In the next 10 years, however, environmental risks have retained their ranking as the most severe. This year’s findings also show heightened short-term concerns, with a 14 percentage-point increase in respondents selecting a turbulent or stormy outlook over the next two years. By contrast, compared with last year’s findings, there is a five percentage-point improvement over the next 10 years in those two categories.
The report offers an early warning system as a new competitive order compounds global risks – from geoeconomic confrontation to unchecked technology and rising debt – and thereby changes our collective capacity to address them. However it notes that these risks are not a foregone conclusion – the challenges highlighted in the report underscore both the scale of the potential perils we face and our shared responsibility to shape what comes next.
