The Intergenerational Justice Award on Gerontocracy and Presentism: the winners!
27. March 2026
In 2024, temperatures were 1.55 degrees higher than the average for the period 1850 to 1900, marking a decisive turning point in the history of humanity’s climate. In response to the lack of progress on climate protection, this call for papers addressed an often-neglected aspect: the individual duty to protect the climate.
Individual and collective responsibility are not mutually exclusive, but the existing paradigm of emissions reduction through measures taken by the international community must be supplemented by an individual dimension. The prize invited participants to engage in academic inquiry into the ethical, conceptual and practical aspects of the personal carbon footprint.
The jury has now reached its decision. The prize money of €5,000 was divided among three winners:
🥇 1st place (€2,000 each):
Adumaro Amabogha & Thomas Aneni – “Beyond State Policy: The Personal Carbon Footprint, Climate Equity, and the Bottom-Up Imperative in the African Region and Nigeria”
Masako Ichihara – “Exploring the Legal Obligation to Reduce Personal Greenhouse Gas Emissions Through Climate Litigation Rulings”
2nd place (€1,000):
Hochung Cho & Jieun Jung – “The Personal Carbon Footprint of AI: Ethical Imperatives and Strategies for Individual AI Usage”
Congratulations to all the winners!
We would like to thank the Apfelbaum Foundation for the idea and for funding the prize money.
