The World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report 2022 survey didn't reveal a lot of hope among global leaders in business, academia and government that the global recovery from COVID-19 will happen any time soon.
Nearly 1,000 members of the WEF were surveyed for the Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS), with only 10% responding that they expect the global recovery will accelerate over the next three years, Reuters reports. Climate change is again listed as the dominant global threat, according to Reuters, with extreme weather considered the world's biggest risk in the short term and failure on climate action in the medium and long term (2-10 years), according to Reuters.
“The survey showed that extreme weather was a short term concern, and failure to take steps to mitigate such environmental circumstances was seen as a concern over the next decade," Saadia Zahidi, WEF managing director, said to Reuters.
The survey found livelihood crises, breakdowns in social cohesion and the deterioration of mental health were identified as risks which have increased the most since the start of the pandemic and pose a significant barrier to addressing global challenges, WEF reports. Other worldwide dangers identified in the report and survey include biodiversity loss, human environmental damage, natural-resource crises, debt crises and geoeconomic confrontation, according to the survey.
“Failure to act on climate change could shrink global GDP by one-sixth and the commitments taken at COP26 are still not enough to achieve the 1.5 (degrees Celsius) goal,” Peter Giger group chief risk officer at Zurich Insurance, said, referring to the U.N. COP26 climate conference in November last year.
Of future concern to WEF members, according to survey results, are cybersecurity, migration pressures and a disorderly climate transition. Competition in outer space was also discussed in the report, which noted that thousands of private corporate satellites will be launched and tourism space travel is expected to increase, increasing the likelihood of collisions and triggering the question of who governs space, WEF reports.
“Global leaders must come together and adopt a coordinated multi-stakeholder approach to tackle unrelenting global challenges and build resilience ahead of the next crisis," Saadia Zahidi, WEF managing director, said.
The WEC 2022 report was produced by Zurich Insurance, Marsh McLennan and South Korea's SK Group, the universities of Oxford and Pennsylvania and the National University of Singapore.
“Everyone hopes that in 2022 the COV-19 pandemic, and the crises that accompanied it, will finally begin to recede," Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, said in the report.
"But major global challenges await us, from climate change to rebuilding trust and social cohesion. To address them, leaders will need to adopt new models, look long term, renew cooperation and act systemically," Schwab said.