Insights Report
Connecting Insights Across Stakeholders and Society to Guide the Year Ahead
2025 was marked by profound disruption and complexity. Companies, governments, and civil society faced overlapping local, regional, and global challenges – from a rise in armed conflicts and deepening humanitarian crises to geopolitical tensions, new trade disputes, and shifting alliances that have complicated the economic and regulatory landscapes.
Persistent inflation and trade wars fueled economic instability and rising inequality, while rapid development and deployment in AI transformed industries and economies, presenting both unprecedented opportunities and new risks for business and society. Amid these forces, sustainability faced renewed scrutiny, with regulatory rollbacks and rising ESG backlash in Western markets – even as climate and biodiversity threats intensified.
Beneath the headlines, GlobeScan’s global stakeholder and public opinion research reveals a more nuanced and interconnected reality. Our WorldView 2026 report connects the dots across diverse viewpoints to tell a more comprehensive story of where the world is going and the implications for business, governmental organizations, and NGOs.
The six themes of our WorldView 2026 report are:
- The polycene and an epidemic of insecurity
- A strong desire for different and better leadership
- Sustainability at a crossroads
- Politicized, but not polarized: the world is not as divided as it seems
- Corporate greenhushing has accelerated, yet demand for sustainability grows
- Health and well-being at the core of a new narrative.
