UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Large-scale war is increasingly perceived as an imminent global risk, a UN survey has found.
Large-scale war jumped 16 places in imminence in the 2026 Global Risk Report released on Tuesday, compared with the world body's first Global Risk Report in 2024.
Large-scale war represents the survey's biggest upward shift. Some 36 percent of respondents expected large-scale war within one year, and 76 percent within seven years, according to the 2026 report.
The report was based on a survey of 1,300 stakeholders in government, business, civil society, and the UN system, spanning all world regions. The respondents assessed 28 global risks across five groups: political, technological, economic, environmental and societal. For each risk, they rated how likely it is, how severe, how soon it might materialize, how ready multilateral institutions are to handle it, and what helps or blocks an effective response.
Other big upward shifts include global financial crisis (up 12 places), supply chain collapse (up 12 places) and cybersecurity breakdown (up 7 places).
The biggest downward shifts are biodiversity decline (down 17 places), large-scale pollution (down 10 places), natural resource shortages (down 8 places), and biorisks (down 8 places).
Respondents view the multilateral system as least prepared to respond to global technological risks. Out of the 28 risks, technology-driven power concentration ranks 22nd for preparedness, artificial intelligence and frontier technologies 24th, cybersecurity breakdown 26th, and geo-engineering disasters 27th.
"The 2026 Global Risk Report sets out the evidence that must inform our choices. We owe it to present and future generations to use this knowledge wisely, and to act while cooperation can still shape a safer course. The choice is ours," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the preface of the report. ■
