Intergenerational solidarity and the climate emergency – an ongoing conversation
Siobhan Warrington
On 17th January 2023 the Hub organised a seminar titled ‘Intergenerational Solidarity and the Climate Emergency’. This blog post by Hub researcher Siobhan Warrington with contributions from the three guest speakers Javeria Afzal (HelpAge International), Shripathi Hadigal (Restless Development), Ngoc-Anh Pham (YouthLab), highlights some of the key issues raised and poses several questions for further exploration.
Sustainable development is inherently intergenerational – people of today taking action to benefit future generations. The ‘inherited temporal dimension of climate change’ also brings our shared, and different, pasts, presents and futures into focus. Calls for climate justice and reparations for loss and damage highlight injustices of the past and their ramifications today; and efforts to affect change through advocacy or plans for mitigation and adaptation directly connect our presents to our futures. We tend to associate older people with the past and younger people with the future, failing to recognise that the old were once young and that young people of today will themselves be the older generation in the future. Younger and older people can be viewed and represented very differently in relation to the climate crisis; young people as active citizens and older people as vulnerable, or - more often than not - invisible.
We must also remember that the climate crisis is happening in the context of the world’s population ageing - the population aged 65 and over is growing faster than all other age groups. Older people, particularly those living in poverty in the Global South, are more exposed to the impacts of a changing climate. But this is just one side of the picture - older people also possess the knowledge and capacities to contribute positively to climate action, from locally-led adaptation efforts to global advocacy for climate justice.
In contrast to the vulnerability of older people, young people are frequently represented as active and potential agents for tackling the climate crisis and advocating for change, while simultaneously often lacking the power to affect change in their own communities and at national and global levels. In some discourses younger people may also be represented as victims of the climate crisis, within a narrative which pits the generations against one another, blaming the older generation for destroying the futures of young people.
Those of us researching, or working with, younger and older people in different contexts, know that their identities and experiences in relation to their changing environments are much more nuanced than these binary assumptions of agency and vulnerability. There is a need to better understand the capacities as well as the challenges facing these different age cohorts, and to recognise the distinct rural (and urban) realities for younger and older people in different contexts across the Global South). And we must not forget that the experiences, challenges and capabilities of younger and older people are not only defined by their age. Other aspects of people’s identity and circumstance including their gender, income, geography, dis/ability and caste or ethnicity, can intersect with age to influence a person’s experiences and degree of agency. We need to understand how power and exclusion work in relation to age and other identities and circumstances.
The seminar poster.
Intergenerational solidarity: opportunities and challenges
The seminar brought together leading organisations working with younger and older people in the context of the climate emergency. Since 2009 HelpAge International have been working to draw attention to the specific vulnerabilities and capacities of older people in relation to climate change, particularly in the Global South, and the need for their voices to be included in decision-making. In 2023 they will be championing their Grey and Green Manifesto and supporting movement-building of older people around the world. Leading youth NGO Restless Development works to champion youth leadership; climate justice is one of its four priority areas. Restless recognise that younger people need the support of older people if they are to develop their leadership skills and represent their communities; the support of all generations is important for youth leadership. For both of these organisations working intergenerationally is about younger and older people working together for mutual benefit, recognising that both age cohorts can possess valuable knowledge and experience and both can have the energy and drive to inspire and lead others. (See: Bringing generations together for change 2022)
Ngoc-Anh Pham is the leader of the Youth Policy Working Group on Climate Change in Vietnam. She shared her experience as a younger person, benefiting from the guidance and expertise of older experts (who in turn have benefited from the creativity and energy of young people) to design accessible and engaging learning resource on climate change for young people and developed a clear road map for young people to be more involved in climate policy in Vietnam.
Living Deltas’ Hub research with older and younger women and men in the Bangladesh Sundarbans and the Mekong delta shows the many shared values and concerns across the generations in relation to the environment and environmental change. It also reveals a mutual respect for each other’s knowledge and expertise that recognises complementary differences in terms of capacities and needs. The research would suggest that intergenerational solidarity is a form of existing social capital which can be built on to enhance sustainable development efforts at the local level.
BUET researchers Mobin Abdul Ibna Hafiz and Md. Abdul Munim facilitating a mapping session with older men in Koyra union, Bangladesh in January 2022 as part of the Living Deltas Hub. Credit: Abu Syed
Areas for further discussion
Given the urgency of addressing the climate crisis, the need for different groups and generations to come together to enhance their power and potential for the sustainability of the well-being of everyone has never been greater. The climate crisis affects all age groups, now and in the future.
Age discrimination affects both younger and older generations in relation to the climate crisis.
We need to recognise the capacities of all age groups as well as the challenges they each face. Can we deliberately ‘flip’ some of the common assumptions we make? What would happen if we recognise (and design for) the creativity and energy of some older people and the wisdom and expertise of some younger people?
Younger and older people in certain contexts can both lack power; and what about the middle generations?
Can working intergenerationally address the lack of power and voice that both younger and older people experience in certain contexts? Can an intergenerational approach increase these groups voice and agency to address environmental challenges? And how can younger and older people both leverage power from (and/or work together with) the middle generations?
Intergenerational solidarity and the climate crisis - different contexts and at different scales? Intergenerational relations can work differently at different levels and scales and in different contexts, whether that be within families, communities or at a wider societal level:
o What does intergenerational solidarity look like when it comes to global-level advocacy (influencing COP 28 for example) versus enhancing locally-led adaptation in rural areas?
o What does an intergenerational approach look like in terms of 1) programming, 2) policy, and 3) advocacy to address the climate crisis?
o How will it differ according to geography, culture, and income?
How can we respond to the lack of data and lack of initiatives?
HelpAge International are working to address older people’s lack of voice in climate change debates and dialogues. There is also a ‘gap’ in terms of the literature when it comes to older people and climate change in the Global South. Many older people also lack accessible information on climate change. Unsurprisingly there are limited sustainable development initiatives adopting a deliberate intergenerational approach. How can we meaningfully address these gaps?
Please email siobhan.warrington@newcastle.ac.uk if you would like to join an online conversation to explore these areas further. This conversation will take place on zoom on Monday the 6th of March for 1 hour, starting: 9.30am UK; 14:30 Pakistan; 15:00 India; 15:30 Bangladesh; 16:00 Vietnam.