The World Economic Forum (WEF) released the 20th edition of its annual Global Risks Report (January 2025). The report captures perceptions of top global risks (out of a list of 33 across issue areas) for the years ahead. The rankings are based on insights provided by 900 leaders and 100 thematic experts from academia, business, government, international organizations and civil society, across regions and sectors.
Human Level’s Take:
- The latest WEF Global Risks Report highlights a more fragmented world with rising geopolitical, societal, economic, environmental and technological risks. Meanwhile, global governance faces challenges, with declining international cooperation that could hinder the world’s ability to manage risks that span borders.
- Geopolitical risk is the top concern for 2024, with conflicts and tensions spreading across borders. Other key concerns for 2024 include extreme weather events (14%), geoeconomic confrontation (8%), misinformation and disinformation (7%) and societal polarization (6%).
- Inequality remains central, with wealth disparity and the cost-of-living crisis exacerbating polarisation and distrust in shared values. This is fuelling social instability and potential political volatility.
- At the same time, environmental risks are worsening, with climate change, biodiversity loss, and extreme weather dominating long-term concerns.
- How can businesses prepare for a more divided and volatile future? Ongoing human rights and environmental due diligence will remain central to keep a pulse on the different global trends driving negative impacts to people and planet. Increased stakeholder engagement — especially with vulnerable groups — can also help companies detect and address new risks more quickly. Overall, staying the course on human rights, environmental and governance commitments could help companies to forge ahead through changes in the operating context.
Some key takeaways:
- Global optimism is down: The global outlook for 2025 is marked by increasing divisions across geopolitical, environmental, societal, economic and technological areas. Geopolitical risk — especially concerns over worsening or spreading conflicts — sits at the top of the risk landscape, with 23% of respondents ranking it as the top issue for 2024. Other top concerns for 2024: extreme weather events (14%), geoeconomic confrontation (8%), misinformation and disinformation (7%) and societal polarization (6%). Looking forward, misinformation and disinformation remains the top long-term risk for 2027, which could complicate geopolitical dynamics by influencing public opinion, voter behaviour and international relations. Given this context, WEF’s survey found that optimism is limited and that we are in one of the most globally divided periods since the Cold War, reflected in a pessimistic global outlook across current, short-term (2 years), and long-term (10 years) projections. A majority of respondents (52%) anticipate an unsettled global outlook in the next two years, and 62% expect “stormy or turbulent times” over the next decade. At the same time, the effectiveness of global governance to tackle international issues is in a precarious spot: global cooperation is expected to decline in the coming years, with countries focusing more on domestic issues instead of strengthening multilateral ties to address shared global challenges. A multipolar or fragmented global order is anticipated for the next decade, with regional powers, including China, India and the Gulf states, gaining influence as the Western-led order continues to weaken.
- Social inequality and injustice are a top concern: Inequality (wealth, income) is seen as the most central risk, driving other issues like societal polarization and weakening trust in shared values. The ongoing cost-of-living crisis since 2022 has intensified inequality, with economic downturns, inflation and debt identified as major contributors by respondents. Other social risks such as societal polarisation, involuntary migration or displacement, and erosion of human rights and/or civic freedoms are also prominent in the short-term. This could indicate fragile social stability over the next two years. While societal risks decrease in the long-term outlook compared to other types of risks, inequality and societal polarisation remain top concerns for the next decade. These could indicate the potential for social instability and political volatility. While broader technological risks are not as prominent in both the near-term and long-term, the report also highlights the social implications of AI and other emerging technology, which could entrench bias and inequity and worsen issues like human rights and civic freedoms.
- Environmental risks are rising in prominence: Environmental risks have worsened in both intensity and frequency since the first WEF Global Risks Report was published in 2006. While all 33 risks in the risk survey are expected to worsen between the two-year and 10-year time horizons, environmental risks rise to the top of the list. Global-scale risks like climate change and nature loss are influencing concerns over the long-term. Specifically, nature-related risks, including extreme weather events, biodiversity loss and critical changes to Earth systems, dominate the top four rankings for the next 10 years, reflecting growing concern for environmental stability. The survey found that there are differing perspectives when it comes to ranking environmental risks. For example, younger generations are more concerned about environmental issues, such as pollution, than older groups. In addition, there is a divergence between the public and private sectors in how they rank environmental risks: the public sector places pollution in the top 10 for the next decade while the same issue does not make an appearance in the Top 10 for the private sector.
