A critical evaluation of inter-generational equity and its application in the climate change context

Inter-generational equity (IGE) could be a powerful normative principle to achieve climate justice for present and future generations of human and nonhuman nature in the activities of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate change (FCCC). However, until the FCCC moves beyond exploitative discourses of ecological modernization and sustainable development, any policy to address IGE will not reconcile tensions between present and future generations of humans and nonhuman nature. Using the FCCC’s Gender Action Plan as a focal point, this chapter examines how the climate change regime seeks to achieve IGE for women and girls. Drawing on ecofeminist philosophy, it argues that rather than recognizing the interrelationships between humans and nature, and including future generations of nonhuman nature in policy development, the FCCC approaches IGE as an anthropocentric distributive justice issue. This inhibits the normative power of the principle and limits the potential for policy making to achieve gender equality for present and future generations.