Climate Tops Pandemic as Top Emerging Risk in Emerging Risks Survey

While pandemic/infectious disease ranks as the top current risk in a recent survey, climate risk was identified most often as the top emerging risk, followed by cyber/network risks.

According to recently released key findings from the "15th Annual Survey of Emerging Risks," the remainder of the top five emerging risks include pandemic/infectious disease, disruptive technology, and financial volatility.

The remainder of the risks ranked top current risks by survey respondents included climate change, financial volatility, cyber/networks, and asset price collapse.

The survey is sponsored by the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, the Casualty Actuarial Society, and the Society of Actuaries.

"The year 2021 continued trends of high numbers of tropical storms and wildfires, with political extremes continuing globally," the report said. "These were overshadowed in the survey by the pandemic, market volatility, and signs of a changing climate."

Climate risk continues to rise in the number of risk managers selecting it as the top emerging risk in the annual survey, the report said, while financial volatility also is being mentioned more frequently.

The survey also found risk managers at insurance companies indicating they are feeling the impact of the "Great Resignation." Asked about the impact of the trend of large numbers of workers leaving their jobs, 54 percent of insurance company risk managers surveyed said they have experienced the loss of some staff, 22 percent reported the loss of key staff or an impactful number of staff, 41 percent have seen an impact on the ability to hire staff, and 41 percent said they have seen an impact on the ability to hire experienced staff.

The anonymous online survey was completed in November 2021 and included 153 participants. It was primarily North America-based but included additional risk manager responses from Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, and the Middle East.

The full report covering the "15th Annual Survey of Emerging Risks" will be released later this year.