UNEP – A global foresight report on planetary health and human wellbeing

Navigating New Horizons: A global foresight report on planetary health and human wellbeing seeks to attend to the future and the needs of global civilisation. To help navigate current and future uncertainty and disruptive change, while effectively delivering on its mandate, the United Nations Environment Program – UNEP – has been implementing an institutionalized approach to strategic foresight and horizon scanning with the view to developing an anticipatory and future-oriented culture – to ensure planetary health and human wellbeing.

As the leading global authority on the environment, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) plays a critical role in keeping the environment under review and finding solutions that inspire, inform and enable nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.

UNEP strives to empower the United Nations (UN) community, its Member States and individuals to identify issues requiring vigilance and to take anticipatory actions that can rebalance planetary health and human wellbeing. To do this, the organization needs to have a responsive, holistic approach to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world—a world of more fragility and greater uncertainty. UNEP has embraced foresight, a strategic capability and set of tools, to identify and explore possible disruptions on the horizon, to confront our ways of thinking about them and learn how applying such forward-thinking tools can prepare us for the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Foresight helps detect signs of approaching change, determine their potential developments and strengthen resilience against the unexpected—translating future uncertainty into present day choices. Put simply, careful and incisive foresight can help UNEP to achieve its aims of identifying and working on the right issues at the right time for the right audience.

This Navigating New Horizons report outlines a process focused on planetary health and human wellbeing—an intentional framing to expand the range of issues and informed views that typically shape UNEP’s work. Why? To ensure we are looking in places not normally considered, but where the organization can act or provide advice for others with relevant portfolios.

The outcomes of the report will be integrated into UNEP’s strategic planning, potentially influencing the next UNEP MTS, presenting an opportunity to consider expanding programmes in areas like artificial intelligence, new technology, and robotics in agriculture, prompting discussions on the level of engagement in these issues. This will ultimately serve UNEP in adopting a proactive posture and modernize tools for efficiency and cost savings.

Furthermore, the report will serve as UNEPs contribution to the Summit of the Future. While it is not expected to substantively influence the Summit of the Future as such, it will serve to provide inputs into the preparatory discussions and events, including the High-level Political Forum, in the lead-up to the Summit of the Future as they relate to environmental dimensions.