Risks that are growing in severity over the The far right of the graph indicates that today’s longer term include “Biodiversity loss and most prominent risk, the “Cost-of-living crisis”, is ecosystem collapse” and “Misinformation and anticipated to drop in severity over the longer term. disinformation”. Among other technological risks, Towards the center, the scores of geopolitical risks as indicated in the far left of the graph, “Digital were mixed, with the “Use of weapons of mass inequality and lack of access to digital services” destruction” remaining consistent, “State collapse and “Adverse outcomes of frontier technologies” or severe instability” and “Ineffectiveness of are also anticipated to signi昀椀cantly deteriorate over multilateral institutions” worsening and Interstate the 10-year time frame. con昀氀ict perceived as decreasing in severity. The scores of multiple social risks are also worsening, This year, we look at 昀椀ve newly emerging or rapidly including “Severe mental health deterioration”, accelerating risks clusters – drawn from the “Collapse or lack of public infrastructure and economic, environmental, societal, geopolitical and services”, and “Chronic diseases and health technological domains, respectively – that could conditions”. In contrast, economic risks such become tomorrow’s crisis. We explore their current as “Failure to stabilize price trajectories”, “A drivers and emerging implications, and brie昀氀y touch prolonged economic downturn”, “Collapse of a on opportunities to forestall and reshape these systemically important industry or supply chain”, outcomes by acting today. and “Asset bubble burst” are perceived to fall slightly in expected severity over the 10-year time frame. FIGURE 2.2 Relative severity of risks over a 2 and 10-year period Higher 6.0 severity Failure to mitigate climate change Failure of climate-change adaption Natural disasters and extreme weather Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse Large-scale involuntary Natural resource crises migration Erosion of social cohesion Widespread cybercrime and societal polarization and cyber insecurity Geoeconomic confrontation Misinformation and disinformation Large-scale environmental 5.0 Ineffectiveness of multilateral institutions damage incidents and international cooperation Chronic diseases and health conditions Severe mental health deterioration Interstate conflict Debt crises Adverse outcomes of Cost-of-living crisis frontier technologies Failure to stabilize price trajectories Prolonged economic Long-term severity downturn Digital inquality Asset bubble burst Terrorist attacks 4.0 Collapse or lack of public infrastructure and services 3.3 3.3 4.0 5.0 6.0 Short-term severity Higher severity Risk categories Economic Environmental Geopolitical Societal Technological Source Note World Economic Forum Global Risks Severity was assessed on a 1-7 Likert scale [1 – Low severity, 7 – High severity]. Perception Survey 2022-2023. Global Risks Report 2023 30