What the Global Risks Report 2026 Really Says About the Urgency of Environmental Threats

This article highlights how environmental risks remain among the most severe global threats in the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2026, yet their perceived urgency has shifted across time horizons. While short-term concerns are increasingly dominated by geopolitical fragmentation and misinformation, this shift does not reflect an easing of environmental threats, which are now crystallizing into persistent realities. Over the longer-term, risks such as extreme weather, biodiversity loss, and critical Earth system changes continue to dominate, with respondents describing the environmental outlook as “turbulent” or “stormy.” The article calls for strategies that absorb near-term disruption while driving long-term structural change, emphasizing that environmental risks are deeply interconnected with economic, geopolitical, and social dynamics and will increasingly shape the conditions under which global stability and prosperity unfold.