At least one million species are at risk of extinction in the coming decades and the rate is tens to hundreds of times higher than the average over the past 10 million years.
The World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Risks Report published on January 15, 2020, ranks biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse as the second most impactful and third most likely risk for the next decade.
Zurich Insurance Group Chief Risk Officer Peter Giger said human activity has already caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of plants which underpin our food and health systems.
“Biologically diverse ecosystems capture vast amounts of carbon and provide massive economic benefits that are estimated at $33 trillion per year – the equivalent to the GDP of the US and China combined. It is critical that companies and policy-makers move faster to transition to a low carbon economy and more sustainable business models,” he added.
The research shows that $44 trillion of economic value generation – over half the world’s total GDP – is moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services. Nature loss matters for most businesses – through impacts on operations, supply chains, and markets.
Despite an increasing focus on nature loss, there is still a limited understanding of why it matters to businesses and what the private sector can practically do about it.
The World Economic Forum is launching a series of New Nature Economy (NNE) reports in 2020, making the business and economic case for safeguarding nature.
The series aims to catalyse public-private momentum in 2020, with a focus on the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s milestone summit (COP15) in Kunming, China, and the related Business for Nature mobilization.
Climate change
Climate change is striking harder and more rapidly than many expected. The last five years are on track to be the warmest on record, natural disasters are becoming more intense and more frequent, and last year witnessed unprecedented extreme weather throughout the world.
Alarmingly, global temperatures are on track to increase by at least 3°C towards the end of the century—twice what climate experts have warned is the limit to avoid the most severe economic, social and environmental consequences.
Marsh & McLennan Insights Chairman John Drzik said: “There is mounting pressure on companies from investors, regulators, customers, and employees to demonstrate their resilience to rising climate volatility."
"High profile events, like recent wildfires in Australia and California, are adding pressure on companies to take action on climate risk at a time when they also face greater geopolitical and cyber risk challenges.”
Political polarization
Over 750 global experts and decision-makers were asked to rank their biggest concerns in terms of likelihood and impact and 78% said they expect “economic confrontations” and “domestic political polarization” to rise in 2020.
This would prove catastrophic, particularly for addressing urgent challenges like the climate crisis, biodiversity loss and record species decline.
World Economic Forum President Borge Brende said: “The political landscape is polarized, sea levels are rising and climate fires are burning. This is the year when world leaders must work with all sectors of society to repair and reinvigorate our systems of cooperation, not just for short-term benefit but for tackling our deep-rooted risks.”
The Global Risks Report is part of the Global Risks Initiative which brings stakeholders together to develop sustainable, integrated solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.
The top five global risks in terms of likelihood are all environmental. The report sounds the alarm on:
• Extreme weather events with major damage to property, infrastructure and loss of human life
• Failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation by governments and businesses.
• Human-made environmental damage and disasters, including environmental crime, such as oil spills, and radioactive contamination.
• Major biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse (terrestrial or marine) with irreversible consequences for the environment, resulting in severely depleted resources for humankind as well as industries.
• Major natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and geomagnetic storms.
