The protection of future generations as a key to transform international law and prevent environmental catastrophes

The inclusion of the notion of future generations in international and domestic legal systems and discourses is to be regarded as truly transformative, insofar as the narratives it permits to tell can transform the attitudes and perceptions of what is owed by States and actors of present generations in terms of binding duties to offset and prevent biodiversity and other kinds of degradation that would threaten the full enjoyment of the rights of those who will come in the future. An adequate interpretation of the notion emphasizes its intra- and inter-generational equity component, impeding abusive constructions that could threaten contemporary environmental law understandings; and permits to identify existing concrete obligations and required measures, mechanisms of implementation as through the figure of representatives, and reparations that can have an impact on the wellbeing of future generations.