Climate change overtakes pandemics as greatest worry for global experts

Climate change overtakes pandemics as greatest worry for global experts

Global experts are now more worried about the failure to act on the climate crisis than they are about infectious diseases, as the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow and major protest movements put the issue in sharp focus.

Three environmental risks - climate action failure, extreme weather, and biodiversity loss - were more worrying than anything else, according to the World Economic Forum's annual survey of global risks.

The COVID-19 pandemic knocked worries about climate action off the top of the list in early 2020. Climate change had also been the biggest concern in 2016, just after the Paris Agreement talks.