What is it about?
Intergenerational equity is a phrase used but necessarily fully understood by many. We provide a useful guide to these concepts and how it can inform organisational decision making that takes account of the future impact on people and the planet.
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Why is it important?
The vast majority of the world's population are suffering the consequences of short term, self-interested decision making. Many of these impacts are avoidable and could have been prevented by changing how people think and account for the future. The UN Sustainable Development Goals challenge citizens and those working in powerful institutions to make better decisions to improve our decision making to stop our predicted slide towards social injustice and catastrophe damage to our ecosystems
Perspectives
I get frustrated when people use complexity and future uncertainties as an excuse to keep doing the same things, which we already know is causing harm. Long term thinking and decision-making is difficult, but so were many other social challenges that we have overcome. All innovations involve imperfect knowledge and uncertainty. Difficulty is not a valid reason for perpetuating known problems. We need to embrace these challenges and start moving towards better solutions particularly given the urgency of our global unsustainability
Ian Thomson
University of Birmingham
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Review: Time machines, ethics and sustainable development: accounting for inter-generational equity in public sector organizations, Public Money & Management, June 2018, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/09540962.2018.1477677.
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