Opening the New York Times' annual DealBook summit Wednesday, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said that the present environment represents a "very dangerous time" for humanity.
Though he noted concern about the wars that are currently ongoing in Ukraine and the Middle East, Dimon said that there are three factors that currently represent the greatest threat to mankind: "nuclear proliferation, climate change and another pandemic."
Related: Jamie Dimon’s net worth: Base pay, incentives & billionaire status
"In my view, we were kind of lucky in this pandemic. It wasn't as deadly as smallpox and it didn't kill children," he said. "We need to get our act together and get this done."
Disease forecasting firm Airfinity warned in April that, based on its latest risk modeling, there is a 27.5% chance that a pandemic as deadly as Covid-19 could take place within the next decade.
"In recent times, we have seen an increase in the frequency of virus emergence," Airfinity said. "Climate change, the rise in international travel, a growing global population and the increasing threat posed by zoonotic diseases are some of the main factors contributing to the increase in high-risk outbreak incidences."
The firm said, however, that if the world takes certain countermeasures, including developing the infrastructure that would allow for fast vaccine production and delivery, the risk of such a pandemic drops to 8.1%.
Johns Hopkins reported more than 675 million cases of Covid worldwide, resulting in nearly 7 million deaths, as of March 2023.
JPMorgan (JPM) -) has a series of sustainable targets designed to set the company on a path for net-zero emissions by 2050. The company has additionally noted a goal to finance and facilitate more than $2.5 trillion worth of global sustainable solutions by 2030.
Since 2021, the company says that it has financed and facilitated $482 billion toward this target — part of this has involved "green" investments, which aim to "drive climate action, clean energy and sustainable resource management."
The company bought $200 million worth of climate removal credits in May.
Related: Microsoft signs a $200 million deal to help reduce its carbon emissions
Jamie Dimon for President
Despite Dimon saying in June that he has "no plans" to run for president, he laid out the approach he would take if he somehow made it into the office.
Asked by famed investor Bill Ackman what his hypothetical first year in office might look like, Dimon said that his first step would involve building a bipartisan cabinet full of "smart" people.
"The biggest policy issue is the foreign policy stuff," he said. "I would double down on diplomacy, development finance. That is the biggest thing for the free world for the next 100 years."
Domestically, Dimon said that education and immigration would be top issues for him — "uncontrolled immigration," he said, is "hurting countries around the world."
He added that he would do work to grow the economy, closing the carried interest loophole in the tax code, something that allows hedge fund executives and private equity managers to pay less in taxes.
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