Over the next few days, I’ll be joining experts from around the world to address emerging global trends and challenges at the World Economic Forum Summit on the Global Agenda.  Framing our discussions will be the just-released Outlook on the Global Agenda 2015 – a synthesis of leading expertise from around the world on some of the top issues facing global society over the next few years.

The 2015 World Economic Forum Outlook on the Global Agenda

This year’s Outlook provides a stark reminder that we live in challenging times.  Topping the priority list are deepening income equality, persistent jobless growth and lack of leadership. Lower down the list: challenges of developing world pollution, severe weather events and the importance of health in the economy are highlighted.

There’s a deep theme of sustainability running through the analysis.  As Al Gore notes in his introduction

“two major themes dominate this list: economic and environmental. These two areas of focus are inextricably linked. Long- term economic prosperity depends on environmental sustainability”

The emphasis on the environment is, of course, Gore’s forte.  But the agenda also touches the third leg of sustainability – society, and in particular, potential risks to health and well-being.  What comes through loud and clear in agenda is that integrated economic, environmental and societal solutions are needed to emerging complex challenges, if improvements are to be seen in people’s lives and disparities reduced around the globe.

Here are those top ten trends, along with key quotes:

The World Economic Forum Top Ten Trends for 2015

1.  Deepening Income Equality

Amina Mohammed, The United Nation Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning, writes:

“People, especially young people, excluded from the mainstream end up feeling disenfranchised and become easy fodder of conflict. This, in turn, reduces the sustainability of economic growth, weakens social cohesion and security, encourages inequitable access to and use of global commons, undermines our democracies, and cripples our hopes for sustainable development and peaceful societies.”  More …

2.   Persistent jobless growth

Larry Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard University, writes:

“If we consider the totality of it, we are much better off thanks to technological progress. But if we do not act, we run the risk of enjoying fewer improvements in the standard of living and more people will be left behind.”  More …

3.  Lack of Leadership

Shiza Shahid, Co-Founder and Global Ambassador of Malala Fund, writes:

“A startling 86% of respondents to the Survey on the Global Agenda agree that we have a leadership crisis in the world today.”  More …

4.  Rising Geostrategic Competition

Espen Barth Eide, Managing Director and Member of the World Economic Forum Managing Board, writes:

“The changing relationship between world powers has reduced the political energy available for tackling shared problems like climate change and global health, not to mention second-order crises. Chaos has festered.” More …

5.  The Weakening of Representative Democracy

Jorge Soto, Founder of  Data4, writes:

“Thanks to the internet, the public can identify people with the same values and fears, exchange ideas, and build relationships faster than ever before. Our governments are simply not part of that conversation”  More …

6.  Rising Pollution in the Developing World

Zou Ji, Deputy Director-General of the National Centre for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, China, writes:

“China’s burgeoning manufacturing sector produced one of the biggest historical increases in power generation capacity – but this has come at a huge cost. According to analysis by the Global Burden of Disease Study, air pollution in China contributed to 1.2 million premature deaths in 2010, representing a loss of 25 million years of healthy life.”  More …

7.  Increasing Occurrence of Severe Weather Events

Adil Najam, Dean of the The Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University, writes:

“The irony and cruelty of climate change is that the costs of extreme weather events are highest for society’s poorest. ”  More …

8.  Intensifying Nationalism

Gordon Brown, Chair of the World Economic Forum Global Strategic Infrastructure Initiative, writes:

“In the last century we had to show how we could share the same rights when decisions were being made within a multinational state. Now we are part of a world where the global sourcing of goods has replaced their national sourcing, and where global flows have replaced national flows. In 2014 we have to show how we can share and cooperate when we are not just part of a multinational state but part of a more integrated, connected and interdependent global economy.”  More …

9.  Increasing Water Stress

Matt Damon, Actor and Co-Founder of Water.org

“Resource-constrained water stress will be the norm for many countries in Asia, while finance- constrained water stress will be the norm for many countries in Africa.”  More …

10.  Growing Importance of Health in the Economy

Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, USA, writes:

“50% of the economic growth differentials between developing and developed nations are attributed to poor health and low life expectancy. The healthier the citizens of a country, the more effective the workforce; the better the health of their children the fewer births, and hence the fewer dependents.” More …

To read the full report, visit http://reports.weforum.org/outlook-global-agenda-2015/