The CSIRO released its seminal global megatrends in 2012, as part of the Our Future World report. While these megatrends helped inform long-term strategic and policy directions for Australian organisations over the past decade, a lot has changed in that time too, including the recent events of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine crisis and the flow-on impacts to global trade.

These changes have had a substantial impact on businesses, communities and governments in Australia and exposed new risks and opportunities.

This report presents an update on CSIRO’s global megatrends out to 2042 with the view to guide long-term investment, strategic and policy directions across government, industry, the not-for-profit sector and the broader Australian community.

Adopting a similar approach to CSIRO’s previous global megatrends, this work explores how the previous megatrends have evolved over the previous decade as well as the new trends, impacts and drivers that have emerged over this period, providing a perspective around how these trends may unfold in the coming decades.