The Global Cooperation Barometer 2024

The Global Cooperation Barometer 2024 indicates that global cooperation, which trended positively for much of the last decade, has mildly reversed by 2% since 2020. While cooperation in climate and natural capital has risen steadily due to increased commitments, cooperation in peace and security has plummeted, and health cooperation has settled back toward historical patterns following a pandemic-era surge. The report argues that cooperation and competition can coexist, suggesting leaders adopt a strategy of "coopetition" to advance shared interests despite geopolitical tensions.

• Overall global cooperation has experienced a mild reversal since 2020, decreasing by 2% after a period of general growth between 2012 and the start of the pandemic.
• Cooperation in the trade and capital pillar grew moderately from 2012 to 2020, driven by foreign direct investment (FDI) stock rising from 30% of GDP in 2012 to 49% in 2020, though trade growth slowed in 2023 to an estimated 0.8%.
• Innovation and technology cooperation saw significant growth until 2020, particularly in IT services and data flows, but has since decelerated due to national security concerns, resulting in a 5% decline in IT goods and intermediates trade as a share of GDP between 2021 and 2022.
• Climate and natural capital is the only pillar where most indicators rose from 2012 to 2022, with mitigation finance nearly doubling and adaptation finance rising 56% as a share of GDP by 2020; however, absolute emissions continued to rise, reaching 5.7% higher in 2022 than in 2020.
• Health and wellness cooperation surged during the COVID-19 pandemic—with development assistance for health jumping 40% in 2020—but has since declined, while life expectancy at birth fell from 72.8 to 71.0 between 2019 and 2021.
• Cooperation in peace and security has declined since 2016 and plummeted recently, characterized by a three-fold increase in conflict fatalities since 2020 (reaching roughly 240,000 in 2022) and record forcible displacement of 108.4 million people in 2022.
• The report recommends that leaders practice "coopetition," balancing cooperation and competition to advance shared interests in specific areas even when alignment is lacking elsewhere.

APA

World Economic Forum (2024). The Global Cooperation Barometer 2024. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Cooperation_Barometer_2024.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. The Global Cooperation Barometer 2024. 2024. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Cooperation_Barometer_2024.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=The Global Cooperation Barometer 2024 |date=January 2024 |url=https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Cooperation_Barometer_2024.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2024global, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{The Global Cooperation Barometer 2024}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2024}, month = jan, url = {https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Cooperation_Barometer_2024.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }