Climate change and nature loss pose greatest risks for humanity: WEF Global Risk Report 2024

The World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Risks Report 2024 counts extreme weather events and critical change to Earth systems as the greatest concerns facing the world over the next decade.

While misinformation and disinformation is seen as the biggest short-term risk over the next two years, environmental risks dominate over a ten-year period.

The report found the top four most severe risks over the next ten years to be: extreme weather events, critical change to Earth systems, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, and natural resource shortages. Pollution also features within the top ten most severe risks. Concerningly, the report argues that cooperation on urgent global issues could be in increasingly short supply, underlining the importance of concerted action and collaboration to address the climate and nature emergencies.

“The interlinked crises of climate change and biodiversity loss are among the most severe risks the world has to contend with and cannot be tackled in isolation. We’ve just lived through the hottest year on record with lives and livelihoods devastated by searing heatwaves and catastrophic floods and storms. Unless we take urgent action the threat is only set to intensify, pushing us closer to inflicting irreversible damage on society and ecosystems," said Kirsten Schuijt, Director General of WWF International.

"These findings come on top of the scathing recent analysis by the EU Environment Agency showing that the EU is in danger of missing most of its 2030 environmental policy targets. Ahead of the EU elections, political parties must demonstrate their commitment to safeguarding our planet's future and fulfil the promise of the European Green Deal. This requires a fundamental redesign of our economy to more rapidly wean it off fossil fuels and make full use of healthy ecosystems as our strongest ally. Only then can the EU guarantee the safety and well-being of its people and increase its autonomy and resilience,“ added Ester Asin, Director of the WWF European Policy Office.

“By all working together to better protect and manage the Earth’s resources, we can turn the tide on nature loss and secure a brighter future for our planet, our common home. Governments and businesses can make 2024 the year they restore credibility and rebuild trust by getting on track to meet their 2030 climate and nature commitments - there’s no time to delay. This is essential to safeguard communities and the nature that sustains us all,” concluded Kirsten Schuijt.

Notes to Editors

The WEF Global Risks Report 2024 finds that environmental risks continue to dominate the risks landscape. Two-thirds of global experts are worried about extreme weather events in 2024. Extreme weather, critical change to Earth systems, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, natural resource shortages and pollution represent five of the top 10 most severe risks perceived to be faced over the next decade. WWF is concerned that countries are not on track to meet their 2030 commitments under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, Paris Agreement and UN Sustainable Development Goals: The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework has a 2030 mission “to take urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss to put nature on a path to recovery…” Just over a year after its adoption, progress on delivering revised national biodiversity strategies (NBSAPs) and the necessary funding has been slow.

WWF is concerned that the pace and scale of action is failing to match the promise of the agreement. WWF has published a set of criteria for ambitious NBSAPs in The NBSAPs We Need. The Paris Agreement has an overarching goal to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.” The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicates that to limit global warming to 1.5°C, greenhouse gas emissions must peak before 2025 at the latest and decline 43% by 2030. While WWF welcomed the recent commitment at COP28 to transition away from fossil fuels as a significant moment, it is clear that for a liveable planet we need to see a full phase out of all fossil fuels as well as much greater funding to help those in harm’s way.

Ensuring that the climate and nature crises are tackled in an integrated way is essential to success. WWF's recent Breaking Silos report sets out how national governments can strengthen synergies between their national climate plans (NDCs) and NBSAPs.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by UN member states in 2015 has the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at its heart. The most recent UN evaluation found that, despite progress in some areas, the SDGs were “in peril” with half of the targets evaluated showing “moderate or severe deviations from the desired trajectory”. Science is clear that realising the promise of the SDGs relies on nature.

Business is instrumental in meeting the goals set by the Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement. By using target setting frameworks, such as the Science Based Targets Initiative and Science Based Targets Network (SBTN), businesses can reduce negative impacts on climate and nature. The WWF Risk Filter Suite can help companies to assess and lessen their nature-related risks. So far over one million locations have been uploaded by more than 10,000 registered users. That’s over a million places in the world where businesses understand better their biodiversity and water impacts and dependencies.

Cover photo: The EU needs to reboost the Green Deal to warrant safety and well-being and increase resilience.