WEF 2017 Global Risks: Current Challenges to Sustainability The 2017 World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Risks Report has been released, once again outlining the factors influencing the global environment, economy, and society, and explaining the interconnected global risks—all essential considerations for sustainable development—reminding businesses to actively practice social responsibility now. Environment: More Efforts Needed to Combat Climate Change Of all risks, environmental risks are the most pressing. These risks will persist for a long time, but we must take immediate action to address them. In this report, environmental risks are both the most impactful and the most likely, including extreme weather, large-scale natural disasters, and climate change. Climate change is one of the three major trends affecting global development in the next decade, continuing to rank highly in both likelihood and impact, even surpassing nuclear weapons and pandemics. Addressing climate change relies on international cooperation, such as the Paris Agreement and COP22, or other actions for the global environment of the oceans and atmosphere. While 2016 saw progress, the pace was still not fast enough. Socioeconomic Issues: Challenges Facing Social Welfare Systems The social and economic issues that continued to escalate in 2017 included worsening income inequality and polarization across ethnic, religious, and cultural groups. These factors impacted the political landscape of 2016 and continued to intensify risks in 2017. Since the 2008 financial crisis, social security systems have faced significant challenges. In some countries, insufficient budgets, a predominance of short-term contracts in the job market, persistently low interest rates increasing the burden on retirement savings, coupled with an aging population and massive immigration, have made social security systems unsustainable. This significantly increases the risks and costs faced by everyone, hindering business growth and harming the economy. Existing social security systems must become more flexible and adaptable. Interconnectivity among various excellent social welfare programs is crucial, as is cooperation between governments, businesses, and individuals. Failure to establish such a system will jeopardize government finances and exacerbate social unrest. Technology: Convenience Comes with Risk. Technology may be the solution to current risks, but it also brings its own. For example, artificial intelligence can significantly improve the efficiency of many things, but mismanagement, accidents, or design flaws can raise security concerns. Furthermore, malicious individuals may use it for illegal purposes, causing harm that deserves serious attention. In addition, technological advancements enable machines to perform more diverse tasks, leading to significant skilled unemployment. An increased unemployed population inevitably increases social instability. New technologies also bring new infrastructure, such as renewable energy power generation facilities, but prolonged cloud cover can affect their power generation efficiency; solar storms can paralyze communications on which the world depends, bringing our daily lives to a standstill. These technology-related risks must be considered. As this Global Risks Report states, the world faces many different challenges. Given the interconnectedness of the world, cooperation between countries, industries, and societies is key to coping with crises. For businesses, management should also consider the big picture, recognizing the interconnectedness of various factors. For example, the risk of underemployment is related to the trend of wealth inequality. Therefore, hiring and employee retention should not be solely based on short-term profits and costs, but should also consider long-term social stability, leading to decisions that contribute to sustainable development. Source: CSR one Sustainability Reporting Platform (2017-01-19)
