WEF Global Risks Report: Armed conflict, climate change, mis/disinformation are critical threats
The World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Risks Report 2025, identified armed conflict and climate change and Misinformation

The World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Risks Report 2025, identified armed conflict and climate change and Misinformation/Disinformation as critical global threats, followed by other pressing risks. Escalating armed conflict and extreme weather events driven by climate change are seen as the most urgent threats facing the global economy in 2025. The report states that state-based armed conflict is identified as the most pressing immediate global risk for 2025, with nearly one-quarter of respondents ranking it as the most severe concern for the year ahead.
Misinformation and disinformation remain top short-term risks for the second consecutive year, underlining their persistent threat to societal cohesion and governance by eroding trust and exacerbating divisions within and between nations. Other leading short-term risks include extreme weather events, societal polarization, cyber-espionage and warfare.
Environmental risks dominate the longer-term outlook, with extreme weather events, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, critical change to Earth systems and natural resources shortages leading the 10-year risk rankings. The fifth environmental risk in the top 10 is pollution, which is also perceived as a leading risk in the short term. Its sixth-place ranking in the short term reflects a growing recognition of the serious health and ecosystem impacts of a wide range of pollutants across air, water and land. Overall, extreme weather events were identified prominently as immediate, short-term and long-term risks. The long-term landscape is also clouded by technological risks related to misinformation, disinformation and adverse outcomes of AI technologies.
The report, which draws on the views of over 900 global risks experts, policy-makers and industry leaders surveyed in September and October 2024, paints a stark picture of the decade ahead. Respondents are far less optimistic about the outlook for the world over the longer term than the short term. Nearly two-thirds of respondents anticipate a turbulent or stormy global landscape by 2035, driven in particular by intensifying environmental, technological and societal challenges.
The report released ahead of the WEF annual meeting in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland from January 20 to 24, 2025 outlines the pressing challenges that the global community must address, focusing on climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. The theme of this year’s meeting, Collaboration for the Intelligent Age, underscores the importance of cooperative global efforts to tackle these critical environmental issues.
Since the report’s first edition in 2006, extreme weather events have been categorised under “environmental risks.” These events have climbed into the top six risks annually since 2014, ranking as the foremost global risk from 2017 to 2020 and regaining that position in 2024.
The risks associated with extreme weather events also is a key concern for the year ahead, with 14% of respondents selecting it. 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.
Similar to last year, misinformation and disinformation and societal polarization remain key current risks, in positions #4 and #5 respectively. The high rankings of these two risks is not surprising 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. A sense of increasingly fragmented societies is reflected by four of the top 10 risks expected to present a material crisis in 2025 being societal in nature: Societal polarization (6% of respondents)
Report ranks global risks ranked by severity over the short and long terms, where mis and disinformation is ranked as top risk in the short term (next 2 years)., whereas extreme weather events are ranked on the top as part of long term global risks.