The Global Risks Report 2019

“Global Risks 2019”

External and internal threats to nations abound. Disruptions lurk in economic systems, world balances of power, the environment, technology advances and the fabric of societies. Climate change, though, stands out as the number-one risk globally in 2019 in terms of its likelihood and the severity of its consequences. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, only a dozen years remain for leaders to make transformational efforts toward meeting the Paris Agreement’s 1.5ºC [2.7ºF] temperature increase threshold. Extreme weather is altering ecosystems, driving a decrease in biodiversity and the loss of nutrients in food crops.

The foremost international economic risk is feeble GDP growth. The IMF projects steadily declining growth in the output of the developed economies, sliding from 2.4% in 2018 to 1.5% in 2022. While developing countries’ combined output increase is likely to remain steady, China might experience a drop in GDP growth to 5.8% in 2022 from its 2018 level of 6.6%. These forecasts fuel growing concerns about the management of high global debt, which overall stood at 225% of international GDP in ...