According to the World Economic Forum, the climate crisis is still underestimated

The World Economic Forum recently ended in Davos, in German Switzerland. Each year, the event reunites politicians, entrepreneurs and the civil society to discuss topics that concern the current political and financial situation. Immediately before, the Forum - which this year took place on 16-20 January - also publishes the Global Risk Report, which identifies and discusses a list of risks that could compromise the stability of the planet in the short and medium term.

Of the ten risks identified in this year's Global Risks Report, half concern the environment while the remainder concern economy, society, geopolitics and technology. If, in the list of short-term risks, the first place is occupied by the cost-of-living crisis, the first four positions in the list of medium-term risks are all occupied by those linked to the climate crisis. The most urgent, according to the World Economic Forum, deal with the lack of mitigation and non-adaptation to climate change as well as the increasingly greater number of extreme weather events.

Even the World Economic Forum study centre, therefore, clearly states that the climate crisis is one of the overall dangers the world will have to tackle over the next few years. Unlike economic or social risks, which are more elusive, we have been - theoretically - aware of the consequences of climate change for many years. There are clear models and, for decades, the scientific community has been unified in indicating exactly how and when the climate crisis will occur. Despite this abundance of information and accurate data, the World Economic Forum warns that climate change is one of the risks we are less aware of on a global level.

«Climate and environmental risks are the core focus of global risks perceptions over the next decade – and are the risks for which we are seen to be the least prepared», reads the Global Risk Report. «The lack of deep, concerted progress on climate targets has exposed the divergence between what is scientifically necessary to achieve net zero and what is politically feasible».

In addition, paradoxically, while the effects of the climate crisis will accentuate over the next few years, the economic resources available to tackle it will decrease because those same resources will be necessary to cover other parallel crises, believes the World Economic Forum. «Growing demands on public-and private-sector resources from other crises will reduce the speed and scale of mitigation efforts over the next two years, alongside insufficient progress towards the adaptation support required for those communities and countries increasingly affected by the impacts of climate change. As current crises divert resources from risks arising over the medium to longer term, the burdens on natural ecosystems will grow given their still undervalued role in the global economy and overall planetary health».