Horizon scanning across the region suggests a paradoxical juncture. Technological acceleration and financial innovation are advancing rapidly, while systemic fragility is deepening beneath the surface. A dominant pattern of crisis-driven reactivity prioritizes short-term stabilization over long-term resilience. Emergency action restores systems to functionality without reducing underlying risk. The buildout of artificial intelligence (AI) and data infrastructure illustrates this tension. In the United States, investment in data centres and information processing is supporting economic growth.23 At the same time, this expansion depends on continuous and rising electricity demand that is already straining grids. Governments and utilities are facing pressure to act quickly and secure investment. In that context, agreements can be rushed and opaque, with limited community influence over siting, pricing and long-term liabilities. Across the Caribbean, limited electricity capacity creates high-stakes choices about whether limited power should prioritize essential services or foreign- owned digital infrastructure.24 In Canada, provinces such as British Columbia have introduced restrictions on new data centre connections due to grid capacity concerns.25 Decisions framed as technical grid fixes are also decisions about development pathways. These decisions shape which places carry the burdens of energy and land use, which communities build public capacity and how institutions distribute benefits and liabilities over time. These dynamics can resemble a modern enclave economy. Foreign-owned infrastructure creates localized strain and long-term liabilities, while operational decisions, profits and technological benefits flow outward. Communities with limited influence, including younger generations who will face the long tail of risk and fiscal constraint, absorb the costs. At the same time, countervailing signals are emerging. New governance forms are taking shape as trust in legacy approaches weakens. Grassroots coalitions, from Louisiana’s environmental justice initiatives,26 to Buffalo’s binding Community Benefits Agreement,27 are demonstrating how enforceable agreements can improve legitimacy and durability. The Caribbean Philanthropic Alliance28 offers another signal through pan- regional, youth-driven climate resilience initiatives, including the Caribbean Climate Justice and Resilience Project. In Canada, 8 80 Cities29 has influenced mobility, public space and resilience planning across municipalities, grounded in the principle that cities should work for an eight-year- old and an 80-year-old alike. These signals point to an emerging direction in which decision-makers treat inclusion, accountability and long-term outcomes as design requirements.REGIONAL CONTEXT Rapid innovation and deepening vulnerability Temporal Logic Systemic Short-termism Moral Hazard Loop No-strings bailout reinforces the loops Power Logic Systemic Exclusion Top-down solution reinforces the loops Disempowerment LoopRoot Cause Flawed Governance Design Symptom “Rescue & Repeat” Cycle Observed Crisis (e.g. Grid failure, Flooding)SYSTEM DYNAMICS Crisis response that reproduces fragility Intergenerational Foresight: An Approach for Long-Term Responsibility in Governance 21

Intergenerational Foresight 2026