Abstract: This article takes stock of the literature that is advancing knowledge about how to classify, organise 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 tool in the United Kingdom. In doing so, it names three broad systems that have emerged in the literature, which organise risks by: (1) consequences of risks, (2) sources or causes of risks and (3) risk processes and interactions with human systems. Organising risks by consequences aids in risk prioritisation, 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.
Read more about the policy implications of this research from the Global Policy Journal