policies are employed to control Inflation and build resilience against Asset bubble bursts. National governments also have the power to act against Illicit economic activity and reduce their countries’ vulnerability to organized crime. Protection against Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse as well as Pollution can also be managed via local or national environmental regulation. Localized strategies can be enacted independently, and thus face fewer hurdles in terms of cooperation requirements. However, they are not free from challenges. Investment to boost resilience is costly and not all countries or jurisdictions have the same resources, technology and capacity. In an environment of rising costs and narrow approaches to international investment, the capacity and financing for implementing effective local measures tend to be more concentrated in higher-income countries, perpetuating rather than addressing inequality. They may also have unintended spillover effects across borders; for example, economic levers to tackle inflation in one economy can lead to debt concerns in another (Chapter 1.5: Economic uncertainty). The public and private sectors, alone and in partnership, can play a role in scaling local responses, bringing down costs and expanding risk reduction capabilities to all. Businesses are key developers, testers and early adopters of new technologies, such as foods that rapidly grow in extremely adverse environments or AI tools to spot nascent wildfires. 4 Likewise, governments have the ability to step in and de-risk investments to help close the gap in economic opportunity and bolster resilience (Chapter 2.5: End of development?). Novel approaches to ownership of local infrastructure, involving regulator intervention and community ownership, can allow projects to become more bankable, feasible and targeted, while local action groups can often mobilize effective disaster response as well as direct funds to prevention. 5 Breakthrough endeavors 3.2 In some cases, the action of an individual or entity can be enough to provide a “breakthrough” development to address risk or to serve as the positive tipping point to an alternate “safe state.” These breakthrough endeavors are as equally relevant for preventing or mitigating the likelihood of risk as they are for lessening the impact. Many breakthrough endeavors fall under the approach of Research & development (R&D), encompassing activities such as medical breakthroughs, new technologies or a novel approach to quantifying and governing risk. A prominent example of the latter is the formation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Association in 1988, endorsed by the UN the same year. There are also examples of industrial transformations that have pivoted based on a single idea or action, such as the targeted effort of eliminating chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to protect the ozone layer, resulting in a significant impact on a global problem. GRPS respondents note that R&D can play a key role in addressing health, environmental and technological risks (Figure 3.2). During the COVID-19 pandemic, the concentrated efforts of a few pharmaceutical companies made a difference for the global community. Supported by significant funding from governments, their innovations to develop a novel vaccine in record time was crucial to lowering death rates, demonstrating the immense potential of scientific breakthroughs on reducing the impact of health-related risks like Infectious diseases. Zhenyu Luo, Unsplash Global Risks Report 2024 87

The Global Risks Report 2024