The annual Global Risk Perception Survey (GRPS) showed that the failure of climate action, extreme weather events and biodiversity loss are the top global risks the world is likely to face in the next 10 years. . Infectious diseases entered as the sixth risk under the umbrella of social risks.
It’s not a pandemic, but climate change and other environmental issues are likely to pose long-term global risks in the future, this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Risks Report revealed.
The annual Global Risk Perception Survey (GRPS) showed the failure of climate action, extreme weather events and biodiversity loss as the top global risks the world is likely to face in the next 10 years.
GRPS respondents rated “failure of climate action” as the main long-term threat to the world. They said this is the risk with potentially the most severe impact over the next decade.
In the meantime, “Extreme weather” and “climate action failure” were among the top five short-term risks to the world.
The insights from the report take on relevance as the world already faces the brunt of climate change with various parts of the world experiencing extreme heat waves, droughts, fires, floodsscarcity of resources and loss of species.
The top 10 risks facing the world today and in the next 10 years (Courtesy: World Economic Forum)
Infectious diseases – which were classified under the general category of ‘social risks’ – were ranked sixth in the table showing the top 10 serious global risks in the next 10 years.
Social risks, overall, made up a third of the top 10 globally, with erosion of social cohesion and livelihood crises in the top five.
“‘Erosion of social cohesion’, ‘livelihood crises’ and ‘deterioration of mental health’ are three of the five risks that have deteriorated the most globally during the crisis,” revealed the GRPS .
The GRPS showed “debt crisis” as an imminent threat to the world for the next two years. However, the respondents believed that they would reach their most critical point in 3-5 years.
The report suggested that a “messy climate transition, characterized by divergent trajectories around the world and across sectors, will further drive countries apart and divide societies, creating barriers to cooperation.”
The report said: “The risk horizon changes in the coming years, as the full implications of the pandemic become clear.”
He said that by 2024, develop economies – ex-China – will have fallen 5.5% below expected GDP growth before the pandemic, while advanced economies will have exceeded it by 0.9%.
Risk experts said that in the next two years “they see the erosion of social cohesion, the deterioration of mental health, infectious diseases and livelihood crises as equivalent to environmental threats.”
According to the report, all these factors are constant in the short and long term.
Over the next five years, debt crises and geoeconomic confrontations are likely to emerge as governments struggle to balance fiscal priorities.
This WEF survey was conducted among nearly 1,000 risk experts and world leaders in business, government and civil society.
When asked about their perspective on the world order and the global crisis, most respondents said they were “concerned” or “concerned” about the situation.
Some 84.2 percent of the participants said they were “concerned” or “concerned,” while fewer than 16 percent of those surveyed said they had an “optimistic” or “positive” outlook.
(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)
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