Issue A leadership vacuum over global public goods

Summary

As domestic politics, technological rivalry and value conflicts pit national interests against one another, scepticism about the effectiveness of the United Nations is growing and the world lacks leadership on shared problems. Oceans, the atmosphere and outer space are globally connected public goods that require international agreement on shared use and regulation, yet a changing global order leaves them without common leadership. Geopolitical conflicts such as those between Israel and Palestine and between Russia and Ukraine are intensifying while countries take positions case by case according to their own interests rather than prioritising peace. For oceans, bodies such as UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and the International Maritime Organization set rules, but unstable cooperation is delaying agreements, and space has no single authority comparable to the IMO. The survey expects rising nationalism to leave these commons exposed to reckless exploitation and pollution, with marine pollution, higher shipping costs and seafood price spikes at sea and debris, rocket emissions and disputes over resource ownership in space.