The Global Challenges Foundation is a research foundation based in Stockholm, Sweden. It aims to promote the development of global decision-making models capable of more effectively and equitably mitigating and, preferably, eliminating the major global catastrophic risks threatening humanity.

Report name

Global Catastrophic Risks 2022

Who wrote this report?

Global Catastrophic Risks 2022 is a yearly report from the Global Challenges Foundation, in publication since 2016. They work with leading experts to describe and evaluate the greatest threats to humanity. The report updates previously published information about global catastrophic risks, but also extends the content, in particular by offering descriptions of official bodies and regulatory frameworks currently in place to manage those risks. The report provides an assessment of the current structures of global governance for each global catastrophic risk.

It proposes to complement the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report, which offers an up-to-date picture of global risks as perceived by leading political and economic actors. These two approaches are highly complementary: perception is a strong driver of collective action and decision-making, while a more focused examination of the risks themselves will guide better long-term strategy and support the design of more efficient governance models.

Best quote

The risk of nuclear weapons use is greater now than at any time since nuclear weapons were first exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

– Kennette Benedict

Key takeaways:

  • The increasing threat of nuclear attack comes at the same time as emissions around the world continue to rise and the window of opportunity to halt catastrophic climate change narrows.
  • This confluence of global risks has led to unwelcome new terms entering the dictionary, such as “polycrisis” and “multicrisis”.
  • We need to build new forms of global governance, firmly rooted in equity and rule of law to allow us to tackle multiple global problems.

What’s in this report?

For the sake of clarity, they identified ten key risks, which they then organised into three main categories: current risks from human action, natural catastrophes, and emerging risks. The reader should keep in mind, however, that many of those risks are closely interconnected, and their boundaries sometimes blur, as with climate change and ecological collapse, or as in the case of synthetic biology, which could be presented as a risk of its own, an additional risk factor in biological warfare, or a potential cause for engineered pandemics.

In each section, a first part offers a description of the current risk, exploring what is at stake, what is known, and key factors affecting risk levels. A second part considers current governance frameworks for mitigating the risk. Each section was prepared in collaboration with leading experts in the field.

The report contains the following sections on global catastrophic risks:

  1. Nuclear warfare
  2. The dangers of biological and chemical warfare
  3. Pandemics: a stark reality
  4. Artificial Intelligence
  5. Near-Earth asteroids
  6. Climate catastrophe
  7. Supervolcanic eruption
  8. Ecological collapse

Each issue of the Global Catastrophic Risks report has a special theme. In 2022 these are:

  1. Global population size
  2. Climate tipping points

Why should you read this report?

The year 2022 has seen the global threats facing humanity grow and intensify, interlinking and reinforcing one another with far reaching consequences. The aim of the report is to develop an approach that reflects the best current understanding and be useful to decision-makers. The Foundation combined historical evidence and scientific data to decide which risks should be included in the report.

The insights shared by the Global Catastrophic Risks report provide you with knowledge and understanding when you and your organisation are dealing with anticipating and adapting to changing external conditions and regulations in the most effective and equitable way possible.

Who is this report for?

The report is primarily intended for decision-makers in the private and public sector, but has also been read and used in their work by civil society and by university courses on global studies, climate policy and sustainability by, among others, Stockholm School of Economics and Mapúa University.

Reading the Global Catastrophic Risks series is a good way to understand developments over time. This overview makes it easier for everyone in a decision-making position to quickly gain an understanding of the challenges ahead. In this way, it is possible to get ideas about which preparations may be needed.

🔗 Read the full report here. 🔗

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