Climate change has ranked as the top risk for three years in a row. (Credit: Nicola/Adobe Stock)

Climate change, geopolitical instability and cybersecurity are the top risks worrying experts and the general public, according to AXA’s 2024 Future Risks Report.

The report is based on a survey of 3,000 experts from 50 countries and a representative sample of 20,000 individuals from 15 countries. Respondents were asked to rank their top 10 emerging risks based on their potential impact on society over the next five to 10 years.

The report also found both experts (92%) and the public (90%) believe crises have been increasing in recent years. Respondents — 93% of experts and 91% of the public — also believe these crises are having an increasingly significant impact on people’s lives.

“There’s an increasing feeling of global vulnerability when it comes to all of these risks becoming really, really tangible in our daily lives,” said Florian Richard, AXA XL’s chief risk officer for the Americas and head of underwriting risk, on a recent episode of the RIMS podcast.

This is the third year in a row where climate change, geopolitical instability and cybersecurity have ranked in the top three. Artificial intelligence ranked fourth for the second year in a row, highlighting its growing importance as both a key tool and a threat.

“It’s not surprising to see AI come at the very top of the rankings,” Richard said. “AI can be a risk in itself. You can think about how it can displace jobs. It can pose even an existential threat to mankind to some extent. But it also enhances existing risks. Think about privacy invasion, cybersecurity threats. All of these AI algorithms can facilitate those other kinds of risk.”

With important elections happening in many countries, social tensions and movements also rose in the rankings, from eighth last year to fifth this year. New security threats and terrorism ranked eighth this year; last year, it didn’t make the top 10.

Other risks have fallen in the rankings. While pandemics and infectious diseases topped the list in 2020, they now rank ninth. Energy risks were fourth in 2022, but they came in seventh this year.

Regardless of which threats prevail, 87% of experts said they believe the world is more vulnerable to risks than it was five years ago. Most (91%) said insurers play an important role in protecting people against emerging risks.

“Where the survey is really clear is insurers have a key role to play in protecting people from these emerging risks moving forward,” Richard said. “I think as an insurer you need to constantly evolve your expertise, knowledge, capabilities to be able to meet these new risks.”

See also:

• New York faces worst wildfire season in more than a decade
• The constuction industry's evolving risk environment
• Extreme weather spurs AI adoption in insurance industry