To better understand and prepare for increasingly complex and interconnected global risks, the UN has issued an inaugural report summarizing the results of a global survey of stakeholders in government, the private sector, civil society, and academia, which asked participants to identify risks are most important and which risks multilateral institutions are least prepared for.

Written and produced under the guidance of the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General, the report brings together survey results, having solicited responses from “over 1,100 stakeholders across 136 countries with diverse perspectives,” ranging from government to industry, civil society, and academia. The responses revealed four groups of 11 risks that are both very important and least prepared for. The report describes these as ‘Global Vulnerabilities’:

  • Technological risks, including cybersecurity breakdown, negative outcomes of artificial intelligence (AI) and frontier technologies, and technology-driven power concentration;
  • Societal risks, including a new pandemic, biorisks, and mass movement of people;
  • Environmental risks, including natural resource shortages, biodiversity decline, natural hazard risks, and large-scale pollution; and
  • Political risks, including mis- and disinformation.

The report identifies the following risks as the most likely to occur, by timeframe:

  • 2024: mis- and disinformation;
  • 2025-3031: AI and frontier technologies;
  • 2032-2039: a new pandemic; and
  • 2040-2050: a space-based event.

Joint action between governments and multistakeholder coalitions emerged as the most effective approaches as identified by respondents. A lack of risk prioritization, consensus building, and accountability feature among critical barriers preventing such joint action, along with mistrust and information gaps, “which if addressed, could significantly improve outcomes,” according to the report.

The report concludes with four foresight scenarios: the breakdown scenario; the status quo scenario; the progress scenario; and the breakthrough scenario. These are intended not as predictions of the future but as an effort to bridge perceptions, actions, and possible outcomes.

The report’s findings “reinforce the urgency of improving global cooperation, as envisaged in the Pact for the Future.” Based on the analysis of risk importance, preparedness, and vulnerability, the UN Secretary-General commits to:

  • Immediately create a task team to strengthen the UN system’s capacity to address risks in the information ecosystem, which will focus on the effects of mis- and disinformation on UN mandate delivery, including through research, risk assessment, and response strategies;
  • By December 2025, finalize standard operating procedures that strengthen the UN system’s anticipation of and response to complex global shocks (Action 54 of the Pact for the Future); and
  • By December 2026, publish a second Global Risk Report to track changes in perception and provide updates on global risk mitigation progress.

The ‘United Nations Global Risk Report 2024’ was released in July 2025. [Publication: United Nations Global Risk Report 2024] [Executive Summary] [Online Report]