Intergenerational Pact for the Planet

Psychological studies suggest that people who say, “I care about making the world a little bit better,” or “I want to help ensure that future generations can also live good lives,” experience a particularly strong sense of meaning. In psychology, such statements are associated with the concept of generativity.

Generativity is a way of thinking and acting that recognizes the deep interdependence between generations. It involves acknowledging individual and collective responsibility not only toward those who come after us, but also toward those who came before. Generativity means more than just ensuring that our children and grandchildren inherit a livable world; it also calls on us to honor the efforts and aspirations of past generations, to carry their work forward, to learn from their insights and failures, and, where possible, to rectify what went wrong.

Emphasizing our responsibility toward past generations is particularly compelling in this era of rapid technological change. Global warming has been driven by the unchecked combustion of fossil carbon, a fact that can be easily framed as the fault of previous generations. Yet at the same time, it can also be seen as part of the remarkable success story of the past three generations which includes that today more than eight billion people are fed, that average global life expectancy has doubled, and that through literacy and the internet, nearly everyone now has access to knowledge that was unimaginable just a few decades ago.

Generativity is not about gratitude or blame. It is about recognizing the continuum of human development — a long chain of engagements, some successful, others not, to enable a better life for humankind. From the story of Cain and Abel to the rise of artificial intelligence, history does not trace a straight line from primitiveness to perfection. Rather, it unfolds as a series of interdependent efforts, shaped by both failure and insight.

In the context of climate change, this means that we are not only responsible for future generations, but also obliged to fulfill the promise made by previous ones: the promise of a livable future. The technological progress of the past hundred years will only be complete once we have undone the ecological damage and climate disruption it has caused. It is a continuous task, one that our generation and those to come must carry through to completion.

We have a responsibility to preserve the knowledge and skills of earlier generations. It’s a troubling sign when we can no longer build an earthquake-resistant house without steel, concrete, nails, and screws. Or when a farmer may produce tons of one or two high-yield grain varieties, but can no longer feed his family without synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. We have forgotten so much of what we once knew and practiced with skill.

But generativity also means for us that future generations bear a responsibility to continue the work we have begun and to keep building the house rather than tearing it down. We cannot leave behind a perfect world, just as those before us did not, and those who follow will not be able to either. Human development is an ongoing process, and we are all part of an intergenerational continuum.

Driving emissions to zero within the span of a five-year plan is unrealistic if we want to avoid jeopardizing global food security and human well-being. Nor can we simply reverse the warming effect of today’s emissions once and for all by extracting carbon from the atmosphere, turning it back into oil, and pumping it back underground. What we face is a task that will take at least four, five, or even ten generations to fulfill. However, what we can and must do today is to take the first steps and safeguard our environment from irreversible damage.

This is not an argument for delay in climate action — quite the opposite. We develop new climate technologies, and we must take the time to examine them thoroughly so that, when deployed on a global scale, they do more good than harm. At the same time, we build the arguments — openly and transparently — that will empower democratic societies to navigate and shape the transformation that lies ahead.

It is within our reach today to begin offsetting the warming caused by our emissions. We can do this through temporary carbon sinks that compensate for the emission effects of this year, then of next year, and eventually of the next decade. This buys us time and clears the way, allowing technical solutions that still require further development to arrive in time. By establishing the intellectual and technical foundations, we are equipping future generations with the tools they will need to solve problems that we ourselves have not yet been able to resolve.