Building a Coalition for Intergenerational Fairness in the European Green Deal

Intergenerational fairness centers on the idea that responsible policymaking protects the rights of future generations and future citizens. The principle emerged to ensure that the costs and benefits of societal changes, like that of the green transition, are distributed fairly between current and future generations.

This policy brief is based on stakeholder mappings and roundtable discussions with key actors at the EU and member state level—France, Germany, Poland, Portugal—as well as qualitative interviews conducted at the end of 2021. It analyzes the growing interest in putting the intergenerational fairness principle into practice—in line with the European Green Deal’s ambition. The brief explores how doing so could help build the consensus required for the EU to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.