The World Economic Forum (WEF) has revealed the top 10 global risks and the underlying trends that will amplify them and shape international developments in the next decade.
The WEF’s Global Risks Report 2017 shows that the environment is dominating the global risks landscape, with all five environmental risks in the survey ranked both high-risk and high-likelihood. Also, extreme weather events emerged as the single most prominent global risk.
Extreme weather events is the top risk in terms of likelihood, followed by large-scale voluntary migration, major natural disasters, large-scale terrorist attacks, massive incident of data fraud or theft, cyberattacks, illicit trade, man-made environmental disasters, interstate conflict and failure of national governance.
In terms of impact, the most serious risk is weapons of mass destruction, followed by extreme weather events, water crises, major natural disasters, failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation, large-scale voluntary migration, food crises, terrorist attacks, interstate conflict, and unemployment or underemployment.
According to the WEF report, rising economic inequality, increasing polarisation of societies, and intensifying environmental dangers are the three biggest trends that triggered political change in 2016.
These trends could also exacerbate the top global risks in 2017 if serious and immediate action is not taken, the WEF warns.
“Urgent action is needed among leaders to identify ways to overcome political or ideological differences and work together to solve critical challenges,” said Margareta Drzeniek-Hanouz, head of global competitiveness and risks at WEF.
“The momentum of 2016 towards addressing climate change shows this is possible, and offers hope that collective action at the international level aimed at resetting other risks could also be achieved,” she added.
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