ABSTRACT
The introductory chapter's point of departure is the discrepancy between commitments to the future and lack of follow-up in practice. Due to increasing environmental destruction, this gap will have significant consequences for future generations. The chapter describes the book's aim to examine when and how commitments to future generations are followed up in practice and what characterises situations where they are not followed up. Moreover, the book seeks to analyse to what extent and how there are differences between countries and policy areas, and what we can learn from comparing them. A theoretically grounded concept of solidarity with future generations is developed and applied to empirical analyses. The chapter describes how this proposed concept draws on insights from a wide range of studies about future generations and combines these with a normative-political concept of solidarity among contemporaries. It describes policy areas where political and legal measures are justified by referring to future generations and studies (i) the UN 2030 Agenda; (ii) national political institutions for future generations; (iii) national constitutions, protection clauses, and climate lawsuits; and (iv) regulations of national economic debt or savings for future generations. Finally, the chapter explains why Germany and Norway are selected as interesting cases.
