One risk category tops the rest in 2020 Global Risks Report

The 15th edition of the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report identifies and explores in depth the growing risk challenges facing individuals, businesses and global society in the years ahead:

• For the first time in the 15-year history of the Global Risks Report, climate-related risks, including growing threats to biodiversity, ranked as the top five risks with the greatest likelihood of long-term, severe impacts.
• It is vital that the nations of the world act now because inaction would mean missing our last chance to address the planet’s most urgent challenges regarding climate change.
• Geopolitical turbulence and a retreat from multilateralism threaten the world’s ability to deal with shared, global risks.
• The possibility of a period of economic stagflation may increase popular discontent with efforts to address profound economic and social issues, sparking protests, populist movements and further political polarization.
• While digital technology has brought tremendous economic and societal benefits, unequal access to the internet, lack of a global technology governance framework, growing impacts of artificial intelligence and cyber insecurity pose significant technological risks.
• Health systems around the world are under growing pressure from societal, environmental, demographic and technological patterns that threaten to undo dramatic gains in prosperity and wellness over the last century.