World Economic Forum Releases 16th Global Risks Report

The World Economic Forum (WEF) recently released the 16th edition of the Global Risks Report, since its inception in 2006.
The report shares the results of the latest Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS), completed by over 650 members of the World Economic Forum’s diverse leadership communities.
It provides current expectations of future risks, uncertainties and other factors (known and unknown), based on certain assumption.
The WEF’s Global Risks Report has been produced in partnership with Marsh McLennan, SK Group and Zurich Insurance Group

Key Features of the Report

The 2021 report centres around the ‘risks and consequences’ of ‘widening inequalities and societal fragmentation’, to determine the future.
The key findings of the survey and the analysis says that environmental risks continue to threaten and they remain top risks by ‘likelihood and impact’ in this year’s survey.
- Highest likelihood risks of the next ten years are extreme weather, climate action failure and human-led environmental damage; as well as digital power concentration, digital inequality and cybersecurity failure.
- Highest impact risks of the next decade, infectious diseases are in the top spot, followed by climate action failure and other environmental risks; as well as weapons of mass destruction, livelihood crises, debt crises and IT infrastructure breakdown.
Further, the report has divided the risks into three types of threats, which are:
- short term (0-2 years) threats: infectious diseases, livelihood crises, digital inequality and youth disillusionment
- medium term (3-5 years) threats : asset bubble bursts, IT infrastructure breakdown, price instability and debt crises
- long term (5-10 years) threats : weapons of mass destruction, state collapse, biodiversity loss and adverse technological advances