The World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Risk Report identifies the top risks faced by businesses and society over the next decade.
This the 16th year WEF has issued a global risk report and the results come from an extensive risk survey of a wide range of risk related professionals.
As the WEF chart below shows (click to enlarge), they group the risks by likelihood and impact.
The highest likelihood risks of the next ten years are extreme weather, climate action failure and human-led environmental damage. Others include digital power concentration, digital inequality and cybersecurity failure.
The top spot on the highest impact risk list are new infectious diseases. COVID-19 has obviously changed the view of infectious disease risk, which came in 10th in the pre-COVID 2020 report.
Other top risks by impact include climate action failure and other environmental risks, weapons of mass destruction, livelihood crises, debt crises and IT infrastructure breakdown.
Overall, environmental and climate change risks stand out in terms of likelihood and impact.
One could also easily argue that climate change is leading to increased infectious disease risk, so the risks related to environmental degradation are potentially even greater than described.
The report is long (97 pages), detailed and since it focuses on downside risks, depressing.
But as COVID-19 has shown us, it's not good to be under prepared for major risks.
