The World Economic Forum has released Global Risks Report 2022. This 17th edition of the Global Risks Report identifies conflicting trajectories between countries and the risks they pose on individuals, governments, and businesses.
COVID-19 continues into 2022 as a critical threat to public health and global economics- “Risks to economic growth are considerable, including risks from a potential resurgence of COVID-19 as new variants emerge.” The report identifies COVID and vaccine inequality as major contributors to a slow economic recovery. Economic crises and social unrest caused by the pandemic have consequently impended the visibility of climate action and cyber vulnerabilities.
The Global Risks Report uses data from the 2021-2022 Global Risks Perception Survey to determine the most severe global risks over the next 10 years. The report focuses on the following 10 most critical threats: Climate action failure, extreme weather, biodiversity loss, social cohesion erosion, livelihood crises, infectious diseases, human environmental damage, natural resource crises, debt crises, and geoeconomic confrontation. The following chapters address these issues, and details the repercussions associated with each risk.
Furthermore, the report emphasizes the importance of central government and local bodies joining up policy agendas to build more resilience at a community level.
Improved communication processes, better devolution of decision-making authorities, stronger coordination of on-the-ground efforts between central government specialist agencies and local administrations and better capacity-building at local and national levels would go a long way in supporting resilience.
For more information, check out HSDL’s In Focus on Climate Change, Pandemics and Epidemics, and COVID-19 Resource Archive.
