Observatorio de Riesgos Catastróficos Globales

The Observatorio de Riesgos Catastróficos Globales (ORCG) is a scientific diplomacy organization founded in February 2023 and based in Madrid, Spain. Its mission is to formulate governance proposals that allow the comprehensive management of different global catastrophic risks in Spanish-speaking countries. ORCG operates as a project of Players Philanthropy Fund, Inc., a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which provides its fiscal sponsorship infrastructure. The organization works across four main risk domains: artificial intelligence regulation, pandemic biosecurity, food security under catastrophic sunlight reduction scenarios (such as nuclear winter), and systemic improvements to global risk management. ORCG pursues its mission by connecting policymakers and government officials with technical experts, producing research reports, academic articles, and policy briefs, and engaging in science diplomacy with institutions including the OECD, UNDRR, ECLAC, and national governments across Latin America. In its first two years, ORCG produced over a dozen publications including collaboration with ALLFED on food resilience, a regional biosecurity mapping study across nine Latin American countries, a report on European supercomputers for public benefit (Compute for Good), and an updated flagship risk management report with a foreword by former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo. The organization contributed a chapter to Argentina's National Plan for Disaster Risk Reduction 2024-2030 and signed a collaboration agreement with the Madrid city hall. ORCG is also the parent organization of the AI Risk Explorer (AIRE), a curated website providing policymakers and researchers with accessible information on AI risk scenarios. AIRE received a two-year grant of $212,510 from Open Philanthropy in October 2024. A separate Open Philanthropy grant of $110,000 supported ORCG's AI policy research and science diplomacy in the EU and Latin America, including participation in EU AI Act implementation and the GPAI Code of Practice. Additional support has come from Longview Philanthropy. As of 2024-2025, ORCG's AI-related work was funded through 2025, while securing comprehensive funding for its broader pandemic, food security, and risk management programs remained an ongoing challenge. The organization has cultivated partnerships with institutions including ALLFED, CSER, GCRI, CLTR, Global Shield, and AMexBio, and engages stakeholders at the OECD, EuroHPC, OEI, IMSS, UNAM, and UANL.