Over the next two years, the effects of climate change, social divisions, infectious diseases and mental health will have to be closely monitored. This is how the World Economic ForumDespite having postponed his annual meeting in Davos to the middle of the year, he also published his global risks report for 2022. The document shows that while last year the health situation was the main concern in the short term, now the alerts are focused on the climate crisis and social problems, as well as new risks: mental health, debt crises and asset bubbles.
Proof of the importance that the world is acquiring mental health is that it appears in sixth position in this ‘top 10’ of global risks, when in other years it was not even mentioned. And although this problem does not reappear in the medium and long-term perspectives, the debt crisis It is indeed the fifth concern for the next five years – a position that it already had last year – and is among the most severe risks for the next ten. In turn, the asset bubble burst (Excessive housing or stock price inflation) also appears again on the list of concerns in the medium term, although in this case it drops from the first position in the 2021 report to the tenth.
In this sense, the document also includes that most experts believe that the global economic recovery will be volatile and uneven over the next three years.
“Economic and health disturbances are aggravating social divisions: tensions are being created at a time when collaboration between society and the international community will be essential to ensure a more uniform and rapid global recovery,” analyzes the managing director of the Economic Forum. World, Saadia Zahidi, it’s a statement. “Leaders from around the world must come together and adopt a coordinated and multilateral approach to face relentless global challenges and strengthen their resilience in the face of the next crisis,” it warns.
Failure of climate action
But beyond all this, what this vision in the medium and long term makes clear is that the greatest fear is the problems related to climate change. The document, prepared in collaboration with the firms Marsh McLennan, SK Group, the insurance group Zurich and with the academic advice of the Oxford University, the National University of Singapore and the University of Pennsylvania, points out the failure of climate action, extreme weather events, loss of biodiversity, natural resource crises and environmental impact as the greatest risks in five to ten years. They are more worrisome than the erosion in social cohesion, involuntary migration, the adverse consequences of technological advances and geopolitical problems.
“The climate crisis continues to be the greatest long-term threat facing humanity,” analyzes the Zurich group’s chief risk officer, Peter Giger, it’s a statement. “Failure to act on climate change could reduce world GDP by one sixth,” he warns.
In fact, although social divisions, livelihood crises or infectious diseases are climbing positions in the ‘top 10’ of global risks in the long term (the next ten years), the podium remains for the risks derived from climate change.
www.informacion.es
Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.