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this is: Major UN report discusses existential risk and future generations (summary), published BY finm, Avital Balwit on the effective altruism forum.
Co-written with Avital Balwit.
Introduction and Key Points
On September 10th, the Secretary General of the United Nations released a report called “Our Common Agenda”. This report seems highly relevant for those working on longtermism and existential risk, and appears to signal unexpectedly strong interest from the UN. It explicitly uses longtermist language and concepts, and suggests concrete proposals for institutions to represent future generations and manage catastrophic and existential risks. In this post we've tried summarising the report for an EA audience.
Some notable features of the report:
It explicitly discusses “future generations”, “long-termism”, and “existential risk”
It highlights biorisks, nuclear weapons, advanced technologies, environmental disasters/climate change as extreme or even existential risks
It recommends the “regulation of artificial intelligence to ensure that this is aligned with shared global values”
It proposes several instruments for protecting future generations:
A Futures Lab for futures impact assessments and “regularly reporting on megatrends and catastrophic risks”
A Special Envoy for Future Generations to assist on “long-term thinking and foresight” and explore various international mechanisms for representing future generations, including...
Repurposing the Trusteeship Council to represent the interests of future generations (a major but long-inactive organ of the UN)
A Declaration on Future Generations
It proposes instruments for addressing major risks:
An Emergency Platform to convene key actors in response to complex global crises
A Strategic Foresight and Global Risk Report to be released every 5 years
It also calls for a 2023 Summit of the Future to discuss topics including these proposals addressing major risks and future generations
Other topics discussed which might be of interest:
Protecting and regulating the ‘digital commons’ and an internet-enabled ‘infodemic’
The governance of outer space
Lethal autonomous weapons
Improving pandemic response and preparedness
Developing well-being indices to complement GDP
Context
A year ago, on the 75th anniversary of the formation of the UN, member nations asked the Secretary General, António Guterres, to produce a report with recommendations to advance the agenda of the UN. This report is his response.
The report also coincides with Guterres’ re-election for his second term as Secretary General, which will begin in January 2022 and will likely last 5 years.
The report was informed by consultations, listening exercises, and input from outside experts. Toby Ord (author of The Precipice) was asked to contribute to the report as such an ‘outside expert’. Among other things he underlined that ‘future generations’ does not (just) mean ‘young people’, and that international institutions should begin to address risks even more severe than COVID-19, up to and including existential risks.
All of the new instruments and institutions described in the report are proposals made to the General Assembly of member nations. It remains to be seen how many of them will ultimately be implemented, and in what eventual form.
Summary of the Report
The report is divided into five main sections, with sections 3 and 4 being of greatest relevance from an EA or longtermist perspective. The first section situates the report in the context of the pandemic, suggesting that now is an unusually “pivotal moment” between “breakdown” and “breakthrough”. It highlights major past successes (the Montreal Protocol, the eradication of smallpox) and notes how the UN was established in the aftermath of WWII to “save succeeding generations” from war. It then calls for a “new globa...
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