GLOBAL RISKS REPORT 2020

Key findings:

• The top 5 risks in terms of likelihood over the next decade are environmental. These are:
  • Extreme weather events with major damage to property, infrastructure and loss of human life
    
    
  • Failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation by governments and businesses.
    
    
  • Human-made environmental damage and disasters, including environmental crime, such as oil spills, and radioactive contamination.
    
    
  • Major biodiversity losses and ecosystem collapse
    
    
  • Major natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and geomagnetic storms
    
    
  
  
  
• These are the top 5 risks by severity of impact over the next 10 years:
  • Failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation
    
    
  • Weapons of mass destruction
    
    
  • Major biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse
    
    
  • Extreme weather events (e.g. floods, storms, etc.)
    
    
  • Water crises
    
    
  
  
  
• These are the top most strongly connected global risks:
  • Extreme weather events + failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation
    
    
  • Large-scale cyberattacks + breakdown of critical information infrastructure and networks
    
    
  • High structural unemployment or underemployment + adverse consequences of technological advances
    
    
  • Major biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse + failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation
    
    
  • Food crises + extreme weather events
    
    
  
  
  
• Short-term risks: % of respondents who think a risk will increase in 2020:
  • Economic confrontations = 78.5%
    
    
  • Domestic political polarization = 78.4%
    
    
  • Extreme heat waves = 77.1%
    
    
  • Destruction of natural resource ecosystems = 76.2%
    
    
  • Cyberattacks: infrastructure = 76.1%