Intergenerational Foresight 2026

Introduction Strategic foresight has become an established capability for navigating uncertainty. Tools such as scenario planning, horizon scanning and systems analysis have strengthened organizational preparedness across contexts ranging from technological disruption to climate risk and geopolitical instability. Yet the scale and persistence of today’s challenges are testing the limits of existing foresight practice. Many of the most consequential decisions currently being made will shape social, economic and ecological conditions for decades, often in ways that are difficult to reverse. Infrastructure investments, climate and energy transitions, digital governance architectures and demographic policies generate long-term effects that extend well beyond the time horizons within which decisions are authorized and evaluated. Under these conditions, a gap has emerged between the temporal reach of decisions and the structures that inform them. While foresight tools can model long-term impacts, the processes that shape how futures are imagined often remain constrained by short-term incentives, institutional silos and narrow assumptions about whose knowledge and perspectives are relevant. As a result, foresight risks becoming an analytical exercise detached from deeper questions of responsibility, legitimacy and consequence. This challenge is not solely about technical capacity. It reflects a deeper issue regarding the distribution of authority over the future and the understanding of responsibility across time in decision-making systems. When decision-makers with little exposure to long-term consequences dominate futures thinking, they overlook important signals, underestimate risks and prematurely close off options. Our work is grounded in a simple premise: the distribution of authority within decision-making processes directly shapes the futures we can imagine, assess and design. Decisions encode assumptions about whose interests matter, which risks are acceptable and which futures are considered plausible. Without meaningful engagement from future-oriented perspectives, including younger generations, communities with long-term risk exposure and knowledge systems grounded in stewardship and continuity, foresight loses both depth and legitimacy. Intergenerational foresight addresses this challenge by extending foresight across time, geography and experience. This evolution is already taking shape, as global governance debates are institutionalizing, with actors exploring ways to give future generations a clearer standing in policy design, oversight and long-term accountability. Intergenerational foresight does not reject existing methodologies; it builds upon them, redirecting their application towards more inclusive, accountable and future-fit governance. By embedding multiple generations into shared decision-making authority and equipping them with the tools to succeed, intergenerational foresight helps institutions surface weak signals earlier, challenge entrenched assumptions and navigate uncertainty with greater credibility. Intergenerational Foresight: An Approach for Long-Term Responsibility in Governance 6