Climate risks, data theft top fears for Davos

LONDON, Jan 16 (AFP): The risks of catastrophic weather and flooding from climate change are exercising business leaders heading into next week's World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, the organisation said Wednesday.

An annual WEF report-based on a survey of about 1,000 respondents drawn from the Davos community of business leaders, politicians, civil society and academics-shows climate change has become the dominant concern for three years running.

Data theft and cyberattacks have joined climate change in the top tier of worries, but respondents also highlighted anxiety about worsening international relations and the risk that poses for the world economy.

Just under 90 per cent of people in the survey, conducted over September and October, expected international trading rules and agreements to weaken further, as President Donald Trump's "America First" agenda undermines the architecture on which global trade has been built.

"With global trade and economic growth at risk in 2019, there is a more urgent need than ever to renew the architecture of international cooperation," Borge Brende, president of the World Economic Forum, said in a press release accompanying the 114-page report.