Global Risks Report 2017: Twelfth Edition
The 12th edition of the Global Risks Report features perspectives from nearly 750 experts on 30 global risks. The report also assesses the potential interconnections and outcomes of 13 underlying trends over a 10-year timeframe. The Global Risks Report also provides country-level data on how businesses perceive global risks in their countries.
The world is currently going through complex transitions, from preparing for a low-carbon future and unprecedented technological change to adjusting to new global economic and geopolitical realities.These transitions place even greater emphasis on leaders to practice long-term thinking, investment and international cooperation.
There is also a growing recognition that the response to environmental risks cannot be delivered by international agencies and governments alone. It requires new approaches that take a wider “systems view” of the interconnected challenges, and that involve a larger and more diverse set of actors.
Key messages on global risks include the following:
- Trends such as rising income inequality and societal polarization triggered political change in 2016 and could exacerbate global risks in 2017 if urgent action is not taken;
- Key drivers of risks can be arrested or reversed through building more inclusive societies, for which international cooperation and long-term thinking will be vital;
- Climate change ranks alongside income inequality and societal polarization as a top trend for 2017, with all five environmental risks featuring for the first time among the most likely and most impactful risks before the world.