Cambridge Students Join Forces with MPs to Launch APPG Combating Political Short-Termism

Parliamentarians, academics and industry leaders launched the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Future Generations on Monday, 22 January 2018 in Parliament. The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), created by Cambridge students in October 2017 and chaired by Daniel Zeichner MP, aims to challenge political short-termism and raise the profile of the long-term interests of future generations.

Seventeen other MPs and Peers from across the political spectrum join Zeichner, including Lord Martin Rees. The APPG’s Secretariat is run by students at the University of Cambridge, who catalyzed the APPG’s creation following a research project on the representation of future generations in other countries’ political systems.

Lord Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, said:

"Future generations are the ultimate unrepresented constituency. Many of today's children will still be alive in the 22nd century.

When we realise how much we owe to the heritage left by our forebears, it is shameful how short-term most decision-making is.

This APPG seeks to focus on the longer-term, so that future generations aren't left to cope with a depleted and more dangerous world."

Natalie Jones, Cambridge student and Secretariat co-coordinator, said: 

"Immediate, pressing political issues are certainly in no short supply, but there is a risk that equally important longer-term issues are not high enough on our priority list.

Future generations have neither a voice nor a vote – this group in Parliament is working towards changing that."

The Secretariat is hosted at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER).

Read more about the APPG for Future Generations here.