Extreme Weather Events and Misinformation Identified as the Greatest Risks in 2024

Geneva, Switzerland, January 10, 2024. Once again this year, the Global Risks Report 2024 from the World Economic Forum has been published. This report compiles the perspectives of 1,490 global risk experts from the fields of science, business, government, the international community, and civil society, who were surveyed in September and October 2023.

The result: The World Economic Forum warns of a global risk landscape, while the willingness to cooperate in addressing urgent global issues could decline. Global prospects are predominantly assessed as negative in the short term (over the next two years). In the long term (over the next ten years), these prospects continue to deteriorate.

The risk outlook for 2024 is dominated by concerns about the risks of AI-driven misinformation and societal polarization, especially with over 70 elections taking place worldwide this year (including the US presidential elections and the elections for the European Parliament, as well as state elections in East Germany).

Environmental risks occupy the risk landscape both in the short and long term. Two-thirds of global experts are concerned in 2024 and beyond about extreme weather events, critical changes in Earth systems, loss of biodiversity, the collapse of ecosystems, scarcity of natural resources, and environmental pollution.

Global risks ranked by severity over the short and long term

Highly recommended!

You can read the Global Risks Report 2024 here.

A German summary can be found here.

 

The World Economic Forum, dedicated to improving the state of the world, is the international organization for public-private cooperation. The forum brings together key figures from politics, business, and other sectors of society to shape global, regional, and industrial agendas.