🌅 Today’s stat: -50%

SOURCE

Institute and Faculty of Actuaries

WHAT TO KNOW

• Climate impacts such as wildfires, flooding, droughts, and rising temperatures could drive catastrophic economic losses before the end of this century, including the loss of major staple crops, the breakdown of vital Earth systems, and socio-political fragmentation worldwide. Under the plausible worst-case scenario, the world could experience 4 billion deaths (around half of the world’s current population), the failure of nation-states, and frequent large-scale mortality events due to disease, conflict, and mass displacement.

WHY IT MATTERS

• The risk management experts of the present report say the world is at risk of “planetary insolvency,” in which the Earth’s ecological systems become so degraded that they cannot be relied upon by humans for essential functions, like food, water, and energy production. The world is also at risk of several “tipping points,” such as ice sheet melt, coral reef die-offs, and the loss of forest coverage in the Amazon, which can trigger further tipping points and create a domino effect that accelerates environmental destruction to the point of no return, after which it could become impossible to stabilize the climate.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• The authors say the current global risk assessments and practices used by governments are inadequate, implicitly forcing the world into accepting much higher climate risks than is broadly understood. The report calls for a fundamental change to policymakers’ approach and understanding of the systemic risk the world could face, calling for realistic and effective risk management practices, including recognizing climate change policy as a core feature of national security.