Humanity is striving for a better and more sustainable future for all. Initiatives like the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and the European Union’s focus on societal challenges or disaster-resilient societies exemplify this.
Nevertheless there remains a gap between agreeing on objectives, and translating these objectives into action. Whether the focus is on alleviating poverty, reducing hunger, promoting peace and justice, ensuring socially inclusive economic development, mitigating climate change, adapting to a changing climate, or protecting and restoring ecosystems, in moving from objectives to actions, deep uncertainty is omnipresent. Investments and policy decisions in these and other fields often have significant and often long-term consequences. At the same time, the increasing number and severity of disruptions and their cascading effects related to climate change, societal fragmentation, and instability require near-term decisions and action(s) across all scales. Making sound and coordinated near-term decisions is critical, precisely because we live in an increasingly unpredictable dynamic world governed by competing and changing beliefs and preferences. This year’s theme is ‘Securing sustainable futures’.