Publications

INSIGHT REPORT

Pioneering the Future: Space

Technologies Poised to Revolutionize

Exploration and Economy by 2035

September 2026

FACTSHEETS

Pioneering the Future: Space

Technologies Poised to Revolutionize Exploration and Economy by 2035

June 2026

WHITE PAPER

Future of Space Law:

Operationalizing Space Governance

March 2026

REPORT

Clear Orbit, Secure Future:

 A Call to Action on Space Debris

Jan 2026

WHITE PAPER

The Future of Space Law

Insights from the ATS, UNCLOS, and ITU Frameworks

December 2025

WHITE PAPER

The Future of Space Law: 

The Evolving Dynamics of Air and Space Regulation

 September  2025

The Future Of Space Law

News

Centre for Space Futures, Novaspace and SpaceTech Gulf  Sign Agreement to Develop Global Space Capability Mapping Dashboard

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia , 23 Jun 2026|  Press Release

Clear Orbit, Secure Future: A Call to Action on Space Debris

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 26 Jan 2026 | Press Release

Centre for Space Futures Holds Workshop with Participation of 40 Global Experts

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 05 Dec 2025 | Press Release

Centre for Space Futures Releases White Paper on 'The Future of Space Law'

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 12 Sep 2025 | Press Release

The Board of Directors of the Centre for Space Futures Endorses Its Strategic Direction

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 26 May 2025 | Press Release

Saudi Space Agency to Launch the Centre for Space Futures with the World Economic Forum

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 29 April | Press Release

5 ways we can tackle growing risks from rocket bodies in orbit

Dec 09, 2025 | Economic Growth, Stories

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Forum Agenda

Forum Videos

VIDEO

Press Conference: Centre for Space Futures in Riyadh

The World Economic Forum's Special Meeting, April 29, 2024

VIDEO

The Purpose of Astronauts at Davos 2024

World Economic Forum , March 9, 2024

VIDEO

PortWatch: Monitoring Trade Disruptions from Space

World Economic Forum , Dec 18, 2023

VIDEO

India's Moon Mission Triumph: Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj's Insights

World Economic Forum , Aug 23, 2023

VIDEO

Space Exploration is Back at Davos 2023

World Economic Forum , Feb 16, 2023

Forum Publications

REPORT

Space: The $1.8 Trillion Opportunity for Global Economic Growth

World Economic Forum , April 8, 2024

REPORT

Navigating the Industrial Metaverse: A Blueprint for Future Innovations

World Economic Forum , March 12, 2024

REPORT

Digital Trust: Supporting Individual Agency

World Economic Forum , Jan 18, 2024

REPORT

The Future of Global Fintech: Towards Resilient and Inclusive Growth

World Economic Forum , Jan 18, 2024

Strategic Intelligence Insights

India's reliance on cheap bulk NPK fertilizers like urea and DAP has led to soil nutrient imbalances, declining yields, and environmental pollution. Enhanced-efficiency specialty fertilizers (EESFs) offer a smarter solution by delivering primary, secondary, and tertiary nutrients in balanced, tailored forms that release gradually in sync with crop needs. This precision reduces nutrient loss and pollution, improves soil health, and enhances crop resilience to climate stresses such as droughts and erratic rainfall. Despite their benefits, high costs and lack of subsidies limit EESF adoption. Integrating EESFs with sustainable farming can restore soil fertility and boost agricultural productivity amid climate challenges.
Shifting to Climate-Smart Farming with Enhanced-Efficiency Specialty Fertilizers
National statistical offices (NSOs), especially in low- and middle-income countries, face a systemic data crisis due to deep cuts in development financing, legitimacy challenges, rapid technological advances like AI, and increasing demands for inclusive data. These pressures expose longstanding issues in trust, capacity, and data use, threatening NSOs’ relevance and sustainability. The situation presents a critical choice: either pursue incremental reforms or embrace more transformative changes in how data systems are designed, governed, and integrated into society. This crossroads calls for strategic debate on the future direction, financing, legitimacy, and equity of official statistics globally.
Mali, Serbia | ICT, Financial services, Education, Health
Data Systems at a Crossroads: Official Statistics for a New Era
Geopolitical conflicts significantly disrupt global sports by affecting athletes' ability to compete, travel, and secure contracts. Iranian footballers have sought asylum, cricket teams faced travel delays due to regional tensions, and political controversies surround events like the FIFA World Cup. These conflicts exacerbate monopsony power in sports labor markets, limiting opportunities for many athletes while top stars maintain high earnings through global media exposure. Furthermore, instability fosters shadow economies, increasing risks of corruption and illegal betting. Despite these challenges, sport remains a potent means for social unity and psychological relief amid turmoil, exemplified by historic events like South Africa’s 1995 Rugby World Cup.
Latin America | Financial services, Health
How geopolitics disrupts the business – and meaning – of sport
The aviation sector is experiencing strong passenger and cargo growth but faces increasing challenges to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 due to rising clean-technology costs, geopolitical tensions, and decarbonization pressures. Industry leaders emphasize the need to maintain safety, efficiency, and affordability while adopting a more pragmatic approach to sustainability. Key measures include commercializing sustainable aviation fuels, transforming airports into integrated economic and energy hubs, and expanding market mechanisms like book-and-claim. Greater regulatory stability and coordinated international action are essential to accelerate large-scale progress toward net-zero aviation.
Global Aviation Sustainability Outlook 2026
The future of European science depends on legitimate, expanded access to data, which is crucial for breakthrough discoveries and evidence-based solutions to complex challenges like health, climate, and economic transformation. Despite Europe's intellectual ambition and initiatives such as the Data Governance Act and the European Open Science Cloud, data access is increasingly restricted due to institutional silos, political retrenchment, and backlash from rapid AI development. To progress, Europe must prioritize ‘question science’—systematically identifying and aligning high-priority societal questions with data access—to ensure data sharing is purposeful and supports meaningful scientific advancement.
Africa | Financial services, ICT, Health, Education
Legitimate data access will determine whether European science has a bright or bleak future
AI, digital transformation, biodiversity markets, biotechnology, and finance for nature increasingly depend on data from indigenous and local territories, yet governance of these data flows remains undefined. Version 1.0 of the Sovereign Data Supply Chain: Functional and Operational Framework presents an evolving, structured approach to establish sovereign data chains grounded in Collective Rights. Developed with support from Kinray Hub, NaturaTech LAC, and Climate Collective, it aims to transition from extractive data models to frameworks validated through feedback, territorial input, and pilot implementations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Indonesia, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania | Financial services, ICT, Health
Sovereign Data Supply Chain: Functional and Operational Framework
The conflict between the US, Israel, and Iran has significant economic repercussions, notably worsening the UK's economic outlook due to energy supply disruptions and market instability. While ordinary citizens and small businesses suffer, defense contractors like BAE Systems and US firms Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman experience substantial profit gains. The war also politically benefits incumbent leaders through distraction from scandals. In Iran, sanctions have strengthened the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' control over key industries, while ordinary Iranians face deepening poverty. Rising oil and gas prices aid some global producers and may slow the green energy transition by making fossil fuels more lucrative. Addressing these conflicts' incentives through measures like windfall taxes on defense firms could help align interests toward resolution.
Bahrain, United Kingdom | Financial services
Who profits from war with Iran? Understanding that will be key to resolving the conflict
Climate change is driving up the costs of maintaining ski resorts, particularly through expensive artificial snowmaking needed as natural snow declines. This has led to rising prices for visitors, making skiing increasingly a sport for the affluent. Higher-altitude resorts with resources to adapt will survive and attract wealthy tourists, while smaller, lower-altitude resorts—often serving local communities—face closures and shortened seasons. This shift exacerbates inequality in mountain regions, where skiing once was a mainstream, inclusive activity. To build resilience, lower-altitude areas must diversify their economies and prioritize local communities over tourism volume.
Antarctica
Climate change may not end skiing. But it will make it more exclusive
Deep Vision employs AI to analyze thousands of hours of deep-sea footage, enabling rapid, consistent identification of vulnerable marine ecosystems like cold-water coral reefs and sponges, which are crucial habitats akin to underwater forests. Traditional human analysis of such imagery is slow and inconsistent, but AI can process massive datasets quickly, facilitating detailed mapping and habitat suitability models. This improves spatial management and protection decisions for marine biodiversity, essential for nutrient recycling and the carbon cycle. Success in the Atlantic could extend to other ocean basins, enhancing global understanding and conservation of deep-sea ecosystems.
Antarctica
How AI could unlock deep‑sea secrets of marine life
Asteroids are ancient remnants from the Solar System's formation, holding clues about planetary building blocks and posing potential Earth impact threats. Their composition affects both planetary defense strategies and resource utilization. Spectroscopy analyzes asteroid light spectra to identify surface minerals, linking many near-Earth S-complex asteroids to ordinary chondrite meteorites, as confirmed by Japan’s Hayabusa mission on asteroid Itokawa. However, recent research suggests overlap in spectral signatures between S-complex asteroids and brachinite meteorites, complicating composition assumptions. This distinction matters for impact response predictions. ESA’s Hera mission, arriving at the Didymos system in 2026, aims to clarify these compositions, enhancing understanding of asteroid structure and improving deflection strategies.
How do we know what asteroids are made out of?
Local climate action is critical to addressing global warming effectively and equitably, requiring alignment with community needs. Key strategies to strengthen and scale local initiatives include community-centered co-creation, predictable and flexible funding, active private-sector engagement with aligned incentives, multilevel coordination with data sharing for accountability, and just international partnerships that prioritize fairness and green development opportunities. Enhanced coordination among donors, policymakers, businesses, and research networks is essential to amplify impact and sustain impactful climate solutions.
Latin America | Health
Mobilising and Scaling Local Climate Action
India's multi-alignment strategy faces challenges as US-India relations strain due to punitive tariffs linked to India's Russian oil imports, though recent negotiations have reduced tariffs to 10%. India's foreign policy is further constrained by US reassessment of Pakistan and the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, which affects India's energy security reliant on the Hormuz Strait. Despite India's tilt towards the US, Washington maintains close ties with Pakistan, recognizing its strategic importance in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Pakistan has strengthened partnerships, including with Saudi Arabia, enhancing its regional influence amid ongoing geopolitical tensions.
India, Pakistan
India’s Multi-Alignment and Pakistan’s Foreign Policy Breakthroughs
Southeast Asia's blue economy programmes in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam remain unaffected despite reported UK climate aid budget cuts. The UK's £500 million Blue Planet Fund, supporting marine protection and blue carbon initiatives, continues its projects with domestic funding and diversified financing stepping up where UK aid declines. In the Philippines, government ownership and partnerships drive blue carbon efforts, while Indonesia and Vietnam receive ongoing support through the Climate and Ocean Adaptation and Sustainable Transition (COAST) programme. These efforts bolster coastal resilience, fisheries, and sustainable blue economies vital to millions dependent on ocean-based livelihoods.
Nigeria, Philippines, Viet Nam
Southeast Asia’s blue economy programmes unaffected by reported UK climate aid cuts, say project leads
Satellite launches and reentries are significantly altering the Earth's middle and upper atmosphere, causing ozone depletion, stratospheric heating, and introducing metal aerosols like alumina from burning spacecraft. The rapid increase in launches, driven by mega-constellations such as SpaceX's Starlink, is resulting in thousands of satellites reentering and disintegrating annually, injecting harmful substances that threaten ozone recovery and climate stability. Rocket soot further warms the stratosphere and disrupts winds. Researchers advocate for a circular space economy emphasizing satellite reuse, refueling, and controlled deorbiting to reduce atmospheric pollution and space debris, promoting sustainable space operations while preserving Earth's atmosphere.
Space launches are changing the chemistry of Earth’s atmosphere, studies warn – here’s what can be done
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has begun its Legacy Survey of Space and Time, a decade-long mission to explore the universe's deepest reaches using the world's largest camera. Capturing images of faint cosmic light emitted up to 12 billion years ago, Rubin will discover supernovae, variable stars, asteroids, and rare phenomena with unprecedented speed. By tracking moving objects, it aims to reveal insights into Solar System formation, the Kuiper Belt’s mysteries, and potential undiscovered planets. Beyond our system, it will study galaxy formation, dark matter's role, and cosmic evolution. The survey fosters global collaboration and advances data analysis technologies with broad societal impacts.
World’s biggest astronomy camera seeks to answer pressing questions about the universe
Smartphones and affordable internet in Asia-Pacific are enabling ordinary people to contribute significantly to biodiversity conservation through citizen science. This grassroots approach helps fill data gaps in remote and vast natural areas where professional scientific monitoring is limited. Platforms like Birdwatch Philippines, eBird, and iNaturalist allow users to record and share wildlife sightings, producing valuable data for conservation efforts, law enforcement, and habitat protection. Citizen science enhances monitoring of endangered species, wetlands, and migratory patterns, supporting policy and development goals. Priorities include standardizing data collection, improving integration into official systems, securing stable funding for platforms, and expanding technology access to empower more communities in conservation work.
Education
Smartphones and Cheap Internet Can Help Conserve Birdlife, Wetlands, and Biodiversity
Civil society spaces are increasingly constrained in Europe, with repression of civil society organizations (CSOs) gradually rising since 2010. Both governments and right-wing populist parties challenge the political neutrality and transparency of CSOs, often using these concerns to delegitimize criticism and restrict their influence. Notably, Hungary’s 2025 restrictive bill targets CSOs under claims of threatening national sovereignty. In Germany, right-wing parties intensify scrutiny through parliamentary inquiries, while similar accusations arise at the EU level concerning CSO funding and lobbying. These pressures create a "chilling effect," limiting CSOs' political activities. Protecting the democratic role of civil society requires early resistance to such delegitimization, legal reforms, and open dialogue among all democratic actors.
Pressure on civil society spaces
Asset owners in Asia-Pacific are leading global sustainable investing, with 79% integrating sustainability factors, surpassing Europe (74%) and North America (71%), driven by heightened climate concerns and supportive policies. Key factors include large clean energy investments, government strategies like Japan’s Green Transformation, and new disclosure regulations in financial hubs. Asia also leads in green bond issuance, with $180 billion issued in 2025. Globally, 85% of asset owners express strong climate risk concern, and 80% incorporate sustainability in strategic asset allocation. Financial performance and risk management motivate sustainable investing, while regulatory complexities and greenwashing fears remain challenges.
Asia leads global shift toward sustainable investing, survey finds
The chapter analyzes three historical case studies—genetic modification to genome editing, controversies over climate science, and artificial intelligence in social media—to understand how public trust in science, technology, and innovation (STI) is gained, maintained, or lost. Trust derives from intuitive familiarity and evidenced societal benefits but can be eroded by scientific fraud, dismissal of public concerns, and populist rejection of science. Building and sustaining trust requires transparency, public engagement, risk management, responsible communication, and strong regulation, involving coordinated efforts from scientists, institutions, funders, regulators, and governance processes to ensure ethical and socially sustainable STI.
Education, Health
The Conditions for Trust in Science, Technology and Innovation
Innovation thrives at the intersection of art and science, exemplified by NASA's use of origami-inspired designs for deployable space structures. Historical divides kept creative and systematic thinking separate, but breakthroughs require bridging exploratory "cloud" thinking with implementation-focused "clock" thinking. Business leaders should embed curiosity across their organizations, foster top-down encouragement for innovation, and promote connectivity among diverse thinkers. Cross-disciplinary collaboration, such as Northwestern's "Design Thinking and Communication" course, develops empathy, creativity, and teamwork, demonstrating that innovation leadership involves integrating divergent and logical perspectives to solve complex problems.
Education
The Recipe for Innovation? An Alliance Between Art and Science.

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