WEF: Climate Crisis Mitigation Failure Could Have Big Impacts in the Next 10 Years

Global climate change strike in Lorenzer Platz, Nuremberg (Markus Spiske - Unsplash)
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The climate crisis is a very real threat to the world. The Global Risk Report 2023 published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in January 2023 states that failure to mitigate the climate crisis will have a significant impact in the next ten years.

The WEF together with Marsh McLennan and the Zurich Insurance Group distills the views of more than 1,200 global risk experts, policymakers, and industry leaders.

Based on this study, the World Economic Forum considers that Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war have had an impact on efforts to deal with the climate crisis. Countries around the world shifted their focus to dealing with the pandemic and economic recovery, resulting in a pause in climate action.

The problem of the climate crisis is not only related to ecological disturbances but can also spread economic pressures.

According to the report, crisis-driven leadership and the risk of political strife are creating unprecedented levels of social unrest.

As a result, mitigating the impacts of climate change is not a priority. If the world does not begin to work together more effectively in tackling the climate crisis, there will be continued global warming and ecological disruption in the next 10 years.

Failure to mitigate and adapt to climate change, natural disasters, loss of biodiversity, and environmental damage is also included in the top five risks globally.

Head of Sustainability Risk Zurich Insurance Group John Scott on Wednesday (18/1/2023), said, “The link between the impacts of climate change, loss of biodiversity, food security and consumption of natural resources, is a dangerous combination. Without any policy changes or significant investment.”

According to Scott, this combination of problems could accelerate the collapse of ecosystems, threaten food supplies, increase the impact of natural disasters and hinder progress on climate change mitigation. In the end, the whole problem will become an economic burden.

For information, The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organization[1] based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab.

The WEF is mostly known for its annual meeting at the end of January in Davos, a mountain resort in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland.

The meeting brought together some 3,000 paying members and selected participants – among whom are investors, business leaders, political leaders, economists, celebrities, and journalists – for up to five days to discuss global issues across 500 sessions.