In the annual Global Risks report the WEF named severe income disparity as the risk that was the most prevalent and also could have the greatest detriment on global growth. “For the first time in generations, many people no longer believe that their children will grow up to enjoy a higher standard of living than theirs,” said Lee Howell, the World Economic Forum managing director responsible for the report..
However, alongside this the WEF identified linked risks to infrastructure as the most significant over the next ten years. For the first time in the seven years that the report has been produced global stresses on water supply was seen as one of the most likely and most serious stresses. This was linked to the risk of increases in greenhouse gas emissions and poor adaptation to the effects of climate change.
The report also identified an extensive technological risk, saying that this was the “dark side of connectivity”. It said that linked infrastructure was vulnerable to cyber attacks, massive data fraud and theft attacks, and critical systems failure.
The report staid that organisations would be more resilient to such issues and to major shocks like the Fukushima disaster if they had clear lines of communication and employees across the organisation were empowered to take decisions.
The seventh annual report was published in cooperation with Marsh & McLennan Companies, Swiss Re, The Wharton Center for Risk Management and Zurich