Taking stock of systems for organizing existential and global catastrophic risks: Implications for policy

Abstract

This article takes stock of the literature that is advancing knowledge about how to classify, organize and think about existential risks and globally catastrophic risks altogether. It then points out policy implications from this literature and applies those implications to a short case study on the National Risk Register, a comprehensive risk policy in the United Kingdom. In doing so, it names three broad systems that have emerged in the literature, which are those that organize risks by (1) consequences of risks, (2) sources or causes of risks and (3) risk processes and interactions with human systems. Organizing risks by consequences aids in risk prioritization, while classifying risks by source or cause aids in risk prevention and mitigation. Analysing risk processes and interactions with human systems opens the policy frame to broader policies of risk response and resilience.