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keep track of ‘Existential Threats and Risks to All’

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to the EXTRA Newsletter

EDITORIAL

How Seriously Will X-Risks Impact You? It may depend on how old you are...

This edition looks at the way young people respond to the prospect of escalating existential risks that are set to affect them disproportionately. In collaboration with Protect Our Planet (POP), a major global youth movement, EXTRA opens this important conversation on intergenerational justice in this month's video feature, jointly organised with the POP leadership team, led by Ash Pachauri, son of former IPCC head and Nobel Prize winner Rajendra Pachauri. His colleague, Philo Magdalene A, in an article, further explores how the world's 1.8 billion youth can help challenge political inaction and demand a place at the negotiation table.

EXTRA researcher Lorenzo Rodriguez, in his article, examines what is holding back such activism by asking why many young people are unable to fear the future and pointing to the normalisation of dystopia in popular culture.

Other focal points for this newsletter are the review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, currently underway, a critical issue in light of ongoing armed conflicts and associated nuclear sabre-rattling, as well as the historic first Summit for a Fossil-Free Future in Colombia.

Lorenzo Rodriguez, Editor, EXTRA Newsletter

Prof Thomas Reuter, Co-editor & Chair, EXTRA Working Group

‘Protect our Planet’ -POP- is a major global youth movement focused on ecological sustainability and climate change. In this joint webinar, leaders of this movement discuss youth perspectives on existential risks with us. Younger generations face a greater risk and, arguably, the near certainty of personally experiencing catastrophic levels of global warming, major disruptions in the wake of AGI, food and water insecurity, and possibly also major conflict under now dangerously unstable geopolitical conditions. 

​Watching ageing politicians and corporate leaders gamble away their future for short-term gain, young people experience frustration and eco-anxiety. For others, climate impacts are already a deadly reality. Youth, they argue, need to respond by getting organised and taking action for intergenerational justice. 

1. Can We End War and Abolish Nuclear Weapons? UNFOLD ZERO, May 5, 2026.
Reports on the discussions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference held April 27–May 22, 2026. As the only remaining treaty on nuclear weapons, its review represents a vital diplomatic effort at a particularly dangerous moment in international security.

2. Nuclear Fears Resurface Among Younger Generations Amid Rising Tensions. UN News, May 1, 2026. 

​Reports how renewed nuclear rhetoric surrounding wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran is prompting younger generations to engage with disarmament, with the UN's Youth Leaders Fund supporting young advocates in challenging the normalisation of nuclear weapons.

3. People's Declaration for a Rapid, Equitable and Just Transition for a Fossil-Free Future. Fossil Free Rising, April 30, 2026. The People's Summit for a Fossil Free Future — the civil society counterpart to the first Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels — convened April 24–26 in Santa Marta to build collective power from the ground up for a fossil-free future.

4. New Course Shows Young Climate Leaders How to Advocate for Change. UNDP Climate Promise, April 30, 2026.
Introduces a new training programme that equips young leaders with advocacy, communication, and policy skills to influence climate decisions at the local, national, and global levels, emphasising youth as key actors in shaping long-term climate futures.

5. A New Nuclear Arms Race Is Accelerating. T. Ruff, The Conversation, April 26, 2026.​

​Provides historical background on the NPT treaty on nuclear weapons proliferation and what is at stake in its current review cycle, setting the context for ongoing diplomatic efforts to prevent further arms escalation.

6. Scientists and Economists Will Help Countries Develop Plans to Reduce Dependence on Oil, Gas and Coal. J. Watts, The Guardian, April 25, 2026.

​Reports on a new science panel advising the first global Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta, Colombia, attended by 50+ nations and 2,800 civil society representatives. The panel's formation stands in sharp contrast to the marginalisation of science at recent COP summits dominated by fossil fuel lobbies.

7. How the Polycrisis Is Making Young People Canada's Unhappiest Generation. Cascade Institute, December 17, 2025.
Explores how overlapping crises — from climate change to economic precarity and geopolitical instability — disproportionately affect Canadian youth, underscoring the psychological and social toll of living amid mounting global systemic risks.

8. Longtermism: A Call to Protect Future Generations. 80,000 Hours, March, 2023.

​A long-form essay framing the reduction of extinction risks from AI, pandemics, and other global catastrophes as among the most effective ways to safeguard both current youth and future generations, placing intergenerational justice at the centre of today's policy priorities.