MINJU CHUNG As a teenager, imagining the world 30 years from now no longer stirs the familiar anxiety of whether I'll land a good job or build a loving family. The fear runs deeper than that — whether the world will even be livable. With the threats of climate change mounting and political commitment to address them steadily eroding, the lives of future generations are genuinely at stake.Korea is currently attempting to protect the fundamental rights of those future generations through an ongoing reform of the Carbon Neutrality Framework Act. But progress has been painfully slow, and whether the country will adopt ambitious emissions reduction targets remains uncertain.On March 29, I spoke as a youth representative at a public deliberation forum, delivering a sincere message to citizen representatives: Setting higher, more responsible emissions targets is "the bare minimum duty the current generation owes to future generations."Watching the legislative process remain ambiguous since then, I want to make the case again, clearly and urgently, for why strong action by the National Assembly is needed now.Walking into the deliberation forum, I assumed many participants would be disengaged from topics like greenhouse gas reduction targets, or resistant due to concerns about economic costs. However, I was wrong. Citizens from diverse age groups asked substantive questions about the science behind emissions reduction, the economic implications of different pathways, and whether sufficient carbon-cutting technologies actually exist. Through discussions and expert Q&As, climate change stopped being a distant concept and became an imminent danger directly tied to food security, jobs and the survival of the next generation.Surveys conducted before and after the forum showed a significant rise in the number of participants who believed Korea should reduce emissions at a rate higher than the global average. This shift was not merely a statistical change; it reflected a genuine transformation in individual perspective and a collective willingness to take responsibility for a safer future.I founded the international youth environmental organization C02gether and have personally interviewed more than seventy experts in the field. A consistent message emerged among researchers that the technologies required to effectively reduce carbon emissions already exist. Green hydrogen, high-efficiency smart grids, and CCUS — carbon capture, utilization and storage — are all available today. What is lacking is not innovation but investment, and the institutional frameworks needed to bring these technologies to scale.Take CCUS as an example. For it to be deployed in practice, pilot testing in sites like Korea's East Sea gas fields is essential. Yet such projects require enormous funding and face criticism that they serve as a justification for prolonging fossil fuel use, making them difficult to launch.But future generations cannot afford to wait for perfect solutions. With the planet under severe strain, we must begin deploying what already works, rapidly advance demonstration projects for technology still maturing, and continue improving them in parallel. With adequate policy support, an accelerated emissions reduction pathway is entirely achievable.No matter how much public awareness grows, and no matter how many breakthroughs emerge from research laboratories, none of it will translate into real change without strong laws to back it up. Only legally binding legislation can truly mobilize public resources, direct investment and hold institutions accountable over time.Declarative slogans and non-binding recommendations will not change the world. Establishing detailed long-term reduction pathways from 2031 to 2049 that cannot be easily reversed, mandating national support for the commercialization of new technologies, and ensuring that the costs of climate damage are not silently passed to future generations — all of this is only possible through legislation.The public deliberation forum was a meaningful starting point, surfacing the genuine will of citizens to take climate responsibility. But it is now the responsibility of the National Assembly to translate the public demand into durable outcomes. The voices of ordinary people and the work of scientists must not be allowed to dissolve into thin air.Through the revision of the Carbon Neutrality Framework Act, the National Assembly has an opportunity and an obligation to promise future generations a world in which they can still safely live. We need to push our legislators to do more toward this goal and to seize the opportunity to do so now before it is too late.- - -Minju ChungMinju Chung is a junior at Seoul International School and runs C02gether, an international environmental organization for youth. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. — Ed.