World Economic Forum (WeF) Releases Global Risk Report 2023

Why in news?

• Report is published annually based on Global Risks Perception Survey.
• It highlights key risks across five categories:
  • Economic,
  • Environmental,
  • Geopolitical,
  • Societal and
• Global risk is defined as possibility of occurrence of an event or condition which, if it occurs, would negatively impact a significant proportion of global GDP, population, or natural resources.
• Global risks ranked by severity over short and long term.

Key findings

• Top 5 risks for India are Digital inequality, Geopolitical contest for resources, Cost-of-living crisis, Debt crises, Natural disasters and Extreme weather events over short and medium term.
• Cost of living dominates global risks in next 2 years while climate action failure dominates next decade.
• Economic after effects of COVID-19 and Ukraine war resulted in rising inflation, rapid normalization of monetary policies, low-growth, low-investment era.
• Technology such as AI, quantum computing and biotechnology, etc. will exacerbate inequalities and digital divide.
• Only 34% of climate finance currently allocated to climate adaptation worldwide.
• Recommendations
  • Investing in multi-domain, cross-sector risk preparedness.
  • Improving risk identification and foresight.
  • Re-building and strengthening global risk preparedness cooperation.

About WEF

• WEF established in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
• It is International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.