Climate change big fear for world's economic leaders

CLIMATE change and the possibility of a flu pandemic are among the global threats that most preoccupy the world's business leaders, according to a study released yesterday by the World Economic Forum.

A shock to the world's oil supplies and the threat of international terrorism are the other biggest risks, but there is less worry over the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or dangers in nanotechnology, said the "Global Risks 2007" report, which is based on workshops involving corporate leaders, professors and risk analysts.

"Climate change is now seen as one of the defining challenges of the 21st century - and as a global risk with impacts far beyond the environment," said the 34-page report, which was published by the forum in collaboration with Marsh & McLennan Companies, Citigroup, Swiss Reinsurance and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

The study said carbon emissions are growing unabated and warned that increased heat-absorption caused by melting Arctic ice would accelerate and heighten the scale of climate change. It said natural disasters could spur mass migration from poor and devastated countries, energy shortages, economic and political trouble in China, a burst in housing prices in the United States and a number of factors worsening to cause major fiscal problems around the world.

The report was published two weeks before the forum's annual gathering in the Swiss resort of Davos.