Welcome to Futures Research Unpacked! In this essential deep dive, we're exploring groundbreaking research from the European Journal of Futures Research: "Sustainable space governance as a key to protect future generations’ rights" by İnan-Şimşek and Atvur.

The paper highlights that safeguarding the interests and rights of future generations is a pressing global concern, intensified by current actions and a focus area for the UN's Pact for the Future. Despite these efforts, protecting future generations' rights, especially in space, has become a "global gridlock" – a growing disparity between the need for global solutions and multilateral institutions' inability to address them.

This study proposes that sustainable space governance is crucial for overcoming this gridlock and addressing complex challenges while protecting these rights. Key areas for sustainable space use and governance include regulating space traffic, mitigating escalating space debris, and ensuring equitable access to space resources.

The research offers a bold vision to overcome this gridlock, synthesizing the UN's essential policy goals for future generations with identified pathways for resolution. This proposed framework includes four critical actions:

• UNCOPUOS serving as the voice of future generations: As the central envoy for global space policies, COPUOS is pivotal for international cooperation and adapting space law, acting as an autonomous and adaptable institution.
• The leadership of the epistemic space community for future generations: Technical groups like COSPAR, ISO, ITU, and WMO are vital for shaping international practices based on ethical values and integrating various agents to transform concerns into concrete space policies.
• Defining binding regulations for responsibilities towards future generations in space exploration and activities: Legally binding agreements are crucial for ensuring intragenerational and intergenerational justice in sustainable space governance, requiring harmonized national regulations and shifts in major powers' interests.
• The creation of an intergovernmental forum: An intergovernmental forum, potentially a Global Space Agency or World Space Organization, is needed to address fragmented space activities and enable nations to retain sovereignty while addressing shared concerns and promoting a systemic transformation for future generations' rights.

Tune in to understand why the acceleration of space activities and the emergence of new actors demand a new system prioritizing a just future for all humanity in the cosmos.

Ref

İnan-Şimşek, A., & Atvur, S. (2025). Sustainable space governance as a key to protect future generations’ rights. European Journal of Futures Research, 13(1), 8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40309-025-00254-8