Futures in Action

Resources for transforming creative thinking and imaginative exploration of possible futures into real-world action, presented by a partnership of organizations from around the world.

The following resources are drawn from partner organizations in the session “From Idea to Action and Impact: Mobilizing the Outcomes of the Summit of the Future,” a high-level side event on September 21, 2024 at the United Nations Summit of the Future in New York. These examples can be extended and adapted in Member State contexts to achieve the ambitions of the Summit of the Future.

You can watch a recording of the side event on UN WebTV.

BRIDGES

A photograph of people crossing a bridge over clear blue placid water against a partly cloudy sky. In the foreground, a tree trunk protrudes from the water.

Mapping Societally Co-Produced Sustainability Science for Global Impact

Mapping the human capacities of wisdom and action is the first step toward applying these untapped knowledge resources at scale. Processes of societal learning, policy-formulation and action can then be co-designed inclusively, helping communities rise to the challenges of the 21st century and build an equitable, healthy future for people and planet. This project maps humanities-inclusive and community-led sustainability efforts that illustrate the strengths and benefits of transdisciplinary co-production for a flourishing and sustainable future.

Summit of the Future Consultation Reports

Reports from a series of strategic dialogues and consultations with youth and various stakeholder groups from around the world, conducted in the runup to the Summit of the Future in September 2024. The conversations foreground voices and perspectives of people who could not join the Summit in person; additional sessions will follow the Summit. These activities will inform a report and recommendations framework delivered to the Intergovernmental Council of MOST in 2025.

Aerial photograph of Southern Greenland, showing greenery in the foregrounds, mountains and hills in the distance, and a creek draining into a lake.

Greenland RESPONSE

Archaeological sites across the circumpolar north are degrading rapidly as a consequence of rising global temperatures. This short film follows archaeologists racing to record and rescue what is left. Focusing on the sub-arctic farming landscape of Kujataa, south Greenland, the film documents the excavations of Norse farming settlements dating between the 10th-14th centuries, while exploring tangible connections to present-day Inuit farming communities working the same soil. It was funded by the National Science Foundation with support from the Greenland National Museum, UNESCO Bridges, NABO, and the University of Iceland.

Center for Science and the Imagination

The Climate Action Almanac

A book of positive climate futures, grounded in real science and the complexities of communities around the world, presented in collaboration with the ClimateWorks Foundation, and the MIT Press. Featuring contributions from more than 15 countries, the Almanac features short fiction, essays, and art that envision pathways to vibrant, thriving climate futures, and aim to catalyze action in the present. It is accompanied by a short film, “The Assignment,” produced in collaboration with Scirens.

Our Future Life

A global program hosted by AI for Good, the UN’s International Telecommunication Union, and Arizona State University that invites storytellers to create short films envisioning moments from their lives in the future, and exploring what roles artificial intelligence might play in those moments.

The Club of Rome

Black and white photo of about 20 people gathered under a tree.

The 50 Percent

An international network of young people who empower youth from all backgrounds to address climate and nature crises, promote public leadership, and foster sustainable business and economic practices.

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The Fifth Element

This program asks unexplored questions about the crises that humanity is facing. Bringing together individuals and organizations across the world, it targets the knowledge gaps and tensions in the current sustainable development approach and builds global projects towards planetary regeneration.

Globethics

Responsible Leadership Course

This 12-week open online course aims to develop critical thinking about the theory and practice of responsible leadership. The course focuses on dialogical leadership, which enables transparent and effective deliberation.

The Global Ethics Forum

A solution-focused, multisectoral platform for dialogue, networking, and engagement, convening stakeholders from the private sector, higher education, governments, multilateral, nongovernmental, and faith-based organizations, and others.

Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory

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Dreamscape Learn

A collaborative venture between Dreamscape Immersive and Arizona State University, merging the most advanced pedagogy with the entertainment industry’s best emotional storytelling. Dreamscape Learn redefines how we teach and learn in the 21st century, while aiming to eliminate student learning gaps.

Four people in white hardhats confer in front of a grey machine with many knobs and buttons.

Laboratory for Energy and Power Solutions (LEAPS)

This program takes energy innovations from concept to construction with a focus on energy access, microgrids, grid modernization, and resilient infrastructure. The team creates functional prototypes for laboratory testing and field deployment, with technology transferred to the private sector for scaling. The team is also active in workforce development programs in the rapidly changing energy economy nationally and globally.

Decision Theater

This resource facilitates engagement among different groups in the pursuit of comprehensive, data-driven models that build shared understanding and perspectives for people around the world. Decision Theater’s analytics, predictive modeling, integration, and convening expertise combine to allow decision-makers to better understand complex problems and the consequences of decisions before they are made.

The Kingdom of Thailand

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Education for All in Thailand

Help Without Frontiers works on the ground-level implementation of Thailand’s commitment to Education For All. The project supports migrant and displaced children from Myanmar to access basic and higher education opportunities in Thailand, partnering with INGOs and the private sector to support their enrollment and employment prospects.

APRU SDG Education for Global Citizenship

This project fosters global citizenship among students from 60 universities in 20 economies across the Pacific Rim. Initiated by Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, and co-designed by six core-partner universities in collaboration with the UN, the program builds knowledge of global issues and global literacy among students.

Learning Planet Institute

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Youth Design Challenge

The Learning Planet Institute is driving an intergenerational, global movement to build a new form of planetary university fit for current and future generations. This challenge invites students worldwide to pitch learning programs for their dream university.

Leonardo

Planetary Health Research Seed Grants

This program supports transdisciplinary research addressing critical planetary health challenges. Grants foster collaborations between artists, scientists, and humanists to explore innovative solutions for climate change, biodiversity, and human well-being, bridging creative inquiry with actionable insights.

Photo of a person with long hair in a leather jacket and a black-and-white hair scarf, putting on a technological headset.

CripTech Incubator

An art and technology program for disability innovation. Encompassing residencies, workshops, presentations, publications, and education, this innovation incubator creates a platform for disabled artists to engage and remake creative technologies through the lens of accessibility. Our work reimagines enshrined notions of how a body-mind can move, look, and communicate.

Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales

A photo of a piece of carved wood. At the top, a die-cut image of the Earth, shaped like a heart. Underneath, carved text in Welsh.

The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015

Pioneering legislation that requires public bodies in Wales since 2015 to consider the long-term impact of their decisions, ensuring that we take action that meet the needs of current generations without compromising on the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Wales is the only country to have translated the UN Sustainable Development Goals into law and has established an independent Future Generations Commissioner to oversee progress and hold public bodies accountable.

A diagram in a rainbow of colors. At the center, the outline of Wales. Around it, colorful wedges representing different policy aspects of the Protocol for Future Generations.

Wales Protocol for Future Generations: from Declaration to Implementation

The UN Sustainable Development Goals will not be achieved without a multilateral consensus that is fair and supportive of future generations. The Wales Protocol invites citizens, nations, and international organizations to adopt commitments to achieve the goals embedded in the UN Declaration on Future Generations. The Protocol suggests how the ambitions of the Declaration can be implemented in practice across a range of contexts: in local communities, nationally, and internationally.

The Republic of South Africa

Indlulamithi Scenarios 2035

A set of scenario planning tools that remind South Africans that the future is a choice, not an inevitable fate. Includes a set of scenarios for the year 2035 that expose and explore the underlying trends and driving forces that affect the country’s trajectory.

School of International Futures

Cover of the Implementation Handbook for the UN Declaration on Future Generations. The color is a bright yellow with stylized circular motifs in blue, white, and green.

Working for the Wellbeing of Future Generations

Building on evidence from more than 30 countries and insights from a global network of over 300 experts, this handbook unfolds the components of intergenerationally fair systems and proposes actionable avenues for the effective implementation of the UN Declaration on Future Generations.

Turn it Around!

An illustration of a person wearing a breathing mask. From the top of their head, amidst their hair, smokestacks sprout, pouring black smog into the air above.

Turn it Around! Youth Visions of Climate Futures

A socially engaged art initiative that invites young people across the world to share their visions of more sustainable and ecologically just planetary futures. This youth-led project mobilizes the power of art to reimagine our relationship with each other and the planet during this time of climate crisis. Artwork by Armaan Ahmad, 14, Uttar Pradesh, India.

UNESCO

A typographical illustration in purple and yellow. In the background, the word "PRESENT," in all caps. In the foreground, in a different type style, smaller, the word "FUTURE," also in all caps.

Futures for Intergenerational Equity

This pilot project supports stakeholders across institutions and levels to advance intergenerational equity. The project outlines how to develop capabilities in six focal areas: long-term futuring, enabling agency, intercultural awareness, temporal empathy, appreciating novelty, and preparation and planning.

UNESCO Global Youth Grant Scheme

This effort empowers young people to create positive change by supporting impactful initiatives through grants, capacity-strengthening, and mentoring. Grants provide young individuals and youth organizations with opportunities and resources to shape the future of their communities.

University of Wales Trinity Saint David – BRIDGES UK Hub

Coastal TALES

In an era where climate change is rapidly altering landscapes and livelihoods, the preservation of cultural heritage becomes crucial for the resilience of communities. This project explores how stories of past practices help people adapt to their rapidly changing coastal environments.

A photo illustration of a vegetables against a blue and yellow background. From left, a pear, a cabbage, a tomato, and bundle of asparagus.

The Sustainable Food Cymru Project

This project aims to stir up thinking about food and eating in Wales. It was created to contribute meaningfully to holistic food system change as a route to NetZero and as a mechanism of adaptation for a local, flourishing future using transdisciplinary methods.

World Academy of Art & Science

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Human Security for All (HS4A)

This campaign introduces sustainable development messaging into the curriculum of Indian schools, highlighting aspects of human security personally relevant to youth and their families. It aims to reach thousands of schools in India and gradually spread to other countries.

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AI Modern Education (AIMED)

An effort to advance global modern education by integrating artificial intelligence into the learning framework. The project provides free instruction manuals for millions of individuals, equipping them with the knowledge to thrive in a world being rapidly changed by AI technologies.

Partner Organizations

Arizona State University

Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory

Center for Science and the Imagination