Top five risks for India listed

The top five risks identified for India today by an Executive Opinion Survey as per the Global Risks Report 2025 released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) are water supply shortage, misinformation and disinformation, erosion of human rights and civic freedoms, pollution (air, water, soil), and labour and talent shortages.

The 20th edition of the Global Risks Report 2025 reveals an increasingly fractured global landscape, where escalating geopolitical, environmental, societal and technological challenges threaten stability and progress, according to the WEF website. The note adds that this edition presents the findings of the Global Risks Perception Survey 2024-2025 (GRPS), which captures insights from over 900 experts worldwide. The report analyses global risks through three timeframes to support decision- makers in balancing current crises and longer-term priorities.

The Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS) has underpinned the Global Risks Report for two decades and is the World Economic Forum’s premier source of original global risks data. This year’s GRPS has brought together leading insights on the evolving global risks landscape from over 900 experts across academia, business, government, international organizations and civil society.

In its key findings, the report highlights that state-based armed conflict (proxy wars, civil wars, coups, terrorism, etc.) as the top risk for 2025. Geopolitical tensions are also associated with the rising risk of geoeconomic confrontation, which is also driven by Inequality, Societal polarization and other factors.

An analysis by India Today states that this report highlights a fractured global outlook characterised by escalating geopolitical tensions, environmental crises, societal polarization, and rapid technological advancements. The WEF report indicates that nearly 14% of experts surveyed view extreme weather events as a critical threat for 2025, while they rank as the most pressing concern for the decade ahead. Misinformation and disinformation and Societal polarization remain key current risks. The high rankings of these two risks are not surprising, says the report, considering the accelerating spread of false or misleading information, which amplifies the other leading risks we face, from State-based armed conflict to Extreme weather events.

The WEF report points out that environmental risks have consistently topped the 10-year ranking When assessing the evolution of perceptions of the four structural forces, climate change is the one that has been most consistently perceived as experiencing a clear ongoing systemic shift. Environmental risks have dramatically increased in ranking over the 10-year time horizon since the introduction of the Global Risks Report in 2006, and in recent years continuously rank as severe concerns. The highest-ranking environmental risks over the last 20 years have been critical change to earth systems, extreme weather events, natural resource shortages and pollution. The clearest example is extreme-weather events, currently ranked as the #1 risk for the next 10 years. These events are becoming more common and expensive, with the cost per event having increased nearly 77%, inflation-adjusted, over the last five decades. The effects of climate change-driven extreme weather events are being felt across the world and often hit the poorest communities the hardest. Global heat records continue to be broken. The burden of climate change is becoming more evident every year, as pollution from continued use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas leads to more frequent and severe extreme weather events. Heatwaves across parts of Asia; flooding in Brazil, Indonesia and parts of Europe; wildfires in Canada; and hurricanes Helene and Milton in the United States are just some recent examples of such events.

The report adds that such events are anticipated to become even more severe, with the risk ranked first over the next decade for the second year running. Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse ranks #2, up from #3 last year and with significant deterioration compared to its two-year ranking (#21). Critical change to earth systems at #3, natural resource shortages at #4 and pollution at #10 complete the very bleak outlook for environmental risks. Short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon and methane are accelerating the pace of climate change. Freshwater and ocean pollution are severely impacting human and ecosystem health, with antimicrobial pollution emerging as an increasing concern. Nitrogen and waste pollution are also becoming more costly, generating a range of health and ecosystem impacts.