At the Hamburg Sustainability Conference last month, the United Nations announced that the secretary-general will appoint an Envoy for Future Generations. This is an important follow-on to September’s Summit of the Future and fulfills a commitment made two years ago in the Our Common Agenda report.
The announcement shows the UN is moving fast to capitalize on the hard-won Pact for the Future, including the Declaration on Future Generations, where every sentence was contested for months leading up to the summit.
An envoy represents a key step toward turning the lofty goals of the Declaration into concrete actions, helping to catalyze the broader transformation in decision-making that taking future generations can seriously bring. Key functions could include representing future generations, helping member states and others to implement their commitments under the Declaration and supporting broader transformation in the multilateral system.
Now the world is asking: Who might the envoy be? At a time of geopolitical conflict, new, potentially high-profile positions attract significant scrutiny. Whoever takes up the inaugural position will need to be compelling enough to reach above day-to-day diplomatic wrangling and focus countries’ attention on the bigger picture. And whoever assumes the role will need sustained support if they are to effectively drive change across the multilateral system.
While no official shortlist has yet been circulated, looking across the world there are a number of exceptional — but also quite different — leaders who might bring various strengths to the role. Here are some of the people who embody different qualities that the secretary-general may be looking for.
Read the full article on PassBlue.
Header image: Penguins at the Base Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva, Antarctica, where UN Secretary-General António Guterres visited in 2023 to see the effects of the climate crisis in the continent. He will name an Envoy for Future Generations, who the essayists say can catalyze action on one of the most urgent global issues, global warming. MARK GARTEN/UN PHOTO
