Empowering Youth to Define Intergenerational Equity

Opening remarks by Zakiah Kassam , Chair of ISO Environmental Management Technical Committee (ISO/TC 207), November 25, 2024 [Abridged Speaker's Notes]

I want to begin by reiterating why the approach to this initiative is important. There are three different models of youth engagement that are commonly used. In the first model, youth are invited to share their perspectives on a particular topic, and people listen to what they have to say. Sometimes, a clear action item emerges, but often, there isn't one—especially if there's no clear strategy for what to do with the feedback that has been received.

The second model involves actively developing young talent, with the goal of having them contribute to an institution, a specific project, or society more generally. This model assumes that a more knowledgeable, more experienced individual or group of individuals will mentor youth, fostering their learning.

We're not operating in the first or second model. This is a different model of youth engagement. This is a model where you, as a group, are tackling a complex issue using your own knowledge and ingenuity. The responsibility—and the opportunity—rests with you, not me. I think this model is so critical for using young talent appropriately and effectively for the urgent challenges we face, and which affect your generation more than they do mine.

When I think about how quickly technology is evolving, how fast data analysis happens, how advanced AI is today, I ask myself: What sets a group of young individuals in their early twenties apart from experts with twenty or thirty years of experience in a particular field? I know this might offend some people outside this room, but the answer, I think, is not much. I don’t believe there is much of a difference. The reason I say this is because the insights you can gather from data and the way AI augments and accelerates thinking is a huge leveler across generations. It’s changing how we think about experience and expertise. The sheer volume of information available to your generation, and the ease with which you can process it means you are on the same footing as so-called experts.

"[T]he insights you can gather from data and the way AI augments and accelerates thinking is a huge leveler across generations. It’s changing how we think about experience and expertise."

So, this third model of youth engagement is crucial, and I hope other National Standards Bodies around the world will reflect on it as well. I’m not here to mentor you. I don’t have the answers, and I’m not here to teach you anything. In fact, I’m learning from you.

This project is unique because we’re tackling an issue that the courts and policymakers are still trying to unpack. The work that the ISO Environmental Youth Leadership Group is doing on equity and justice in the energy transition is vital. They are looking at equity and justice across countries. You are looking at equity and justice across generations.

There is increasing recognition by courts in different jurisdictions that the distribution of the benefits and burdens of climate change needs to be equitably shared across generations. The principle of intergenerational equity has been implemented in multiple international treaties and in laws in various countries.  The latest case law coming from Switzerland just this year acknowledges that there is risk in the current decision-making processes, where short-term interests may come at the expense of longer-term sustainable policymaking.  I don’t think, however, that we have clarity as to how we define and quantify what is equitable across generations.

Governments are constantly balancing competing interests. When governments make decisions about capital spending or budgets, climate change is just one of many priorities. Other urgent issues like housing and healthcare crises also demand attention. So, while climate change may be factored into policy decisions, it doesn’t always receive the focus it needs due to these competing pressures.

Energy transition is sometimes articulated with a lot of optimism — the number of green jobs, the idea that we can create a cleaner environment and ensure prosperity for all. But the reality is more complex. Shutting down the oil and gas industry like a switch is not realistic, particularly when we don’t have the infrastructure to handle the required load and stability needs for electrification. Even provinces with cleaner grids, like Quebec, have recognized that there are investments that need to be made for peak demand management and there may be increased costs for customers.

The key issue we are tackling as a group is the way in which externalities are factored into decision-making and determining what is just and fair amongst generations. What does it mean to share the burdens of climate change across generations? This is not an easy question to answer. It’s philosophical as you know from our discussions around Rawls’ theory of justice, it involves understanding financial investment models and models of quality of life. It will require a framework that you can all agree upon, given your respective backgrounds, and defend. We have a very interdisciplinary group at this table. What you do here has the potential to have a massive impact on policymaking - I think it can be groundbreaking - but at the very least, it will contribute to international discourse in a meaningful way.

"What does it meant to share the burdens of climate change across generations? ... What you do here has the potential to have a massive impact on policymaking - I think it can be groundbreaking..."

I’m not going to elaborate further on the significance of this; we’ve discussed it a lot in the past few weeks. I hope you have been enjoying our Monday evening conversations over the past few weeks as much as I have. Today and tomorrow, we need to dive into the details of refining some of the models we have been discussing. Our next two days are going to be super intense, but hopefully a lot of fun as well.