By Carolyn Cohn

LONDON (Reuters] – One in ten World Economic Forum members surveyed believes that the global recovery would accelerate over the next three year period, according to a poll of more than 1,000 government, academic and business leaders. Only six percent are positive about the outlook for the world.

Respondents to the WEF’s annual risk report on Tuesday identified climate change as their number one threat. However, erosion of social cohesion and livelihood crises, as well as mental health deterioration, were the risks that had grown the most in the time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Saadia Zahidi from the WEF, managing director, stated, “Global leaders should come together to form a cohesive multi-stakeholder strategy to face unrelenting challenges around the world and strengthen resilience in anticipation of the next crisis.”

The survey revealed that extreme weather was viewed as the greatest risk to the planet in the near term, and failures of climate action over the long-term – between two and 10 years – according to the report.

The U.N. COP26 Climate Conference in November 2013 was widely praised for its ability to keep alive hopes of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. However, nearly 200 nations wanted to take more from the conference in Glasgow.

We already see climate change contributing to the increase in extreme weather conditions.

Peter Giger (group chief risk officer, Zurich Insurance), said that failure to address climate change would result in a one-sixth of global GDP shrinkage and that the commitments made at COP26 were still inadequate to reach the 1.5 degree Celsius goal.

Four areas of risk are also highlighted in the WEF report: cybersecurity and a disorderly transition to a warmer climate, as well as migration pressures.

With the possibility of over 70,000 satellite launch in the coming decade, space tourism will increase and there are increased risks for collisions.

“Who controls space?” Carolina Klint was the risk manager for Continental Europe at Marsh Insurance Brokers, which helped to produce this report.

Each year, the report is released prior to the annual WEF meeting at Davos. The spread of Omicron coronavirus led to Geneva’s WEF postponing the January meeting until the middle 2022.

This report was jointly produced with Zurich and Marsh McLennan, (NYSE:), South Korea’s SK Group and Oxford, Pennsylvania, and the National University of Singapore.