Climate Crisis Is Top Risk Facing World for Next Decade: World Economic Forum Survey

There’s little faith in the global economic recovery accelerating, with officials and business leaders citing climate change and rising social tensions, alongside the pandemic, among their top risks, the World Economic Forum found. Only one in six survey respondents from government, civil society and commerce described their outlook as optimistic, while just one in 10 thinks worldwide economic expansion will pick up speed, the WEF said Tuesday in its Global Risks Report for 2022. Worries over climate-transition failures and extreme weather conditions are among the biggest concerns, particularly in the next five to 10 years, according to the report. The pandemic has also shifted perceptions of which risks are most likely to materialize during the next decade, with climate and social concerns displacing cyber and data fraud, the study showed. “Failure to act on climate change could shrink global GDP by one-sixth,” Zurich Insurance Group’s chief risk officer, Peter Giger, said in the WEF note accompanying the report.