Renewed multilateralism to alleviate chronic risks and enhance human security

The document examines the failure of existing multilateral systems to address global-scale chronic risks, such as the climate crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic. It highlights the stark disparity in climate-related deaths and GDP losses between high-income and low-income groups, noting that the Global North bears significant historical responsibility for emissions while the Global South suffers the most severe consequences. The authors propose 'de minimis multilateralism'—focusing on common aversions—and the creation of a Global Resilience Reserve Fund and a Climate Risk Atlas for Developing Countries to enhance human security and financial resilience.

• The Covid-19 pandemic caused massive global socio-economic disruption, with UN-DESA projecting economic output losses exceeding USD 8.5 trillion over two years and the World Bank estimating an additional 97 million people were pushed into extreme poverty.
• Climate-related disasters disproportionately affect low-income populations; between 2000 and 2017, disaster death tolls were 60 per million for low-income groups compared to 16 per million for high-income groups.
• There is a significant disparity in historical and projected carbon emissions, with North America and Europe contributing 60% of cumulative global emissions despite representing only a quarter of the population.
• Current international climate commitments are insufficient to meet the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C target; assuming all COP-26 commitments are met, global warming is capped at 1.8°C.
• Existing multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) are often functionally weak due to fragmented governance, lack of transparency, and a failure to hold historical polluters accountable.
• The authors propose 'de minimis multilateralism', which suggests that nations should focus on 'common aversions'—such as pandemics and extreme weather—to find the minimum points where interests converge for collective action.
• To address financial vulnerability, the paper suggests creating a Global Resilience Reserve Fund based on voluntary allocations of IMF special drawing rights to pool risks to climate shocks.
• The paper recommends the development of a Climate Risk Atlas for Developing Countries to provide granular data on vulnerabilities like floods, droughts, and crop loss, which would then feed into a Global Climate Risk Index.

APA

Ghosh, A., & Raha, S. (2022). Renewed multilateralism to alleviate chronic risks and enhance human security. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/renewed-multilateralism-stockholm50backgroundpaper.pdf

Chicago

Ghosh, Arunabha, and Shuva Raha. Renewed multilateralism to alleviate chronic risks and enhance human security. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2022. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/renewed-multilateralism-stockholm50backgroundpaper.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Ghosh |first1=Arunabha |last2=Raha |first2=Shuva |title=Renewed multilateralism to alleviate chronic risks and enhance human security |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=May 2022 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/renewed-multilateralism-stockholm50backgroundpaper.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ghosh2022renewed, author = {Ghosh, Arunabha and Raha, Shuva}, title = {{Renewed multilateralism to alleviate chronic risks and enhance human security}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2022}, month = may, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/renewed-multilateralism-stockholm50backgroundpaper.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }