The System Analysis and Foresight Briefs Unit publishes science-based Foresight Briefs that highlights hotspots of environmental change, features emerging science topics, or discusses contemporary environmental issues. The Unit also carries out system analysis activities that can help with the exploration and understanding complex and dynamic systems and policy options under the Triple Planetary crisis, such as the global food system, the climate system, and the biodiversity system. The Unit contributes to the synthesis and enhancement of UNEP’s collective efforts towards environmental early warning as one and delivering on UNEPs Early Warning for the Environment.

The Foresight Briefs provide guidance and inspiration for policy and action, by exploring a range of plausible, alternative futures and their implications. They help to identify emerging environmental issues and trends that need to be monitored and assessed for early warning.. The public at large, and decision makers at all levels, are provided with the opportunity to learn about what is happening to their changing environment and the consequences of everyday choices, and to think about future directions for policy which they can influence through their policy processes. There is a growing need to keep information brief, visual and relevant for policymakers while describing the implications of environmental change in terms of human impacts. Foresight Briefs incorporate systems thinking analysis with a focus on environmental change, emerging issues, and futures.