Our thinking

Negative outlooks

24 January, 2025

This week, global leaders gathered in Davos for the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting to discuss major global and regional challenges. As ever, the meeting was preceded by the release of the Global Risk Report, based on the WEF’s Global Risks Perception Survey. The report, which analyses risks and provides insights into challenges and opportunities, paints a grim picture of a fractured global landscape with increasing risk on the horizon.  

State-based conflict is a pressing near-term threat: a risk that can be addressed through by treaties and agreements, is more pronounced in the face of unilateralism, reduced cooperation and higher military spending, meaning that the outlook for this is pessimistic.   

In the long term, climate change is expected to pose the most severe risk, with escalations in extreme weather events, biodiversity loss, critical changes to earth’s systems, and natural resource shortages. This week’s US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement is alarming, potentially stalling global climate efforts. Climate-related risks are urgent realities requiring immediate action, not a hypothetical threat.  

The path forward will be difficult. As the Davos meeting concludes, we’ll be interested to see the outcomes. Will global leaders rise to the challenge, or will failure to act decisively deepen global fractures?  

By Bertie Bateman