The Global Risks Report is an annual study published by the World Economic Forum ahead of the forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Based on the work of the Global Risk Network, this report describes the year-over-year changes in the global risks environment.
Last year’s edition of the Global Risks Report warned the world of potential, cascading economic risks, which are now clear dangers. Talking about issues such as supply chain disruptions, inflation, debt, labor market gaps, education inequalities, the report stated that the world economy will have to be driven to restore social cohesion, increase employment and develop both rapidly and slowly in countries that are recovering.
This year’s edition of the Global Risks Report warned of potential, cascading economic risks, which are now clear dangers. Worldwide reports added, such as supply lists, inflation, the fee will be mentioned schools, education, both education and slowly recovering worldwide reporting, showed in terms of education, indicated that they will be shown to be shown and directed to improve
This year’s version of the report, The Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS), which has been the basis of the report since 2006, has been revamped to gather new and more comprehensive insights from the nearly 1,000 global experts and leaders who responded.
The general content of the report is explained as follows:
- Covid19: future comparisons with last year’s data.
- Future Outlook: analyzes of how individual contexts can influence global risk perceptions and influence mitigation.
- Horizon: By capturing the sense of urgency of global risks, Horizon includes analysis of choices that decision makers may face.
- Severity: potential destruction effect analysis.
- International Mitigation: Participants’ assessments of international efforts in 15 areas to identify areas of success and opportunity for global action and cooperation.
- Open-ended questions about risks, trends and warnings
The report consists of 6 main parts. These sections are as follows:
- Global Risks 2022: Worlds Apart
- Disorderly Climate Transition
- Digital Dependencies and Cyber Vulnerabilities
- Barriers to Migration
- Crowding and Competiton in Space
- Refreshing Resilience
We want to give signals to our readers in advance that we will focus on the data in the first and second parts of the survey results in our article and present a brief summary of this detailed report.
The first part of the report mentions that; as 2022 begins, because the economic and social consequences of COVID-19 and the pandemic continue to pose a critical threat to the world. Vaccine inequality and the resulting risk of unequal economic recovery are compounding social ruptures and geopolitical tensions. In the 52 poorest countries, home to 20% of the world’s population, only 6% of the population was vaccinated at the time of this article. In the report it is foreseen that; until 2024, emerging economies (excluding China) will fall 5.5% below the pre-pandemic expected GDP (gross domestic product) growth, while advanced economies will surpass this by 0.9%, widening the global income gap.
The report mentions that the rapid launch of the vaccine in some countries could mean successful digital transformations and new growth opportunities, a return to pre-pandemic trends in the short term, and the possibility of a more resilient outlook over the longer horizon. Still, many other countries are lagging behind due to low vaccination rates, continued acute stress on health systems, digital divides and stagnant job markets. These differences complicate the international cooperation needed to address the worsening effects of climate change, manage migration flows and tackle dangerous cyber risks.
Given the complexity of technological, economic and societal change at this scale and the scanty nature of current commitments, any transition reaching the net zero target by 2050 is likely to be erratic. While there was a global decline in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with the COVID-19 lockdowns, the upward trend in emissions soon resumed: the GHG emission rate increased in 2020 faster than the average of the last decade.
Moving away from carbon-intensive industries that currently employ millions of workers will trigger economic volatility, deepen unemployment, and increase social and geopolitical tensions. Adoption of hasty environmental policies will also have unintended consequences for nature (there are many unknown risks arising from the application of untested bio-technical and geo-engineering technologies), lack of public support for land use transitions or new pricing schemes will create political complications that further slow action.
Some Striking Data from the Report:
Responses to the question “How do you feel about the outlook for the world?” asked to the participants of the research:
In the research conducted, the following results were obtained in determining the risks on a 10-year scale that were asked to the people.
These 10 risks, which are graphically shown in the first part of the report and formed by the answers given by the participants, are collected as outputs under five headings. These titles are as follows:
- Scars of COVID19: According to the Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS), “erosion of social cohesion”, “livelihood crises” and “mental health deterioration” are three of the five risks that worsened globally during the crisis. These and “infectious diseases” are among the obvious effects of Covid19.
- Looming Debt Crises: Most respondents believe that the debt crisis will occur within 2 years and will reach critical points in 3 to 5 years.
- The Planet Cannot Wait: “Failure of climate action”, “extreme weather” and “biodiversity loss” are also listed as the three most potentially serious risks for the next decade. While GRPS participants’ concerns about environmental degradation preceded the pandemic, growing concern over climate action failure reveals participants’ lack of faith in the world’s ability to contain climate change, particularly due to societal ruptures and deepening economic risks.
- Connectivity Blind Spots: “Digital inequality” is seen as a recent threat to the world as 3 billion people remain offline. However, it is also true that many countries and industries are rapidly accessing and seamlessly adapting to new forms of human interaction and remote work. This digital leap came with increasing vulnerability. GRPS participants believe that “cybersecurity failure” will continue to test the world’s digital systems over the next two years.
- Growing Rivalries: GRPS participants believe that “geo-economic conflicts” will emerge as a critical threat to the world in the medium and long term, and potentially one of the most serious risks in the next decade.
The report also includes detailed data on the geopolitical tensions that emerged during the Covid period and the changes in the balance of power. Another topic covered is data related to digital inequality and cybersecurity.
Moving on to Chapter 2, we encounter some goals and facts from Cop26.
In the report, it is mentioned that The latest nationally determined contributions to decarbonization (NDC) at the 2021 United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP26) still lag behind the 1.5°C targets as it was indicated in the Paris Climate Agreement. The current trajectory is expected to bring the world to a warming of 2.4°C, with only the most optimistic scenarios keeping it at 1.8°C.
Without more robust action, global mitigation and adaptive capacity will decrease, eventually leading to a situation called “too little, too late”, and ultimately the scenario of an “extremely hot planet” with runaway climate change making the world almost uninhabitable. It is predicted that we will pay high prices if we cannot collectively reach the net zero target by 2050 as a world.
According to the report, the increase of stakeholder capitalism is shaping the economical and financial environment again when the increase of shareholders activism and that the companies willing to use social and administration targets and criterion, united with ESG based investments.
At the same time, we would like to mention the results of the stakeholders mentioned at the end of the second part. Stakeholders, in short, are individuals or organizations that have rights, interests, needs, or interests in a system or property that meets their needs.
An action by any organization or group may affect people associated with them in the private sector. The results created by the stakeholders are as follows:
- Consequences for individuals – loss of agent, person: In this section, losses and inequalities in individuals and institutions that do not have the necessary skills to perform a certain task or cannot integrate are discussed in detail.
- Consequences for governments – loss of control
- Consequences for businesses – loss of market share
- Nature loss
Unfortunately there are too many losses. All of the data in the report is striking.
We conclude our article with the end of the second part. The report once again confronts us all with the reality we are in. In the light of these facts, it reminds us again that everyone should act with a common purpose for the world and the future.
Source: https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-risks-report-2022