Climate risks dominate global concerns as the world enters the third year of the pandemic. According to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Risks Report 2022, while the top long-term risks relate to climate, the top shorter-term global concerns include societal divides, livelihood crises and mental health deterioration.
In the report produced together with Marsh McLennan, SK Group and Zurich Insurance Group, the WEF says: “Additionally, most experts believe a global economic recovery will be volatile and uneven for the next three years.”
The study warns of the need to improve resilience and also to have a strong ESG strategy, which will be critical in rebuilding. It also suggests that, as 2022 begins, Covid-19 and its economic and societal consequences continue to pose a critical threat to the world. Vaccine inequality and a resultant uneven economic recovery risk compounding social fractures and geopolitical tensions.
Carolina Klint, risk management leader, continental Europe, Marsh, commented: “As companies recover from the pandemic, they are rightly sharpening their focus on organisational resilience and ESG credentials.”
The study found that, as 2022 begins, Covid-19 and its economic and societal consequences continue to pose a critical threat to the world. Vaccine inequality and a resultant uneven economic recovery risk compounding social fractures and geopolitical tensions.
In the poorest 52 countries – home to 20% of the world’s people – only 6% of the population had been vaccinated at the time of writing. By 2024, developing economies will have fallen 5.5% below their pre-pandemic expected GDP growth, while advanced economies will have surpassed it by 0.9% – widening the global income gap.
The WEF concludes: “The resulting global divergence will create tensions – within and across borders – that risk worsening the pandemic’s cascading impacts and complicating the coordination needed to tackle common challenges including strengthening climate action, enhancing digital safety, restoring livelihoods and societal cohesion, and managing competition in space.”
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