In 2013, the Secretary-General of the UN named eight institutions as models for considering intergenerational solidarity and representing the interests of future generations in policy making. Each institution has its own unique set of characteristics as a result of constitutional backgrounds, functions, and organisational structures, to name only a few characteristics. Additionally each institution has found its own set of theoretical bases and principles upon which to pursue its activities and reach its goals. This comparative study of the model institutions is to identify the set of most important features, including not just references to legal framework, organisational structures, but also missions, aims, and goals, and theories and principles by which they can be characterised. This will be done by placing each institution within this set of criteria, assessed and drawn from existing practice, in which links between the various aspects are highlighted, and it is shown how theories can be operational in practice. The chapter argues for and reflects on the innovative characteristics of model institutions for sustainable development when the theoretical basis – especially legal theory – is lagging behind.

It is the age of the Anthropocene. With far-reaching changes to economy and technology, society and the environment, humanity has gained the capacity to either foster or foreclose the quality of life for future generations. Through degradation of the Earth’s marine and terrestrial ecosystems and its climate, including the natural resources upon which all people depend, human civilization holds the potential to deprive billions of their rights to life, taking millions of other species as well. Particularly as social, economic and environmental transformations and impacts of the recent global COVID-19 pandemic become more apparent, a growing recognition of the risks and threats is slowly changing perceptions of humankind’s responsibility for its descendants. Since the 1972 UN Conference in Stockholm, numerous international policy declarations have reflected increasing concern for the need to promote a more sustainable development that can take into account the needs and interests of future generations, including the global adoption of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their 169 targets in 2015 by Heads of State in New York.

In the context of global commitments to intergenerational equity, this chapter surveys and evaluates governance arrangements across Africa aimed at achieving sustainable development and securing the environment for future generations. It has been over twenty years since sustainable development was internationally recognized as the overarching legal and policy context for efforts to promote development ‘that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. Over that period, varying levels of attention have been given to the challenge of safeguarding and implementing sustainable development in resource utilization across Africa.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the importance of traditional knowledge (TK) and genetic resources to Indigenous and local communities (ILCs). In the next pages is a broader explanation of the value of TK and genetic resources, as well as examples of industries that depend on access to genetic resources and TK. This chapter will also provide an examination of the threats to access to genetic resources and TK on the part of ILCs, tracing the development of international property rights (IPRs) in this domain. Moreover, there is a survey of the international regimes relating to the protection of TK and access to genetic resources, studying treaties and other international instruments. Incompatibilities can sometimes be observed between IPRs and TK, as well as gaps in the current protections and regimes in place, which will also be examined in this chapter. Finally, the chapter will present case studies in Africa and South America relating to TK and the economic development of ILCs, particularly in the area of agroecology.

Intergenerational equity is directly linked to sustainable development and environmental issues and is committed to equity for future generations. In this regard, land stewardship has many implications for the protection, sustainable use, and degradation or restoration of the environment. Poverty can lead to unbalanced natural ecosystems, loss of diversity, and large-scale deforestation. These factors can have a direct impact on natural resources and are mainly caused by poverty and outmigration. It has also been suggested that in certain situations, damage to the local environment cannot be effectively ceased unless rural livelihood disputes are suitably addressed, and these should be made with an approach that focuses primarily on delivering support for sustainable livelihoods through long-term plans. This is essential to current and future generations, and, as a corollary, to the concept of intergenerational equity.

Quickly, the term ‘sustainable development’ was spread worldwide and became fashionable. The original objective of the Brundtland Report – to show that developing States could strive for economic development, but were not obliged to sacrifice their environmental assets to that development – was soon set aside. ‘Sustainable development’ was declared to be a political orientation based on three pillars, economic development, social progress and environmental protection. This led first to the suggestion that progress should be achieved in all three sectors, economy, social issues and environmental protection. Economic operators then tried to interpret the concept in the sense that measures in one sector should only be allowed when they satisfied the needs of the other two sectors. In practice, this was aimed at the environmental sector, where protection measures were only possible where they contributed to economic growth and the creation of jobs; in contrast, it was not considered necessary that measures to stimulate economic development – trade agreements, tax reliefs, investment programs and many others – were also beneficial for the environment.

Like the concept of sustainable development, the principle of intergenerational equity has long been part of modern international legal literature and has found its way into State practice. This element of international law, however, might not have gained as much attention as it rightfully deserves. This chapter – and indeed the entirety of the present volume – seeks to redress this deficit.

Arrival of the Anthropocene has focused attention on human beings’ impacts on functioning global ecosystems and made increasingly urgent the need to focus on global institutional reform. The Anthropocene involves the notion that we have entered into a new era in which human beings have permanently modified global ecosystems, including the climatic system. Evidence mounts that the Earth’s climatic system is approaching tipping points with potentially catastrophic consequences. This has led John Dryzek to call for a rethink of political institutions appropriate for this new era based on ‘ecosystemic reflexivity’ as a first overriding virtue. ‘Ecosystemic reflexivity’ involves incorporating better ways of listening to ecological systems with broader participation – taking in both nature and future generations – into human institutions.

Water law regulates the use of freshwater resources, such as rivers, lakes, wetlands, aquifers, and glaciers. A considerable challenge is to ensure that these resources remain in good health, so that future generations can make use of them as well. The most urgent problems facing efforts to ensure the sustainable utilization of these freshwater resources include water pollution, depletion of non-rechargeable underground water and fossil water, and diversion of freshwater resources in a way that negatively affects the ecosystem of which such resources often constitute the beating heart.

This chapter seeks to demonstrate that institutions and NGOs need to interact with children and young people in a way that recognizes them as ‘citizen stakeholders’ now and on behalf of the future. A central tenet of the principle of sustainability includes responsibility for future generations. The principle provides that current generations hold the environment in trust for the benefit of future generations. According to the principle, there exists a moral and ethical obligation to hand over to subsequent generations a stock of environmental wealth, comparable to that which was handed on to us by our forebears.

Since 1995, Canada’s Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development (the Commissioner) has been providing parliamentarians with objective, independent analysis and recommendations on the federal government’s efforts to protect the environment and foster sustainable development. This chapter presents an overview of the work of the Commissioner, including the institutional setting within the Office of the Auditor General of Canada. The first section provides the historical background about the office. The second section describes the Commissioner’s role and functions, and the third section comments on the audit function as a model for other countries, focusing on attributes of effectiveness. The final section offers concluding comments.

International law reflects the values shared by States and has helped them face the most consequential challenges of the day. After the Second World War, the most significant challenge was to preserve international peace and security, as well as to guarantee basic human rights. In the twenty-first century, States face a new challenge: climate change and its consequences, and, ultimately, the survival of all mankind. Unfortunately, the consequences of climate change are highly visible – for example, extreme weather conditions (droughts, heatwaves and devastating storms, floods in areas where people have never experienced similar events before), melting ice in the Arctic, the extinction of some native plant and animal species and the appearance of unknown invasive species in the same area.

This chapter seeks to demonstrate how the Brazilian legal system regulates the role of individuals and institutions in preserving and defending the environment and other important assets for future generations. In the first part, the chapter begins by addressing how the interests of future generations and the preservation of the environment are viewed under the Brazilian Constitution, and how the mechanisms that protect collective rights and interests work in general.

Intergenerational equity is, in principle, inherent in the concept of sustainable development, which seeks to ensure that social, environmental and economic progress does not foreclose on the needs of future generations, while still meeting the needs of present generations.