of the future’

FOUNDATION FOR DEMOCRACY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

PRESS RELEASE

Civil society call for a ‘new politics of the future’

In an open letter dated 1st June 2010 to Prime Minister Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Clegg, a group including chief …

Hungary’s Green Ombudsman puts environmental futures at the heart of decision-making

OFFICE OF THE HUNGARIAN PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSIONER FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF HUNGARY IN LONDON
FOUNDATION FOR DEMOCRACY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
UK ENVIRONMENTAL LAW ASSOCIATION

PRESS RELEASE

Hungary’s Green Ombudsman puts environmental futures at the heart of decision-making

Learning from the Hungarian Green Ombudsman

Halina Ward

Halina Ward reflects on the potential relevance for the UK of Hungary’s unique ‘Green Ombudsman’ role: the office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Generations. This piece was originally published in the November issue of the electronic journal of …

Examples of parliamentary innovation for sustainable development: Hungary, Finland, Israel.. and the UK?

lightbulbOne common question in our work is ‘what sorts of changes could help to get democracy working for sustainable development? Give me some examples’.

One answer is to point to existing examples of innovations designed to help parliaments to integrate …

Learning from Hungary’s Green Ombudsman

Sustainable development calls for efforts to promote long-term thinking in democratic decision-making. Both the interests of future generations and of the environment need to be properly considered.

Hungary’s Parliament has taken an innovative step in this direction. In 2007, Parliament …

Scottish Children’s Parliament

The Scottish Children’s Parliament provides opportunities for children aged from 9 to 14 years old to engage in local, national and international democratic processes.

The Parliament has been working with WWF Scotland in a Climate Change Project which gave children …

Democracy and sustainability

Tim O’Riordan

In this paper, Professor Tim O’Riordan responds to papers by Ian Christie and Sara Parkin. He considers the relevance of a variety of ‘tipping points’ to sustainability politics, suggesting that we could witness the emergence of a …