In 2023, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) set out on a journey together with the International Science Council (ISC) and regional partners to develop and implement a Foresight Trajectory. The ambition was threefold: to expand our collective capacity to anticipate the future, embed foresight and futures thinking in the culture of the organization, and crucially, deliver a proactive reading on potential disruptions and untapped opportunities to enable better decisions, preparedness and anticipatory action.

The Navigating New Horizons 2024 report aims to deliver on the latter goal: translating future uncertainty into present-day choices. The insights and issues presented, and the conclusions drawn within this report reflect a breadth of ideas, information and collective insights generated through a rigorous, participatory and multi-method foresight process.

The report identifies and assesses eighteen signals of change and potential disruptions on the horizon for which the world may need to prepare. It also discusses eight critical shifts or emerging phenomena and some of the interconnections between them and the signals and disruptions identified. These disruptions are potential events or circumstances that could affect planetary health and human well-being as well as our society and the way it functions.

Henrik Carlsen is part of the UNEP Foresight Expert Panel and contributed to this report on topics of artificial intelligence (AI).