WEF Warns Nigeria, Others against Intensifying Global Risks

Obinna Chima

The prospect of strong economic growth in the global economy in 2018 presents policy makers with the opportunity to address signs of severe weakness in many of the complex systems that underpin the world, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has stated.

WEF stated this in its Global Risks Report 2018, that was released yesterday.

The annual Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS) suggested that experts were preparing for another year of heightened risk.

According to the survey, out of about 1,000 respondents interviewed for their views about the trajectory of risks in 2018, 59 per cent of their answers pointed to an intensification of risks, compared with seven per cent pointing to declining risks.

A deteriorating geo-political landscape was partly blamed for the pessimistic outlook in 2018, with 93 per cent of respondents saying they expected political or economic confrontations between major powers to worsen and nearly 80 per cent expecting an increase in risks associated with war involving major powers.

According to the GRPS, cyber threats are growing in prominence, with large-scale cyberattacks now ranked third in terms of likelihood, while rising cyber-dependency was ranked as the second most significant driver shaping the global risks landscape over the next 10 years.

The report – which every January shares the perspectives of global experts and decision-makers on the most significant risks that face the world – cautioned that “we are struggling to keep up with the accelerating pace of change.”

It highlighted “numerous areas where we are pushing systems to the brink, from extinction-level rates of biodiversity loss to mounting concerns about the possibility of new wars.”

The report pointed out that in 2017, the environment was by far the greatest concern raised by experts.

“Among the 30 global risks the experts were asked to prioritise in terms of likelihood and impact, all five environmental risks – extreme weather; biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse; major natural disasters; man-made environmental disasters; and failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation – were ranked highly on both dimensions,” it added.

According to the report, extreme weather events were seen as the single most prominent risk.

Economic risks, on the other hand, featured less prominently this year, leading some experts to worry that the improvement in global Gross Domestic Product growth rates may lead to complacency about persistent structural risks in the global economic and financial systems.

Even so, inequality was ranked third among the underlying risk drivers, and the most frequently cited interconnection of risks was between adverse consequences of technological advances and high structural unemployment or under-employment.

“A widening economic recovery presents us with an opportunity that we cannot afford to squander, to tackle the fractures that we have allowed to weaken the world’s institutions, societies and environment.

“We must take seriously the risk of a global systems breakdown. Together we have the resources and the new scientific and technological knowledge to prevent this.

“Above all, the challenge is to find the will and momentum to work together for a shared future,” Founder and Executive Chairman, WEF, Professor Klaus Schwab said.

Also, the President of Global Risk and Digital, Marsh, John Drzik said: “Geopolitical friction is contributing to a surge in the scale and sophistication of cyberattacks. At the same time cyber exposure is growing as firms becoming more dependent on technology.

“While cyber risk management is improving, business and government need to invest far more in resilience efforts if we are to prevent the same bulging ‘protection’ gap between economic and insured losses that we see for natural catastrophes.”