Forum Institutional

Global Risks Report 2022: What you need to know

Global Risks report 2022: A logo of the World Economic Forum (WEF) is seen as people attend the WEF annual meeting in Davos, 2018.

Global Risks Report 2022: Environmental risks dominate Image: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

Kate Whiting
Senior Writer, Forum Agenda
This article is part of: The Davos Agenda

Listen to the article

  • Environmental risks dominate the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2022 - for both the short and long term.
  • Climate-change related risks also account for three of the top risks by severity in the next 10 years.
  • The global risks horizon changes over the next two to 10 years, as the cascading impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are felt.
  • Less than 16% of respondents to the Global Risks Perception Survey are ‘optimistic’ or ‘positive’ about the outlook for the world.
Have you read?
  • Global Risks Report 2022

Two years on from the first COVID-19 cases, countries are reporting record infections due to the Omicron variant, but the pandemic pales compared to the long-term risks the world faces from climate change.

This is the sobering view of nearly 1,000 risk experts and global leaders in business, government and civil society in the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2022.

Climate action failure, extreme weather events, and biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse were considered the top three of the top 10 global risks by severity over the next 10 years in the annual Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS).

Global Risks report 2022
In total, half of the top 10 are environmental risks, with human environmental damage and natural resource crises also featuring. Image: World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2022

Societal risks make up a third of the global top 10, with societal cohesion erosion and livelihood crises completing the top five, while infectious diseases come lower down at number six.

Climate action failure is also considered the most critical threat to the world in both the medium term (2-5 years) and long term (5-10 years), with the highest potential to severely damage societies, economies and the planet.

Discover

What’s the World Economic Forum doing about climate change?

Most respondents to the survey believe too little is being done: 77% said international efforts to mitigate climate change have “not started” or are in “early development”.

Risks outlook and global divergence

In fact, the experts and leaders were not altogether hopeful about the outlook for the world, with less than 16% of respondents to the GRPS ‘optimistic’ or ‘positive’, with the vast majority (84.2%) ‘concerned’ or ‘worried’.

World Outlook Sentiment
The 17th edition of the report also looks at the pandemic’s cascading impacts and identifies tensions that will result from a divergent recovery. Image: World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2022

By 2024, the report says, developing economies (except China) will have fallen 5.5% below their pre-pandemic expected GDP growth, while advanced economies will have surpassed it by 0.9%.

Such global divergence will impact on the world's ability to tackle common challenges including climate change, enhancing digital safety, restoring livelihoods and societal cohesion, and managing competition in space.

“Widening disparities within and between countries will not only make it more difficult to control COVID-19 and its variants, but will also risk stalling, if not reversing, joint action against shared threats that the world cannot afford to overlook,” says Saadia Zahidi, the Forum’s Managing Director.

Short, medium and long-term global risks

Global risks horizon
When will risks become a critical threat to the world? Image: World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2022

The risk horizon changes over the coming years, as the full implications of the pandemic become clearer.

In the next two years, risk experts and leaders see the erosion of social cohesion, the deterioration of mental health, infectious diseases and livelihood crises as being equal to environmental threats - which are constant across the short to long term.

In the next five years, economic risks of debt crises and geoeconomic confrontations emerge as governments struggle to balance fiscal priorities. While the long-term top five is dominated by environmental risks.

But amid all the bleak predictions, there’s still reason to hope for more positive outcomes, with the Global Risks Report 2022 including lessons in resilience from the COVID-19 pandemic, advice for cooperation in space, greater cyber resilience and a more sequenced climate transition.

“The least disruptive climate transition measures will be those that holistically integrate the needs of individuals, societies, businesses and planet.”

Loading...
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

Global Health

Related topics:
Forum InstitutionalGlobal RisksClimate ActionHealth and Healthcare Systems
Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Global Health is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

3:00

This social enterprise uses basketball to get young people back into school

Here's how to mobilize for Sustainable Development Goal 14 ahead of UN Ocean Conference 2025

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum