Economic and political polarization will rise in 2020, according to the World Economic Forum's latest Global Risks report, but severe threats to the climate account for all of the top five long-term risks.
The report published Wednesday, just days before the annual WEF event kicks off in Davos, Switzerland, forecasted a year of increased domestic and international divisions as well as economic slowdown.
For the first time in the survey's 10-year outlook, the top five global risks in terms of likelihood were all environmental, with extreme weather events, human-made environmental damage and disasters and major biodiversity loss and natural disasters from earthquakes to tsunamis all the likeliest risks in 2020. In terms of the severity of impact over the next 10 years, the top risk was deemed to be the failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation.
"The political landscape is polarized, sea levels are rising and climate fires are burning. This is the year when world leaders must work with all sectors of society to repair and reinvigorate our systems of cooperation, not just for short-term benefit but for tackling our deep-rooted risks," Borge Brende, president of the World Economic Forum, said.
John Drzik, chairman of Marsh & McLennan Insights, told CNBC that the report's findings were striking. "Environmental risks have been growing as a concern in the report over that ten-year period, but this was very striking to see the top five all in the climate sphere," he told CNBC's Joumanna Bercetche.
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