Humans

[New] The secondary effects of climate change, meaning the likely responses of human societies to rapidly changing climatic conditions, including the increased probability for nuclear conflict, are an even greater threat to the continuity of human civilization in the 21st century.
[New] US government departments are issuing an advisory to caution businesses about the risks of supply chain links to entities that engage in human rights abuses, including forced labor in Xinjiang and elsewhere in China.
[New] Increasing application of AI-based tools for taking care of older people and growing focus on improving human-aware AI systems will further energize the growth of the market in the coming years.
Augmenting human capabilities with artificial intelligence will create $2.9 trillion in business value and add 6.2 billion hours of worker productivity in 2021.
The United States has plans to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s under a program that envisions using a return to the moon as a testing platform for human missions before making the more ambitious crewed journey to Mars.
Rapid urbanization could push more mosquitoes to bite humans in many cities across sub-Saharan Africa over the next 30 years.
Protesters are pleased that Hong Kong will no longer be treated differently to other Chinese cities under the new US Hong Kong Autonomy Act, and that the US can now impose economic sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese officials for human rights violations.
Near-term climate change will not drive selection for major changes in mosquitoes preference, but that rapid urbanization could drive a shift to human-biting in many cities across sub-Saharan Africa by 2050.
The United States will pay $1.95 billion for Pfizer to produce and deliver 100 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate in the U.S. if it proves safe and effective in humans.
Assuming NASA makes the goal of landing humans on the Moon by 2024-which is theoretically possible but would require a lot of budgetary, political, and technical factors to fall the space agency's way - a Lunar Terrain Vehicle would follow in 2025.
The use of LNG for electricity generation will continue to grow rapidly over the coming two decades as humanity addresses the multiple challenges of meeting rising demand for energy, mitigating climate change and eliminating energy poverty.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to transform economies and impact virtually every aspect of human life over the next couple of decades.
The UK will enact a version of the US's Magnitsky act to sanction officials who may have been involved in human rights abuses in Hong Kong during crackdowns on protests.
The United Nations Development Program predicts a decline in global human development - education, health, and living standards - for the first time in 30 years.
Due to the demands of modern technology and the growth of populations and economies, the need for base metals in the next 25 years is projected to outpace all the base metals so far mined in human history.
The UN Development Program has warned that global human development is likely to decline for the first time on record, resulting in millions of unnecessary deaths and in a major increase in poverty levels in developing countries.
Under last year's Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, the United States could impose sanctions on Chinese government officials and security authorities for violating the basic freedoms and rights of the Hong Kong people.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has warned of the risks to disabled people's human rights posed by the rapid increase in the use of video technology in the criminal justice system in England and Wales during the COVID-19 crisis.
The new IMO 2020 regulation, bringing the sulphur cap in fuel oil for ships down from 3.50% to 0.50%, is expected to bring significant benefits for human health and the environment.
By the year 2070, Earth's habitable climate zone will have shifted so significantly that up to 3 billion people are projected to be left outside the climate conditions that have served humanity well over the past 6,000 years.
While the first human mission to land on Mars will likely take place in the next two decades, it will probably be more like 50-100 years before substantial numbers of people have moved to Mars to live in self-sustaining towns.
Human life expectancy in developed countries has risen steadily at the astonishing rate of 3 months per year over the past 160 years, with a similar rate of increase predicted until at least 2030.
In the coming years, the European Commission will attempt to fill the leadership vacuum on global issues, seeking to hold together the remnants of multilateralism and global governance in areas such as trade, human rights and the advancement of science.

See full forecast

Last updated: 09 August 2020