The cohort 2040 challenge

This report is the first output of Cohort 2040, a project seeking to better understand the challenge facing emerging leaders of the Millennial generation and to build a community that helps these leaders more effectively continue the struggle for a better world as environmental destabilisation grows.

It focuses on the generation who are currently around their early- to mid-30s and already emerging as leaders. A continued failure to act on the environmental crisis means these leaders will inherit increasingly severe burdens, which are already significant for current leaders.

A failure to adequately respond to these challenges could lead to runaway, catastrophic changes to the environment. Alternatively, increasing the pace of transformational change to sufficiently sustainable, equitable and resilient societies under worsening conditions could ensure the world navigates through the crunch point.

Future leaders should better anticipate and be prepared to face this challenge – the focus of an ongoing project that this briefing paper introduces.