Climate change risks continue to dominate the global economic threat register even as the COVID-19 pandemic enters its third year, with fresh estimates suggesting the overall bill for last year's natural disasters and weather-related catastrophes hit $280 billion worldwide.

In the latest annual risk assessment published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) this week, climate change and extreme weather feature heavily in the top threats to the global economy in the short, medium and long-term, while there are also growing concerns over the threat to livelihoods, mental health and social cohesion in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.

However, despite the ongoing nature of the coronavirus pandemic and the continued threat from new variants, extreme weather is still listed as the greatest single threat facing the global economy over the next two years, with the failure of climate action sitting in third place. For the medium-term outlook over the the next five years, climate action failure climbs to top spot in the list of economic threats, just ahead of extreme weather.

In addition, climate and environmental threats loom large over WEF's long-term risk outlook, with climate action failure, extreme weather, biodiversity loss, natural resource crises and human environmental damage making up the entire list of the top five risks facing the global economy over the next decade.

Read the full article about climate is the largest global threat by Michael Holder at GreenBiz.