21 issues for the 21st century

The UNEP foresight report contains a description of the 21 emerging environmental issues identified through the UNEP Foresight Process. The process involved the identification of emerging issues by UNEP colleagues and a Foresight Panel comprised of 22 distinguished members of the scientific community cutting across a wide spectrum of environmental related disciplines and world regions; the debating and prioritization of the identified issues by the foresight panel; the scoring of prioritized issues via an electronic consultation (survey) involving more than 400 scientists worldwide; and a further debating and ranking of the final list of issues by the foresight panel, putting into consideration the outcome of the electronic consultation. The process resulted in a list of 21 emerging environmental issues tagged "21 Issues for the 21st Century" covering the major themes of the global environment including food, land, freshwater, marine, biodiversity, climate change, energy, waste, and technology; as well important cross-cutting issues ranging from the need for better environmental governance, to the need for human behavioral change towards the environment.