The United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Warsaw, Poland, in November ended 24 hours after the official closing time. Despite days and nights of political bargaining, sleep-deprived negotiators were still wrangling over details in the final hours. Yet they were forced to move forward ahead of the universal climate agreement in 2015.
As complaints about the lack of fairness of the climate issue escalated, the split between developed and developing countries in discussing "loss and damage" was more visible than ever.
However, the concept of Intergenerational Equity was put forward as a way to bridge the gap. This is to ensure that the current generation leaves a world of equal quality to future generations. All countries agree that they have this responsibility.
The Intergenerational Equity working group that I was part of, under the youth constituency of the UN, successfully inserted a reference to protecting "future generations" in the Platform for Enhanced Action text.
More than 70 countries signed the Warsaw Declaration on Intergenerational Equity and Climate Change, proposed by the working group.
It marked the first time since the establishment of the convention that the ethical dimension of climate change was recognised. This move offers hope for meaningful results in the 2015 agreement.