Illustrative: an ensemble of trajectories, its quantile fan and the outcome as it is observed

Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Course catalogue · Governance, Policy and International Affairs

Governance, Public Policy and Foresight

Intergenerational governance and future generations

Intergenerational governance and future generations, taught twice over: as the working methods of the field and as its frontier since 2024, with labs on the Academy's tools, open data and the Nexus Standards.

Core course Frontier course

The discipline

01Core course · L2 Intermediate

Intergenerational governance and future generations: foundations and practice

This area covers how institutions take account of people not yet born or too young to vote: commissioners and committees for future generations, long-term budgeting, discounting, and the legal and ethical foundations of duties to the future.

Level
L2 Intermediate
Study time
about 24 hours (planning estimate)
Status
Planned
Prerequisites
An L1 course in the area, or an entry review

Why now

The UN Declaration on Future Generations was adopted with the Pact for the Future in September 2024, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in KlimaSeniorinnen (April 2024), and the International Court of Justice gave its climate advisory opinion in July 2025. United Nations, Summit of the Future: Pact for the Future and Declaration on Future Generations, 2024

Learning outcomes

  1. Define future generations commissioner and the other key terms of the discipline and use them correctly in a written case
  2. Explain duties to future generations in law and ethics and institutions for future generations with a worked example and its source
  3. Apply the discipline's method to a documented case and explain each result with its source
  4. Analyse a named case against the UN Declaration on Future Generations (2024), stating evidence, date and limits

Modules

  1. Duties to future generations in law and ethics
    • Duties to future generations in law and ethics
    • Institutions for future generations
    • The UN Declaration on Future Generations (2024)
  2. Long-term fiscal and risk planning
    • Long-term fiscal and risk planning
    • Discounting and intergenerational equity
    • Youth participation and climate litigation
  3. Foresight in government
    • Foresight in government
    • Existential and catastrophic risk governance
    • Measuring long-term well-being
  4. Lab: the discipline's method
    • The Ramsey rule builds a social discount rate from pure time preference, the elasticity of marginal utility and expected growth; applied over a century, small differences in those three numbers decide whether a loss to people not yet born counts for half of a loss today or for almost nothing.
    • Work the method through a documented case and explain each result
    • Read the method's sources and stated values

Labs with Academy tools

Assessment

  • 40%Lab recordWork the discipline's method through a documented case and explain each result with its source and date
  • 40%Case memoApply the discipline's methods to a named place or organisation, stating evidence and limits
  • 20%Key terms checkShort answers on the key terms, marked against the definitions

Delivery

  • Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
  • Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
  • Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses

Partner on this course

  • Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
  • Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
  • Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
  • Review the course content and its references before it opens
  • Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region

How institutions and experts take part

In the Academy LMS

Course on the learning platform
Intermediate, 4 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

References

  1. Ramsey, A Mathematical Theory of Saving, 1928
  2. Drupp, Freeman, Groom and Nesje, Discounting Disentangled, 2018
  3. Arrow and others, Determining Benefits and Costs for Future Generations, 2013
02Live map

Energy now in Brazil

Night-time lights, fires and gas flares, sunshine and heat, the signals of energy use, supply and demand, over Brazil.

The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.

Layers 2

Energy now

Latest available

NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth

Loading the latest NASA imagery.

Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.

Energy now, framed on Brazil.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.

Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONETSources and licences

  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • VIIRS Black Marble night-time lights, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; distributed by the NASA Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), VIIRS 375 m active fire product, NASA LANCE; vector tiles via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • MERRA-2 reanalysis, NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office; distributed by the NASA GES DISC; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • MODIS and VIIRS atmosphere products, NASA LANCE and LAADS DAAC; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
  • Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
  • © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). ODbL
  • Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
  • Globe: MapLibre GL JS 6.9.1, BSD-3-Clause, © MapLibre contributors.
  • Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
  • NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
  • Past year, daily temperature (ERA5 via Open-Meteo): Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
  • Past year, daily temperature and sunshine (NASA POWER): These data were obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) POWER Project funded through the NASA Earth Science/Applied Science Program..
  • Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (https://open-meteo.com/), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
  • Optional layers (8 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.

Layers and dates

  • Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
  • Active fires and thermal anomalies: VIIRS NOAA-20 375 m (FIRMS), NASA LANCE FIRMS · 13 Oct 2026
  • Incoming sunlight at the surface over land, monthly mean: MERRA-2, NASA GMAO / GES DISC · July 2026
  • Daytime cloud fraction: MODIS Terra, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
  • Land surface temperature, day: VIIRS NOAA-20, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
  • Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 2026

03How learning runs

How learning runs, as a process you can run

Select a scenario and press Play: course, pathway, practice, faculty, cells and record.

04What is changing

What is changing, with standards and evidence

Intergenerational governance and future generations: frontier methods

The methods, data, tools and studies that changed intergenerational governance and future generations between 2024 and 2026, taught by reproducing them on open data.

Level
L3 Advanced
Study time
about 28 hours (planning estimate)
Status
Planned
Prerequisites
Intergenerational governance and future generations: foundations and practice; Working knowledge of a scripting language (Python or R) for the labs

Why now

The UN Declaration on Future Generations was adopted with the Pact for the Future in September 2024, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in KlimaSeniorinnen (April 2024), and the International Court of Justice gave its climate advisory opinion in July 2025. United Nations, Summit of the Future: Pact for the Future and Declaration on Future Generations, 2024

Learning outcomes

  1. Explain what changed in intergenerational governance and future generations since 2024 and cite the studies, data or rules behind each change
  2. Reproduce institutions for the long term on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  3. Evaluate a 2024 to 2026 study: its question, data, method, limits and what it changes for practice
  4. Design an analysis that combines a frontier method with the faculty's instruments, and justify each choice

Modules

  1. Institutions for the long term
    • Future generations commissioners (Wales, 2015 Act)
    • Long-term budgeting and impact assessment
    • Discounting and its ethics
  2. Rights and courts
    • The Maastricht Principles on the human rights of future generations
    • Climate litigation after 2024
    • Advisory opinions and their reach
  3. Practice
    • Foresight units in government
    • Youth participation
    • Measuring long-termism
  4. Reproduction lab
    • Extend the discipline's method with one frontier method and compare its results
    • State the uncertainty and the limits of the result
    • Peer review against a shared checklist
  5. Technology that helps and the risks it carries
    • Foresight tools and regulatory sandboxes.
    • Threats to information integrity, and AI in public decisions.

Labs with Academy tools

Assessment

  • 50%Method reproductionReproduce one frontier method on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  • 30%Study reviewA critical review of a 2024 to 2026 study: question, data, method, limits, what it changes
  • 20%Peer reviewReview two other learners' reproductions against a shared checklist

Delivery

  • Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
  • Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
  • Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses

Partner on this course

  • Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
  • Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
  • Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
  • Review the course content and its references before it opens
  • Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region

How institutions and experts take part

In the Academy LMS

Course on the learning platform
Expert, 5 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

References

  1. United Nations, Summit of the Future: Pact for the Future and Declaration on Future Generations, 2024
  2. Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, 2025
  3. International Court of Justice, Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change (advisory opinion), 2025
  4. Ramsey, A Mathematical Theory of Saving, 1928
  5. Drupp, Freeman, Groom and Nesje, Discounting Disentangled, 2018
  6. Arrow and others, Determining Benefits and Costs for Future Generations, 2013
05Take part

Take part in the work

Start from who you are.

06Questions

Questions, answers and key terms

Is the course free?
Yes. Every course and learning material of Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium, is free to study, self-paced or with a cohort. Ordinary participation has no fee; paid work, internships and fellowships are separate arrangements.
What does completing a course give me?
A completion record: the course, its version, the date and what was assessed, private by default and shared by you. It stacks into discipline, department and programme achievements. A record states what was studied and assessed and does not certify competence; it is not a licence, a professional title or an employment status.
Where do the data and the places come from?
Every faculty teaches on a twin of a real place built from open data; each layer carries its provider, licence and date, and every result on the Academy states its source. Maps and figures are indicators for teaching, never an assessment of a place.
How do I take part beyond the course?
Form a competence cell of three to seven people, study a shared pathway, take a supervised assignment in the National Working Groups, or bring a cohort from your institution. For organisations.

Key terms

Term

Future generations commissioner

An independent office that holds public bodies to account for the long-term effects of their decisions, as in Wales since 2016.

Term

Discount rate

The rate at which future costs and benefits are reduced to present value, which sets how much the future counts.

Term

Intergenerational equity

Fairness in the distribution of costs, benefits and risks between generations.

Term

Short-termism

The bias of institutions towards immediate pressures at the expense of long-term outcomes.

ReportsContribute

Contribute evidence from this page.

Reports is the Consortium's quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.

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