Future Earth's mission is to "build and connect global knowledge to intensify the impact of research and find new ways to accelerate sustainable development". Its vision is for "people to thrive in a sustainable and equitable world". To do this, Future Earth aims to mobilize the international community of global environmental science researchers to:

• Inspire and create interdisciplinary science relevant to major global sustainability challenges
• Deliver products and services that society needs to meet these challenges
• Co-design and co-produce solutions-oriented science, knowledge and innovation for global sustainable development
• Build capacity among scholars world-wide

Future Earth was launched in June 2012, at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20).^[1]

A globally distributed consortium was appointed as the Secretariat of Future Earth in July 2014, with offices in Montreal (Canada), Stockholm (Sweden), Colorado (USA), Tokyo (Japan) and Paris (France).

Amy Luers is the Executive Director.^[2]

Scientific research and synthesis in Future Earth is carried out by a number of international networks, known as ‘global research projects’, many of which were launched under the umbrella of the existing four global environmental change programmes, DIVERSITAS, the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP),^[3] the International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP) and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). Some further projects arose out of the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP). A formal process for the affiliation of these projects into Future Earth began in 2014. The projects are:

• AIMES (Analysis, Integration and Modelling of the Earth System)
• bioDISCOVERY
• bioGENESIS
• CCAFS – Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, a collaboration among the CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers
• oneHEALTH
• ecoSERVICES
• ESG – Earth System Governance
• GCP – Global Carbon Project
• GLP – Global Land Project
• GMBA – Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment
• GWSP – Global Water System Project
• IGAC – International Global Atmospheric Chemistry
• IHOPE – Integrated History and Future of People on Earth
• ILEAPS – Integrated Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Processes Study
• IMBER – Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research
• IRG – Integrated Risk Governance Project
• LOICZ – Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone
• MAIRS – Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study
• PAGES – Past Global Changes
• PECS – Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society
• SOLAS – Surface Ocean-Lower Atmosphere Study

• International Council for Science
• Great acceleration

• Official website
• "ICSU's Future Earth Program Overview". nationalacademies.org. National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 19 May 2015.^{[permanent dead link]}
• La sostenibilidad es insuficiente (El País article - Spanish national press)