This report explores the topic of intergenerational justice, youth perspectives on environmental and societal concerns, and youth participation mechanisms 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:
Head of Unit, Senior Expert (Sustainable Cities and Resilient Communities Unit)
SEI Tallinn
Project / A consortium of thirteen European organisations supports the European Environment Agency in sustainability transitions.
Feature / To reduce the unemployment of young NEETs and enable sustainable development, it is crucial to create green jobs on islands in the EU.
Feature / SEI Tallinn organized a training week for young people, offering guidance on continuing their education and finding employment in the green economy.
Feature / Watch SEI York researchers introduce different citizen science concepts and methods and explain how we are using them in our projects.
