The World Economic Forum (WEF) recently released its 2025 Global Risk Report. It is the 20th such report. Saasia Zahidi the Managing Director, in her preface to states:
“This is the 20th edition of the Global Risks Report. Looking back over the last two decades, environmental risks have steadily consolidated their position as the greatest source of long-term concern. This year’s Global Risks Perception Survey shows that a sense of alarm is also mounting in the shorter term: Environmental problems, from extreme weather to pollution, are here now and the need to implement solutions is urgent.” (1)
I concluded a CERM article on the 2023 Global Risk Assessment Survey with this statement. “How the emphasis on climate related risks compared to the other risks plays out politically has yet to be determined. What is clear, the World Economic Forum is emphasizing climate risk.” (2)
Obviously climate risks are difficult to deal with politically. That begs the question. Can the other top short term and long-term risks be more effectively delt with? If not, then the survey might not be as important as is often claimed.
Methodology
The survey reflects the responses of over 11,000 business leaders in 121 countries. The survey was conducted from September 2 to October 18, 2024. In addition, the report integrates the qualitative analysis of over 96 experts from across the WEF’s platforms.
Global Risk Definition and Categorization
The survey defines Global Risk “as the possibility of the occurrence of an event or condition that, if it occurs, would negatively impact a significant portion of global GDP, population or national resources.”
The identified risks are categorized as short-term risks, 1-2 years and long-term risks, 10 years or more.
Having laid out the parameters, let us turn to the risks both short-term and long. Table 1 below shows the top ten short-term risks for 2023, 2024, and 2025. This provides a sense of the concerns of WEF survey respondents over time.
attacks/Cyber Espionage/warfare, Involuntary Migration/displacement and Societal Polarization. International Conflict is the fifth rated risk in 2024, while State-based armed conflict is rated number 3 in 2025. Neither appear among the top ten short term risks for 2023.
Aside from mitigating or preventing cybercrimes and attacks, and reducing pollution, which would have to be localized geographically, there is not much an individual organization can do. This is a problem with the risk survey. It is more feel good, rather than actionable. This is because most mitigative actions must be taken by individual governments. Governments which might not see things the same way as the WEF attendees. This also a problem also in the long-term risks list.
The long-term risks identified by WEF are dominated by climate concerns. Extreme Weather Events are the top long-term risks for 2024 and 2025. It was the third rated risk in 2023. In 2023 Extreme Weather Events is ranked below Failure to Mitigate Climate Change number 1, and Failure of Climate Change Adaption number 2. Neither Climate Change issues appear in 2024 or 2025 lists. Biodiversity Loss and Ecosystem Collapse moved from 4 in 2023, to 3 in 2024 to 2 in 2025. Cybersecurity went from number 8 in 2023 and 2024 to number 9 in 2025. Pollution did not appear in the top ten risks for 2023 but was ranked number 10 for 2024 and 2025.
Assessment
There are questions about whether the critical risks highlighted in the WEF Risk survey reflect the current political environment or actionable items. For instance, misinformation sounds good. It is possible to limit or correct it. But what is misinformation? Who makes that decision? Similarly, Erosion of Social Cohesion/Social Polarization, appears in all three years. What does that mean? Are we talking about tribal or religious conflicts? Many of which appear within specific geographic regions and have long historical roots. Or are we talking about conflict between countries, such as the Russian/Ukraine War? If State Based Armed Conflicts are such a great short-term risk, ranking 3 behind extreme weather in the short-term ranking, why has not the World Economic Forum strongly advocated for a cease fire and end to the war?
There is a frustration with many risks not only being ill defined for actionable purposes, but with them being more pie in the sky. Cybersecurity is a prime example of an actionable risk which the respondents have essentially given up on. It is identified as one of the top ten short term risks. Ten years out, it also appears as a long-term risk. This essentially says we, the WEF survey respondents, the captains of industry worldwide, are not capable of dealing with this problem.
On the pie in the sky side. What does Natural Resource Shortage mean? Natural Resources are distributed unevenly throughout the world. That is not a man-made cause. It is a result of the earth’s formation. What is the actionable item, scoop up half of a resource rich country and place that material in an area less resource rich?
Given the trend towards stressing risks which are very difficult to solve politically, and not providing any real mitigative actions, like advocating the end of the Russian/Ukraine war, how seriously should one take the results of the survey?
Endnotes
- World Economic Forum, 2025, The Global Risks Report 2025 20th edition Insight Report, page 4, https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-risks-report-2025.
- Kline, James J. 2023, World Economic Forum Risk Assessment Report, CERM Insights #405, February 5.
Bio:
James J. Kline has a PhD from Portland State University. He has worked for the federal, state, and local government. He has consulted on economic, quality and workforce development issues. He has authored numerous articles on quality and risk management. His books Enterprise Risk Management in Government: Implementing ISO 31000:2018 and Risk Based Thinking for Government, are available on Amazon. He edited “Quality Disrupted” which is also available on Amazon.