Climate action requires recognition of the rights of future generations, according to The Economist's youth essay-contest winner

LONDON, Sept. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Economist, a leading source of analysis on international business and world affairs, today has announced that Larissa Parker, 25, from Toronto and a law student at McGill University, is the winner of its 2019 Open Future youth essay competition. Her essay is published at:  Economist.com/essaywinner

The Economist's second annual essay contest asked 16-to-25 year olds to answer the following question in fewer than 1,000 words: "What fundamental economic and political change, if any, is needed for an effective response to climate change?" The winner was selected from around 2,400 entries from 130 countries and territories.

Ms Parker's essay argues that the reason why governments are not achieving long-term climate targets is because they are not accountable with respect to the law:

"Only current generations have legal standing to sue; and to do so, they have to prove the impacts that they have experienced or are experiencing. This is problematic in the context of climate change because the effects of greenhouse-gas emissions take decades to manifest themselves.

This leads to inaction by businesses and governments. One way to change this, according to Ms Parker, is to "recognise the rights of future generations":

"[It] would open the door for lawsuits on climate inaction and keep governments accountable to their commitments under international law. If a government does not take sufficient action on climate change now, then it is not doing enough to prevent harm to future generations, thus violating their rights to a healthy environment."

The jury included five professional readers and six judges from The Economist's editorial staff, as well as five external judges: Bill McKibben (author and activist), Camilla Toulmin (International Institute for Environment and Development), Amitav Ghosh (fiction and non-fiction writer), Malini Mehra (GLOBE International) and David Wallace-Wells (author and journalist).

The essay submissions came from all over the world, including countries vulnerable to the effects of climate change, like Haiti and the Philippines, as well as war-torn ones such as South Sudan and Yemen. About 39% of the entrants were teenagers.

Ms Parker's winning essay has been published on Economist.com. She will attend The Economist's annual ideas summit, the Open Future Festival, in Chicago to present her ideas. And she is invited by the United Nations Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth to participate at the UN Youth Climate Summit in New York on September 21st. Twenty "long-list" finalists will receive a one-year digital subscription to The Economist.

Kenneth Cukier, the editor of The Economist's Open Future initiative, was impressed by the essays. "Open Future aims to be a forum for big ideas on vital issues from young leaders with a positive vision of the future," he said. "The quality and quantity of essays shows that The Economist is tapping into a desire by many young people to bring about change."

The essays offered ambitious and creative responses to climate change. The ideas included "greening" GDP by including the value of the climate in national accounts, elevating the voting power of vulnerable countries in international forums and empowering local governments to set environmental standards. A set of excerpts from the essays is at: Economist.com/essayexcerpts

The Open Future essay contest is part of the Open Future initiative, which was launched in 2018 to mark The Economist's 175th anniversary and to remake the case for the newspaper's founding principles of classical liberalism: a belief in human progress, distrust of powerful interests and respect for individual freedom. The initiative includes a live event, the Open Future Festival. It takes place simultaneously in three cities?Hong Kong, Manchester and Chicago?with vibrant thinkers debating critical issues around open societies and free markets.

To read more about the essay contest and finalists, visit: Economist.com/essaycontest

To read Open Future articles, visit: Economist.com/openfuture

The Open Future Festival is taking place on Saturday, October 5th
To attend in Manchester, visit: https://bit.ly/2lQBNRw
To attend in Chicago, visit: https://bit.ly/2klL5o1

About The Economist
With a growing global audience and a reputation for insightful analysis and perspective on every aspect of world events, The Economist is one of the most widely recognised and well-read current-affairs publications in the world. In addition to the weekly print and digital editions and website, The Economist publishes Espresso, a daily news app, Global Business Review, a bilingual English-Chinese product and 1843 magazine. Economist Radio produces several podcasts a week and Economist Films produces short- and long-form video. The Economist maintains robust social communities on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, LINE, Medium and other social networks. A recipient of many editorial and marketing awards, The Economist was named the most trusted news source by the Trusting News Project Report in 2017.

SOURCE The Economist