Year Published: 2021
Date Published: 19/01/2021
Research Link: https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Risks_Report_2021.pdf
Methodology: The Global Risks Horizon
For each of the 35 global risks listed in Appendix A, respondents were asked to identify when they believe a risk will become a critical threat to the world, within the following timeframes:
– Short-term threats: 0–2 years
– Medium-term threats: 3–5 years
– Long-term threats: 5–10 years
A simple tally for each of the 35 global risks was calculated on this basis. The results are illustrated in the Global Risks Horizon 2021 (Figure I).
Key Takeaways:
The World Economic Forum.
In partnership with Marsh McLennan, SK Group and Zurich Insurance Group
The immediate human and economic cost of COVID-19 is severe. It threatens to scale back years of progress on reducing poverty and inequality and to further weaken social cohesion and global cooperation. Job losses, a widening digital divide, disrupted social interactions, and abrupt shifts in markets could lead to dire consequences and lost opportunities for large parts of the global population. The ramifications—in the form of social unrest, political fragmentation and geopolitical tensions—will shape the effectiveness of our responses to the other key threats of the next decade: cyberattacks, weapons of mass destruction and, most notably, climate change.
In the Global Risks Report 2021, we share the results of the latest Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS), followed by analysis of growing social, economic and industrial divisions, their interconnections, and their implications on our ability to resolve major global risks requiring societal cohesion and global cooperation.
We conclude the report with proposals for enhancing resilience, drawing from the lessons of the pandemic as well as historical risk analysis. The key findings of the survey and the analysis are included below.