News analysis
10 greatest risks facing people and the planet
As 2023 began, the world faced a set of risks that felt both wholly new and eerily familiar.
Business leaders, board members and policymakers are responsible for understanding and managing risks.
The latest WEF Global Risks Report paints a bleak picture of the dangers facing the planet and its people.
However, forewarned is forearmed. Those who know something is coming are better prepared to face it than those who do not.
The most significant risks facing societies, businesses and individuals humans are:
1: The cost of living crisis
2: Natural disasters and extreme weather events
3: Geo-economic confrontation
4: Failure to mitigate climate change
5: Erosion of social cohesion
6: Large-scale environmental damage events
7: Failure of climate change adaption
8: AI and cybercrime
9: Natural resource crises
10: Large-scale involuntary migration
A return of ‘older’ risks facing people and the planet
The world has seen a return of “older” risks – inflation, cost-of-living crises, trade wars, capital outflows from emerging markets, widespread social unrest, geopolitical confrontation and the spectre of nuclear warfare – which few of this generation’s business leaders and public policymakers have experienced.
A new era of low growth
The ‘older risks’ are being amplified by comparatively new developments in the global risks landscape, including unsustainable levels of debt, a new era of low growth, low worldwide investment and de-globalisation, a decline in human development after decades of progress, rapid and unconstrained development of dual-use (civilian and military) technologies, and the growing pressure of climate change impacts and ambitions in an ever-shrinking window for transition to a 1.5°C world.
Together, these are converging to shape a unique, uncertain and turbulent decade to come.
You can download the full report here.
Downside risks to the economic outlook also loom large
Global economic fragmentation, geopolitical tensions and rockier restructuring could contribute to widespread debt distress in the next ten years.
Even if some economies experience a softer-than-expected economic landing, the end of the low interest rate era will have significant ramifications for governments, businesses and individuals.
The knock-on effects will be felt most acutely by the most vulnerable parts of society and already-fragile states, contributing to rising poverty, hunger, violent protests, political instability and even state collapse.