The Global Challenges Foundation is a Swedish non-profit organization that seeks to raise awareness of
global catastrophic risk
A global catastrophic risk or a doomsday scenario is a hypothetical future event that could damage human well-being on a global scale, even endangering or destroying modern civilization. An event that could cause human extinction or permanen ...
and the
global governance necessary to handle these risks. This includes examining models for
UN reform
Since the late 1990s there have been many calls for reforms of the United Nations (UN). However, there is little clarity or consensus about what reform might mean in practice. Both those who want the UN to play a greater role in world affairs and ...
, as well as initiating new ideas for a functioning global governance. It was founded in 2012 with a donation by the Hungarian billionaire
László Szombatfalvy who lives in Sweden.
The foundation is part of the
Foundations Platform F20, a global network of foundations and other philanthropic organizations.
Foundation
The foundation is based in Stockholm. Its board members include
Johan Rockström, the fourth AP Fund's former CEO Mats Andersson, and professor Folke Tersman. The foundation's assets predominantly consist of a donation from László Szombatfalvy, which represented roughly half of his fortune at the time—around 500 million Swedish kronor.
[ The current executive director is Jens Orback.
]
Risk awareness
Global Challenges Foundation is working to raise awareness of global catastrophic risks, currently primarily climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
, other environmental degradation, and political violence focusing on weapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous individuals or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natu ...
. In order to do this at both the public and the decision-making levels, the Global Challenges Foundation is closely cooperating with a number of institutions, including the Future of Humanity Institute
The Future of Humanity Institute (FHI) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Oxford investigating big-picture questions about humanity and its prospects. It was founded in 2005 as part of the Faculty of Philosophy and t ...
at Oxford University.
Another risk-related project driven by the Global Challenges Foundation, along with Earth League, is Earth Statement. The climate call aims at reducing the gap between science and politics, and has formulated eight points on which the world's decision-makers need to agree to achieve a successful climate agreement at COP21
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 or CMP 11 was held in Paris, France, from 30 November to 12 December 2015. It was the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Conve ...
. Earth Statement has been signed by Al Gore
Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic no ...
, Desmond Tutu, Mo Ibrahim
Mohammed "Mo" Ibrahim ( ar, محمد إبراهيم; born 3 May 1946) is a Sudanese-British billionaire businessman. He worked for several telecommunications companies, before founding Celtel, which when sold had over 24 million mobile phone s ...
, Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington
Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington (née Ariadnē-Anna Stasinopoúlou, el, Αριάδνη-Άννα Στασινοπούλου ; born July 15, 1950) is a Greek-American author, syndicated columnist and businesswoman. She is a co-founder of '' Th ...
, Gro Harlem Brundtland
Gro Brundtland (; born Gro Harlem, 20 April 1939) is a Norwegian politician ( Arbeiderpartiet), who served three terms as the 29th prime minister of Norway (1981, 1986–89, and 1990–96) and as the director-general of the World Health Organizat ...
, Yuan T. Lee and Mary Robinson
Mary Therese Winifred Robinson ( ga, Máire Mhic Róibín; ; born 21 May 1944) is an Irish politician who was the 7th president of Ireland, serving from December 1990 to September 1997, the first woman to hold this office. Prior to her electi ...
.
Global Challenges Foundation gave support to the Stockholm School of Economics
The Stockholm School of Economics (SSE; sv, Handelshögskolan i Stockholm, HHS) is a private business school located in city district Vasastaden in the central part of Stockholm, Sweden. SSE offers BSc, MSc and MBA programs, along with ...
for a new track – Global Challenges. The course is included in the Bachelor program in Business and Economics.
The Global Challenges Foundation conducts international risk surveys and publishes annual reports on global risks, interspersed with quarterly reports that look at various aspects of global catastrophic risk and global governance. For example, the 2016 annual report estimates that an average American is more than five times likely to die during a human-extinction event than in a car crash.
The New Shape Prize
In November 2016, the Global Challenges Foundation launched the ''Global Challenges Prize – A New Shape'', an international competition that calls on people of academia, politics, business and civil society worldwide for proposals that outline new models of global governance. It offered $5 Million in prizes with the best entry receiving at least $1 million. The foundation would then back efforts to bring the winning ideas towards implementation.
References
External links
* {{Official website, https://www.globalchallenges.org/
Foundations based in Sweden
Existential risk organizations
Organizations established in 2012
2012 establishments in Sweden