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The world is facing ever more complex, interconnected and imminent global risks, the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s annual Global Risk Report finds.

Developed in co-operation with insurers Zurich and Marsh, the report surveys almost 750 experts on 29 separate global risks for both impact and likelihood over the next decade.

The most impactful risks present threats coming from categories as diverse as societal, environmental, geopolitical and economic, forming a broader risk landscape than ever. In the 11 years since the report’s first publication, this is also the first time that environmental risks, including extreme weather events and major natural catastrophes, top the ranking. Failure of climate change mitigation is in first place in terms of impact, and in second place in terms of likelihood, which is topped by large-scale involuntary migration.

“Climate change is exacerbating more risks than ever before in terms of water crises, food shortages, constraints and economic growth, weaker societal cohesion and increased security risks,” says Cecilia Reyes, chief risk officer of Zurich Insurance Group.

Geopolitical instability, on the other hand, is exposing businesses to cancelled projects, revoked licences, interrupted production, damaged assets and restricted movement of fund across borders. “These political conflicts are in turn making the challenge of climate change all the more insurmountable – reducing the potential for political co-operation, as well as diverting resource, innovation and time away from climate change resilience and prevention,” she continues, explaining how the degree to which risks can affect and exacerbate one another is increasing.

“Events such as Europe’s refugee crisis and terrorist attacks have raised global political instability to its highest level since the Cold War. The need for business leaders to consider the implications of these risks on their firm’s footprint, reputation, and supply chain has never been more pressing,” adds John Drzik, president, global risk and specialities, Marsh.

Perhaps surprisingly given the increased frequency of high-profile hacking episodes, technological risks are quite marginalised in the survey responses. While cyber-attack risk increases slightly in terms of both impact and likelihood, others, including failure of critical information infrastructure, seem to be declining. On the other hand, the WEF’s separate survey of business leaders assessing risks for doing business finds that this is a top concern in at least eight countries including the US, Japan, Germany, Switzerland and Singapore, suggesting that the experts may be underestimating the risk of technological crises.

Other risks identified as top concerns by the business leaders surveyed relate to economic risks: unemployment and underemployment and energy price shocks. On this point, IHS’ chief global economist Nariman Behravesh has somewhat comforting news, explaining that IHS’ view is that the oil price will stabilise probably by the middle of the year. “It could go lower, briefly, but it won’t stay low, and then it will gradually come up a little bit by the end of the year as the oil market rebalances. There’s always the possibility of a shock, but I think the risk of that is fairly low,” he tells GTR.