WEF: 2026 Global Risk Report
This year’s findings display heightened short-term concerns compared to last year, with a 14 percentage-point increase in respondents selecting a turbulent or stormy outlook over the next two years. Which has contributed to the emergence multipolar landscape otherwise labelled the "age of competition," where the currency of collaboration is "losing its value."
Other key findings include:
- Environmental concerns are being deprioritized relative to non-environmental risks - In the next 10 years, environmental risks have retained their ranking as the most severe risks, with Extreme weather events identified as the top risk and half of the top 10 risks being environmental .
- The multilateral system is under pressure - Geoeconomic confrontation was selected as the top risk most likely to trigger a material global crisis in 2026 by 18% of respondents, increasing two positions from last year.
- Economic downturn and Inflation are both up eight positions, to #11 and #21 respectively, with a similar uptick for Asset bubble burst, up seven positions to #18
- Technological risks are increasing, largely unchecked - Misinformation and disinformation and Cyber insecurity ranked #2 and #6, respectively, on the two-year outlook. Adverse outcomes of AI is the risk with the largest rise in ranking over time, moving from #30 on the two-year outlook to #5 on the 10-year outlook.
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