All EU countries have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN-CRC).
All EU countries have ratified the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

And three decades later, a newborn child born in 2024 has, on paper, the right to be protected until 2042 under the CRC because our countries have signed and ratified these international treaties.

General Comment No. 26 explains the responsibilities, but if we are honest, this was all evident since the 1990s, hence the existence of these treaties. However, due to the power structures and inadequate governance, we are on the verge of losing the feasibility of delivering on these rights to this child born in 2024, as planetary life support systems are already weakening.

If you are 50 years old, about 75% of all fossil fuel emissions have happened in your lifetime. If you are 85, it is about 90%.

I will be 72 in 2042, and I wonder if I should hope for mercy rather than fairness.

However, hoping for unconditional mercy is naive; hence, the current generation in power should stop ignoring the treaties to which they are bound.
This may allow future generations to respect human rights as well and treat us in a way far better than fairness would imply.

It is no easy feat.

However, ignoring treaties simply because there is no big, powerful lobby with a lot of money pushing politicians to honour them will backfire later on.

We need to earn the trust of future generations and stop robbing their future.