Societal and environmental risks are expected to be the most concerning global challenges within the next five years, however in the more 10-year horizon, environmental risks comprise the three most important long-term threats around the world, based on the World Economic Forum's Global Risk Report released Tuesday.
Respondents to the 17th edition from the Global Risks Perception Survey and the report said “climate action failure,” “extreme weather events” and “biodiversity loss” rank because the top three most severe risks within the next 10 years, with “debt crises” and “geoeconomic confrontation” rounding the top five.
The WEF also said inside a statement using the are convinced that it expects the worldwide economic recovery to be volatile and uneven within the next three years.
“Health and economic disruptions are compounding social cleavages .. creating tensions at a time when collaboration within societies and among the international community is going to be fundamental to ensure a far more even and rapid global recovery,” Saadia Zahidi, md from the WEF, said in the statement.
The past two years have experienced a rise in “social cohesion erosion,” “livelihood crises” and “mental health deterioration,” which have worsened because the pandemic began, the report states.
Only 16% of respondents feel positive and optimistic concerning the outlook for the world, and merely 11% believe the global recovery will accelerate, with most respondents saying the following three years might be hit by either consistent volatility and multiple surprises or fractured trajectories that will separate relative winners and losers.
Technology is also viewed as posing potential challenges against the backdrop of the work-from-home migration. Survey respondents listed risks such as “digital inequality” and “cybersecurity failure” as critical short- and medium-term threats around the world. That these risks fell back in the rankings in the future and none appear among the most potentially severe, signals “a possible blind spot in risk perceptions,” according to the report.
“As companies get over the pandemic, they are rightly sharpening their focus on organizational resilience and environmental, social and governance credentials. With cyber threats now growing faster than our capability to eradicate them permanently, it is clear that neither resilience nor governance are possible without credible and sophisticated cyber risk management plans,” Carolina Klint, risk management leader, Continental Europe, for Marsh LLC, said in the statement with the report.
