ETC ST Report 2025/1: Intergenerational justice and youth participation
03 Dec 2025
Aniek Hebinck, Minna Kaljonen, Iikka Oinonen, Emilinah Namaganda, Julia Wittmayer, Neha Mungekar , Olga Zhminko, Hannah Bartels, Sophia Silverton, Kaidi Tamm, Maija Faehnle, Thomas Fransen, Mieke De Schoenmakere, Lotte van Rossum, Celine Bout and Johanna Thea Kappe
This report examines intergenerational justice, youth concerns, and mechanisms for youth participation across Europe. Intergenerational justice is framed as the ethical obligation to meet present needs without compromising future generations, encompassing distributive, procedural, and recognitional dimensions. A holistic approach integrates past, present, and future responsibilities, addresses historical injustices, and combines restorative, procedural, and distributive strategies.
Youth involved in this study see intergenerational justice as both ethical and practical: they recognise their role as current stakeholders and proxies for future generations, conditional on meaningful participation, transparent feedback, and institutional support. They emphasise cross-generational dialogue to foster empathy, shared responsibility, and long-term thinking.
Youth diversity is critical to effective engagement. When genuinely included, youth contribute to transparency, accountability, innovation, and civic skill development. Their concerns are broad, spanning local and global environmental, social, and governance issues, including climate change, biodiversity loss, mental health, and urban green spaces. They highlight that solutions must integrate technical, social, and governance approaches rather than relying on single-issue fixes.
The report illustrates diverse participatory mechanisms by highlighting cases from across Europe, including Youth Councils, Youth Climate and Nature Councils, Local Conferences of Youth, participatory budgeting, capacity-building programs, and youth impact assessments. Strengthening these mechanisms requires enhancing intergenerational dialogue, accountability, institutional capacity, and diversity of representation.
Key policy recommendations include: 1) Prioritize intergenerational dialogue; 2) investing in capacity development for youth and decision-makers; 3) building trust through transparent processes; 4) ensuring inclusion of marginalized youth; and 5) operationalising holistic intergenerational justice via institutional representation, long-term planning, and accountability frameworks. Implementing these measures enables youth concerns to inform policy meaningfully, promoting governance that is equitable, sustainable, and attentive to the needs of past, present, and future generations.
