The 2015 edition of the Global Risks report completes a decade of highlighting the most significant long-term risks worldwide, drawing on the perspectives of experts and global decision-makers. Over that time, analysis has moved from risk identification to thinking through risk interconnections and the potentially cascading effects that result. Taking this effort one step further, this year’s report underscores potential causes as well as solutions to global risks. Not only do we set out a view on 28 global risks in the report’s traditional categories (economic, environmental, societal, geopolitical and technological) but also we consider the drivers of those risks in the form of 13 trends. In addition, we have selected initiatives for addressing significant challenges, which we hope will inspire collaboration among business, government and civil society communities.

In many developing countries, migration from rural areas to cities is at least partially driven by the increasing
prevalence of extreme weather, such as land degradation and desertification, making agriculture more difficult. For example, many people are migrating from dry land areas in north-east Brazil to favelas in Rio de Janeiro. The rapid, inadequate and poorly planned expansion of cities in developing countries can also leave urban populations highly exposed to the effects of climate change. For example, cities tend to be located near the sea or natural waterways, where they are more at risk of flooding. Indeed, 15 of the world’s 20 megacities – those with over 10 million inhabitants – are located in coastal zones threatened by sealevel rise and storm surges.