Trends Identified

Dynamic technology & innovation
Over the coming decades, disruptive, as well as enduring innovations will change our lives and drive wealth. There is a positive power to innovation, as it helps to solve the major challenges facing humanity, for example providing water, food and healthcare for a growing and aging population, using resources more efficiently, or fighting climate change. The fields of biology, chemistry and pharmaceuticals hold particular promise in combating these challenges. In terms of patent applications, life sciences markets are increasingly shifting from the US to Asian countries, while national research clusters in Asia are beginning to flourish.
2017
Megatrends: a bigger picture for a better strategy
Roland Berger Strategy Consultants
Global knowledge society
In this study, we zero in on megatrend number six, the Global Knowledge Society, and its three subtrends: know-how base, war for talent, and gender gap. From basic education to workplace applications, we uncover the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead in the field of education and the need for a skilled workforce. We begin by looking at how the diffusion of knowledge can be increased. Education, of course, is the foundation of the know-how base. We track how the number of years spent in primary, lower and upper secondary, and tertiary education directly correspond to increased GDP per capita. We also examine literacy rates, how enrollment figures differ between world regions, and what can be done to level the field. This will be a critical step in ending the war for talent, where certain demographics in established economies have left them lacking skilled workers—approximately 38% of employers struggle to find suitable candidates—and emerging regions are threatened with a brain drain. We continue by examining the gender gap, comparing figures across developed and developing regions, and identifying the factors that must be addressed to bridge the difference.
2017
Megatrends: a bigger picture for a better strategy
Roland Berger Strategy Consultants
Sustainability & global responsibility
In times of manifold conflicts and global challenges such as climate change, the need for societal and economic sustainability, as well as global responsibility, is only too evident. In particular, the increasing number of intrastate conflicts is calling for an enduring coordination of international governance in the future. For companies and their global value chains, this suggests a need to review potential areas of conflict more vigilantly.
2017
Megatrends: a bigger picture for a better strategy
Roland Berger Strategy Consultants
The end of the fossil era has begun
The successful global progress of renewable energies, the signal sent by the G7 states from Schloss Elmau in June 2015, the discussion started after the climate protection pledge in the USA and China on an effective global climate regime plus the decreasing use of coal in China and the USA and a spectacular drop in the price of oil since 2014 all lead to the question of whether the beginning of the end of the fossil age has already begun. Besides the reality of climate change, the drivers of this development are the increasingly volatile energy prices, particularly the above-mentioned drop in the price of oil, and a growing global awareness of the health effects of fossil energy generation, leading to growing regional protests.
2015
Megatrends in the global energy transition
WWF Germany
The energy future has already begun
The energy transition is a global reality. Photovoltaics and wind energy in particular have developed within a few years into new key energies for the 21st century. In 2013 more renewable energy power plants in terms of power generation capacity were set up worldwide than coal, gas and nuclear power plants put together. In terms of investment, the renewables sector is now significantly ahead of traditional energy technologies.
2015
Megatrends in the global energy transition
WWF Germany
The energy future is renewable
The global progress of renewable energies is primarily a result of the almost unbelievable success in reducing the costs. Wind energy plants on land are still the most cost-effective technology for renewable power generation. But in Germany the costs for solar power have dropped by 80 per cent since 2005. Increasing numbers of economy and financial experts are basing their analyses on photovoltaics now becoming the most cost-effective technology for electricity generation in ever more regions of the world. Electricity from the sun and wind will expand its triumphal progress beyond the power sector into the areas of mobility and heating.
2015
Megatrends in the global energy transition
WWF Germany
The energy future is decentralised
Energy generation from wind and sun but also from other renewable energy sources is decentralised. Instead of a few large power plants, in the energy system of the future millions of small plants will generate energy. Many of the stakeholders involved are both producers and consumers of power (prosumers). However, this does not mean that only small power plants will be left. The large systems and plants based on wind and solar power will probably retain their position in the new energy system. But in many poorer regions of the world which have an abundant supply of sun and wind, members of the public as prosumers could bene t long-term from decentralised renewable energy systems.
2015
Megatrends in the global energy transition
WWF Germany
The energy future is digital
Energy system of the future characterised by volatile wind and solar renewable energies. The IT and energy sectors are growing together. Only a combination of both will be able to reliably match the energy supply and demand at all times. The rapid cost degression in the storage technology, particularly for small and large battery banks, opens up the possibility of reliable energy supply at any time, finally even with a 100 per cent transfer to renewable energies.
2015
Megatrends in the global energy transition
WWF Germany
More people
The UN predicts that the world’s population will continue to grow, reaching the level of 10.1 billion by 2100; this is an increase over earlier projections that the population would level off by the middle of this century.3 The expansion of the population to 8 billion by 2025, coupled with changing consumption patterns, is expected to lead to a 50% increase in global food production.
2011
Megatrends and the future of humanitarian action
International Review of the Red Cross
Older people
The demography within countries will also change, with increasing percentages of elderly people. Indeed, the UN projects that 58% of the world’s population growth will come from increases in the number of people over 60, whereas only 6% will come from people under 30.7 This trend is already evident in developed countries, particularly Europe, Japan, and Korea, where the decline in the labour force and corresponding increase in retirement expenditures is taxing economies.
2011
Megatrends and the future of humanitarian action
International Review of the Red Cross