The 15 Global Challenges are updated on line and are included in the newest edition of the State of the Future 20.0..  They incorporate extensive research and insights from various Millennium Project research and publications, including Work/Tech 2050, Robots 2050, the Future of Life Institute competition, COVID-19 scenarios, and AGI Phases 1 & 2. Drafts were reviewed by more than 30 experts, share d with Node chairs for regional updates and feedback, also enhanced with data from over 50 interns, and refined using AI tools as needed.

The 15 Global Challenges are:

1. How can sustainable development be achieved for all while addressing global climate change?
2. How can everyone have sufficient clean water without conflict?
3. How can population and resources be brought into balance?
4. How can genuine democracy emerge from authoritarian regimes and not regress?
5. How can decision-making be enhanced by integrating improved global foresight during unprecedented accelerating change?
6. How can global information, communications technologies, artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing work for everyone?
7. How can ethical market economies be encouraged to reduce the gap between rich and poor?
8. How can the threat of new and reemerging diseases and immune microorganisms be reduced?
9. How can education and learning make humanity more intelligent, knowledgeable, and wise enough to address its global challenges?
10. How can shared values and new security strategies reduce ethnic conflicts, terrorism, and the use of weapons of mass destruction?
11. How can the changing status of women help improve the human condition?
12. How can transnational organized crime be stopped from becoming more powerful and sophisticated enterprises?
13. How can growing energy demands be met safely and efficiently?
14. How can scientific and technological breakthroughs be accelerated to improve the human condition?
15. How can ethical considerations become more routinely incorporated into global decisions?

The 15 Global Challenges provide a structured framework for evaluating humanity’s global and local future prospects. Each challenge includes a concise overview, recommended actions, and region-specific considerations, continually updated since their inception in 1996. These challenges represent decades of continuous research, Delphi studies, interviews, and the contributions of more than 4,000 international experts.

These Global Challenges are inherently transnational, interdisciplinary, and require collaboration across diverse institutions. No single government or organization can address them independently; instead, they demand synergistic cooperation among governments, international agencies, businesses, academic institutions, NGOs, and innovative individuals. Although numbered sequentially, the challenges—ranging from sustainable development and climate change (Challenge 1) to global ethics (Challenge 15)—hold equal importance. Remarkably, the international consensus on these challenges and their potential solutions is far greater than typically portrayed by media narratives.