Intergenerational equity and governance in sustainable development policy

With ecological globalization, environmental degradation has become a pheno menon capable of accentuating not only the sources of spatial and temporal conflicts, but also inter- and intragenerational inequities. In this contex t, it seems important, first of all, to explain the ways in which the takin g into account of inter-generational equity in our societies' decisions con stitutes a new challenge posing unresolved questions for decisionmakers. Se condly, we see that the implementation of effective policies for sustainabl e development (that is, taking real account of the long-term and of equity concerns), requires the development of new perspectives and practices in sc ience and of new "governance" institutions capable of responding to these n ew challenges. Thirdly, we show that these changes imply, for economic anal ysis and the advice that can be offered by economists, a shift from a subst antive rationality perspective towards a procedural rationality. This latte r encourages the development of new analysis and decision support tools bas ed on a wider sharing of information and efforts at reconciling different p erspectives in the assessment of risks and equity concerns. This new ration ality will be expressed as a process of debate and dialogue taking place co ntinuously in all phases of the policy process.