This year’s Global Risks Report offers a sobering examination of the risks and prospects of our 21st century, global landscape.

According to the Global Risks Report 2023, the world is confronting a combination of both familiar and unprecedented risks, reflecting the continued global turmoil that has characterised the opening years of this decade. There is the reappearance of “older risks” such as inflation, cost of living issues, social upheaval, geopolitical tensions and the threat of nuclear war, with these risks exacerbated by excessive debt levels, de-globalisation, unchecked technological advancements, and the intensifying effects of the climate emergency.

In an effort to understand the complexities of, and the interconnections between, these and other global risks, and with the hope of finding a pathway to a more secure world, the Report offers three time frames: 1) Current and emerging, 2) Long-term (10 years), and 3) Mid-term futures, which explores how connections between current and long-term risks could potentially create a “polycrisis” fuelled by a natural resources shortage by 2030. The Report concludes with strategies that could help us prepare a course to a more “resilient world”.

In part one of this blog series, we offer a brief description of the Global Risks Report, and give an overview of the first of the three time frames: current and emerging risks.

What is the Global Risks Report? 

The Global Risks Report is an annual publication produced by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The report assesses a wide range of global risks, including economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal, and technological risks, and highlights the potential impact of these risks on the world. The report also identifies interconnections between risks and provides insights on how to mitigate them.

Presenting the results of the latest Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS) and drawing on the WEF’s Executive Opinion Survey, the Global Risk Report 2023 is important because it provides a comprehensive and forward-looking perspective on the risks that are most likely to affect the global community in the coming years. It is widely read by government leaders, business executives, academics, and other stakeholders. Additionally, the Report helps to raise awareness of the most pressing global risks and to encourage collaboration and action to address them.

Current and emerging risks

Some of the most significant current global risks for 2023 chosen by the 2022-2023 GRPS include:

• Energy supply crisis
• Cost-of living crisis
• Rising inflation
• Food supply crisis
• Cyber attacks on critical infrastructure.

 Outside of the top five, but of particular concern include:

• Failure to meet net zero targets
• Weaponisation of economic policy
• Weakening of human rights
• A debt crisis
• Failure of non-food supply chains.

It’s worth mentioning other currently manifesting risks such as continued waves of COVID-19, and structural failures in health systems not only feed into the debt crisis, but also shorten human health and life spans.

These complex and in some cases, interconnected risks are common, daily headlines, yet, as the Report states, “their implications are profound. Our global ‘new normal’ is a return to basics – food, energy, security – problems our globalised world was thought to be on a trajectory to solve.”

In terms of the path to 2025, the news isn’t much better. In fact, respondents to the GRPS predict it will be “dominated by social and environmental risks, driven by underlying geopolitical and economic trends.” Along with Societal polarisation, a significant part of this section of the Report is dedicated to the Failure to mitigate climate change, which is ranked as “one of the most severe threats in the short term but is the global risk we are seen to be the least prepared for, with 70% of GRPS respondents rating existing measures to prevent or prepare for climate change as ‘ineffective’ or ‘highly ineffective’.”

Next week we look at Global Risks 2033: Tomorrow’s Catastrophes and how these emergent risks can be reduced by collective action today.

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IMAGE: Used under licence from shutterstock.com

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A participant in the UN Global Compact, CourtHeath Consulting seeks to raise awareness about the Sustainable Development Goals and the principles of the Global Compact with business and government organisations in Victoria.

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