The World Ahead 2022
Future-gazing analysis, predictions and speculation
Welcome to The World Ahead 2022, our guide to the coming year. Our correspondents and outside experts consider the new reality that is emerging in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, and ask what it means for politics, economics, business, science and culture. This page groups together articles by theme, or you might prefer a complete contents list. The World Ahead 2022 is the flagship publication of our future-gazing franchise, which also includes The World Ahead: What If?, our scenarios supplement, published every July. If you are not already a subscriber to The Economist you can unlock some of our content by registering.
Climate
The World Ahead 2022
The fight against climate change requires action not just words
“Implementation” will be the buzzword for the new year
The World Ahead 2022
Companies’ promises to hit net-zero will be put to the test
Much ado about nothing
The World Ahead 2022
Brazil’s election offers hope for the rainforest
The Amazon has gone from being a carbon sink to a carbon source
The World Ahead 2022
Commercial property’s biggest challenge is not the pandemic
Landlords face tightening regulation driven by climate change
The World Ahead 2022
Coal is being phased out—in British homes, at least
2022 is the last year in which coal may be burned in British domestic hearths
The World Ahead 2022
The world is waking up to the scourge of illegal fishing
Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing boats are the new pirates
Democracy v autocracy
The World Ahead 2022
Autocrats will continue to target dissidents abroad
They know that Western countries have done so, too
The World Ahead 2022
Vladimir Putin will renew his attacks on elections and the internet
But can he tame YouTube?
The World Ahead 2022
Opposition leaders will struggle to rein in Narendra Modi
Local elections will give a hint of whether a third term is likely
The World Ahead 2022
Latin America is in danger of going back to the old normal
Economic stagnation, social discontent and threats to democracy loom
The World Ahead 2022
Audrey Tang on how technology strengthens democracy
Taiwan’s digital minister says citizens, firms and government must co-operate
The World Ahead 2022
Africa will continue to suffer coups and civil wars in 2022
Of the world’s 15 most fragile states, 11 are in sub-Saharan Africa
Covid-19
The World Ahead 2022
What to expect in year three of the pandemic
New antibody and antiviral treatments, and better vaccines, are on the way
The World Ahead 2022
The aftermath of the pandemic will make politics more turbulent
Political unrest tends to peak two years after an outbreak starts
The World Ahead 2022
Will pre-pandemic behaviour ever return?
Our global normalcy index suggests that some changes are here to stay
The World Ahead 2022
Tests and treatments for “long covid” are on the horizon
They will help sufferers of other disorders, too
The World Ahead 2022
China is unlikely to re-open its borders in 2022
It is the last large country with a zero-covid policy
The World Ahead 2022
New therapies for a range of conditions are coming in 2022
Haemophilia, brain disorders and malaria are being targeted
What to expect in the economy
The World Ahead 2022
The number of people in extreme poverty is falling again
But some of the damage of the past two years will be impossible to undo
The World Ahead 2022
Africa’s biggest economies will struggle in 2022
Smaller neighbours will race ahead
The World Ahead 2022
The outlook for emerging-market debt in 2022
Emerging markets will suffer various degrees of “fiscal scarring”
The World Ahead 2022
What will happen to inflation in 2022?
It’s back—but not for long. Worries about inflation will diminish
The World Ahead 2022
The phenomenon of meme stocks could be here to stay
Small-scale traders’ sheer force of will can keep stock prices pumped up
The World Ahead 2022
Central banks are getting closer to issuing their own digital money
They are gearing up to mint “central bank digital currencies”
The new techlash
The World Ahead 2022
Li Jin on the future of the creator economy
Shared ownership and control of online platforms is the way forward
The World Ahead 2022
Chinese firms are quietly pursuing a new global strategy
They are acquiring market share under the radar, through small deals
The World Ahead 2022
Tareq Amin on the open future of mobile telecoms
Networks based on OpenRAN can cut costs and address security worries
The World Ahead 2022
Dramatic shifts in the semiconductor industry will continue
Geopolitics and open-source designs are reshaping chipmaking
The World Ahead 2022
Antitrust regulators face vibrant competition—with each other
The race to be the best tech regulator is highly competitive. How appropriate
The World Ahead 2022
The digital pandemic of ransomware attacks will continue
Firms need to get the basics right in order to fight them
America’s political future
The World Ahead 2022
The Biden presidency is likely to be heading towards gridlock
The president may resort to other ways to enable change
The World Ahead 2022
Why Republicans are likely to win back Congress
Polls show voters are ideologically much further apart than ever
The World Ahead 2022
Public-school enrolment in America is unlikely to return to normal
Learning loss will continue to be a concern, especially among the youngest
The World Ahead 2022
America’s southern border will remain a political flashpoint
In 2021 the number of migrants arriving was the highest in two decades
The World Ahead 2022
Francis Fukuyama on the end of American hegemony
Influence abroad depends on fixing problems at home
The World Ahead 2022
The second coming of Donald Trump
Many on the right love him more than they love democracy
Tom’s top 10
The World Ahead 2022
China hopes to flaunt the merits of its political system over America’s
The Communist Party congress will contrast with America’s mid-term elections
The World Ahead 2022
Covid-19 is likely to fade away in 2022
But the taming of the coronavirus conceals failures in public health
The World Ahead 2022
Will the world economy return to normal in 2022?
If it does not, a painful economic adjustment looms
The World Ahead 2022
How to ensure that the future of work is fair for all
The hybrid workplace will be unequal, unless bosses design it not to be
The World Ahead 2022
Xi Jinping’s crackdown on Chinese tech firms will continue
By rewriting the rules, the president is resetting an entire industry
The World Ahead 2022
Decentralised finance is booming, but it has yet to find its purpose
DeFi is now the arena where the most exciting innovation is occurring
Editor’s introduction
The World Ahead 2022
Ten trends to watch in the coming year
A letter from Tom Standage, editor of “The World Ahead 2022”