Coming out of the World Economic Forum, the 2023 Global Risks Report has a new way of describing the increasingly interconnected levels of risk we’re dealing with: “polycrisis.”
The
World Economic Forum, held in Davos last month, surveyed over 1,200 global risk experts, policy-makers and industry leaders to get a sense of both the short- and long-term risk landscape. This year’s top 10 risks for the next two years foreground the results of the COVID-19 pandemic and war in Europe – energy, inflation, food and security risks.
Meanwhile the other near-term risks of climate change and natural disasters are likely to create the long-term risks highlighted in the 10-year list.
Top 10 Risks (2 years):
- Cost of living crisis
- Natural disasters/extreme weather events
- Geoeconomic confrontation
- Failure to mitigate climate change
- Erosion of societal cohesion
- Large-scale environmental damage events
- Failure of climate change adaptation
- Widespread cybercrime and cyber insecurity
- Natural resource crises
- Large-scale involuntary migration
Top 10 Risks (10 years):
- Failure to mitigate climate change
- Failure of climate-change adaptation
- Natural disasters and extreme weather events
- Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse
- Large-scale involuntary migration
- Natural resource crises
- Erosion of social cohesion
- Widespread cybercrime and cyber insecurity
- Geoeconomic confrontation
- Large-scale environmental damage incidents.
For solutions, the report urges collective action to mitigate the effects of both the short- and long-term risks, before it’s too late. This includes both cooperation between countries, and partnerships between the public and private sector.
Click here to read the complete report.