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A global issue is a matter of public concern worldwide. This list of global issues presents problems or phenomena affecting people around the world, including but not limited to widespread social issues, economic issues, and environmental issues. Organizations that maintain or have published an official list of global issues include the United Nations, and the World Economic Forum.
Not all of these risks are independent, because the majority, if not all of them are a result of human activity.
The UN has listed issues that it deems to be the most pressing as of 2023[update]:[1]
As part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the UN Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) were superseded by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (2016-2030), which are also known as The Global Goals. There are associated Targets and Indicators for each Global Goal.
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In keeping with their economy-centered view, the World Economic Forum formulated a list of 10 most pressing points in 2016: [3]
- Food security
- Inclusive growth
- Future of work/unemployment
- Climate change
- Financial crisis of 2007–2008
- Future of the internet/Fourth Industrial Revolution
- Gender equality
- Global trade and investment and regulatory frameworks
- Long-term investment/Investment strategy
- Future healthcare
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No single issue can be analysed, treated, or isolated from the others.[4] For example, habitat loss and climate change adversely affect biodiversity. Deforestation and pollution are direct consequences of overpopulation and both, in turn, affect biodiversity. While overpopulation locally leads to rural flight, this is more than counterbalanced by accelerating urbanization and urban sprawl. Theories like the world-system theory and the Gaia hypothesis focus on the inter-dependency aspect of environmental and economic issues. Among the most evident environmental problems are:[5][6][7][8]
- Overconsumption – situation where resource use has outpaced the sustainable capacity of the ecosystem.
- Overpopulation – too many people for the planet to sustain.
- Biodiversity loss
- Deforestation
- Desertification
- Global warming/climate change
- Habitat destruction
- Holocene extinction
- Ocean acidification
- Ozone depletion
- Pollution
- Resource depletion
- Urban sprawl
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- Sustainable Development Goals – United Nations goals for people for 2030
- Antimicrobial resistance – Resistance of microbes to drugs directed against them
- Center for Global Food Issues
- Chicago Council on Global Affairs – Foreign affairs think tank in Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Climate change – Human-caused changes to climate on Earth
- Cybersecurity – Protection of computer systems from information disclosure, theft or damage
- Developing country – Nation with a lower living standard relative to more developed countries
- Earth Economics – U.S. non-profit organization
- Earth system science – Scientific study of the Earth's spheres and their natural integrated systems
- Ecological footprint – Individual's or a group's human demand on nature
- Ecological collapse – Ecological communities abruptly losing biodiversity, often irreversibly
- Ecosystem collapse – Ecological communities abruptly losing biodiversity, often irreversibly
- Effective altruism – Philosophical and social movement
- Energy crisis – Low availability of energy resources
- Environmental social science – Interaction of humans with the environment
- Financial crisis – Situation in which financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value
- Global catastrophic risk – Hypothetical global-scale disaster risk
- Global Challenges Foundation – Swedish non-profit organization
- Global change – planetary-scale changes in the Earth system
- Global governance – Movement towards political cooperation among transnational actors
- Global health – Health of populations in a global context
- Global justice – Issue in political philosophy
- Global Rights – Human rights capacity-building NGO
- Global warming controversy – List of debates over global warming
- Human impact on the environment – Impact of human life on Earth and environment
- Human security – People-centric approach to national security
- Intergovernmental organization – Organization established by treaty between governments
- List of United Nations peacekeeping missions – List of all former and current United Nations peacekeeping missions
- Liu Institute for Global Issues – Research organization at the University of British Columbia
- Mass surveillance – Intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population
- Ozone depletion and climate change
- Pandemic – Widespread, often global, epidemic of severe infectious disease
- Peak oil – Point in time when the maximum rate of petroleum extraction is reached
- Social justice – Concept in political philosophy
- Species extinction – Termination of a taxon by the death of its last member
- Washington consensus – Economic policies for developing nations
- Wicked problem – Problem that is difficult or impossible to solve
- World Community Grid – BOINC based volunteer computing project to aid scientific research
- WorldRiskReport – Annual cooperation report on global disaster risks
- World-systems theory – Approach emphasizing the world-system as the primary unit of social analysis
- World War – War involving major global states
- Crime – Illegal behavior defined by existing criminal law
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