civil society and academia placing Pollution as a top 10 risk, but not the private sector or international organizations (Figure 2.4). Section 2.3, Pollution at a crossroads explores under-appreciated pollutant risks that are likely to become more top of mind by 2035, given their significant impacts on health and ecosystems. Unless concrete action is taken today to address polluting activities, these impacts will only worsen. Looking further down the 10-year risk ranking (Chapter 1, Figure G), many positions have remained stable year-on-year, including Concentration of strategic resources and technologies (#13), Censorship and surveillance (#14), Asset bubble bursts (#30), Inflation (#32) and Non-weather related natural disasters (#33) as the lowest-ranked risk. Adverse outcomes of frontier technologies (#23) has also remained relatively stable, increasing just one position since last year’s report. The risks that have seen the biggest falls in their 10-year ranking compared to last year’s report are Intrastate violence, down seven positions to #29 and Decline in health and well-being, down eight positions to #28. The latter three risks – Adverse outcomes of frontier technologies, Intrastate violence, and Decline in health and well-being – are all related to Section 2.4, Losing control of biotech?, which provides an in-depth analysis of risks in the sector. Advances in biotech are leading to increasingly fast progress in medicine and explain, perhaps, some of the increased optimism regarding the Decline in health and well-being risk. But this progress comes alongside new low-probability, but high- impact risks. These include interstate or Intrastate violence from biological terrorism, and Adverse outcomes of frontier technologies involving accidental or malicious misuse of gene editing technologies or of brain-computer interfaces. Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse Extreme weather events Critical change to Earth systems Natural resource shortages PollutionLatin America and the Caribbean Extreme weather events Critical change to Earth systems Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse Societal polarization Natural resource shortagesNorthern America Extreme weather events Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse Critical change to Earth systems Natural resource shortagesCyber espionage and warfareEastern Asia Cyber espionage and warfare Adverse outcomes of AI technologies State-based armed conﬂict Natural resource shortages Extreme weather eventsMiddle East and Northern Africa Extreme weather events Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse Critical change to Earth systems Misinformation and disinformation Involuntary migration or displacementEurope 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Extreme weather events Lack of economic opportunity Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse Crime and illicit economic activity Natural resource shortagesSub-Saharan Africa Critical change to Earth systems Extreme weather events Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse Adverse outcomes of AI technologies Misinformation and disinformationSouth-Eastern Asia Extreme weather events Pollution Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse Critical change to Earth systems InequalitySouthern Asia 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5thGlobal risks over the long term (10 years), by region FIGURE 2.3 Source World Economic Forum Global Risks Perception Survey 2024-2025.Risk categories Economic Environmental Geopolitical Societal Technological Note Each column represents the top 5 risks by region. Sample size by region varied, and all respondents were weighted equally for the purposes of global rankings. The results are based on the following: Eastern Asia, n = 38 (4% of total), Europe, n = 345 (40%), Latin America and the Caribbean, n = 105 (12%), Middle East and Northern Africa, n = 52 (6%), Northern America, n = 140 (16%), South-Eastern Asia, n = 46 (5%), Southern Asia, n = 78 (9%) and Sub-Saharan Africa, n = 49 (6%). Global Risks Report 2025 45