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The World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, held in January 2025, convened nearly 3,000 global leaders under the theme "Collaboration for the Intelligent Age."
The conference also addressed issues among others related to “Safeguarding the Planet” and improvements of carbon markets.
While the Annual Meeting was marked by Trump’s virtual address to global CEOs emphasized a pro-business agenda, with tax reforms and deregulation aimed at bolstering the U.S. economy, other participants focused on the pressing issues humanity can not afford to overlook.
Former US Vice-President Al Gore stated in his introductory speech that "The world releases 175 million tonnes of greenhouse gases daily into the atmosphere. That's insane for us to allow that to continue".
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres delivered a stark warning about the dangers of continued fossil fuel dependence, likening it to a "Frankenstein monster" threatening global stability.
Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), suggested that in the competitive market that has emerged “anyone who steps back … will create a vacuum that others will fill”.
The juxtaposition of opposed political perspectives highlight the escalating struggle between short-term economic agendas and imperative environmental sustainability efforts necessary to secure a liveable Planet for future generations.
The annual Global Risks Report published ahead of the event highlighted that over the last two decades, environmental risks have increased to represent the greatest source of long-term concern. This is according to the perception of the Forum's 2025 Global Risks respondents. More on this report in this article.
Amidst global tensions, it is no surprise that misinformation and disinformation remain the top global risks for 2027. WEF explores the current and predicted state of global cooperation in ‘The Global Cooperation Barometer 2025’.
The year 2024 was the warmest on record, capping the ten warmest years and extreme weather events continue to pose significant risks for 2027.
Over the next decade, environmental risks are projected to intensify, with extreme weather, biodiversity loss, and disruptions to Earth's systems emerging as the most severe challenges (top 4).
According to Johan Rockström, Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), the Planet is weakening in its capacity to handle environmental pressures.
Speakers at the 'State of Climate and Nature' session presented 5 possible ways to get climate back on track.
Harnessing AI for Climate Solutions: AI tools such as Climate Trace can help monitor global emissions from million sources using satellites and ground data. Machine learning enables pattern analysis, forecasting, decision-making and balancing energy supply-demand in grids.
Transforming Energy Infrastructure: the energy transition requires intelligent, decentralized grids and advanced energy storage for renewable reliability. Infrastructure remains the biggest bottleneck for the clean energy revolution.
Setting Ambitious Short-Term Targets: shorter deadlines, like 2030, motivate teams and ensure accountability compared to distant goals like 2050 or 2100.
Inspiration Over Command: personal inspiration fosters genuine motivation and long-term commitment to green transformations. We need more influential, pro-climate leaders to inspire active participation in climate efforts.
'Net-Zero' Shouldn’t Be an Excuse: companies should prioritize eliminating fossil fuel use directly, addressing emissions at their source, and add additional solutions such as carbon offsets and removals to reach Net Zero.
In the climate context, governments and international finance institutions have a key role to play especially when it comes to climate adaptation and mitigation, as well as to discontinue funding harmful to biodiversity (e.g. overfishing) and the environment (e.g. fossil fuels).
Panelists in a WEF session on climate finance stressed the high costs that represent tackling climate change or stopping nature loss. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated in January 2024 that the Asia-Pacific region alone faces a shortfall of at least US$800 billion (S$1.1 trillion) in climate financing, after accounting for existing sources such as government funding.
Guidance on the Finance Transition offered by the Transition Finance Transformation Map —Source: WEF
This is where carbon and environmental markets are increasingly considered vehicles to raise new funds from the private sector and generate additional benefits.
Carbon credit markets provide a vital funding source for environmental projects, and could be expanded to other natural resources, such as biodiversity and water credit markets.
Key questions raised included how to quantify biodiversity, given its intrinsic but challenging-to-measure value, whether this approach risks commodifying nature, and the feasibility of integrating these credit types into existing carbon credit frameworks.
Singapore's President Tharman Shanmugaratnam concluded that we should “Find all the imperfect mechanisms and find ways to make them work better".
SeaLegacy Co-Founder and Lead Storyteller, Cristina Mittermeier, stressed our unity with Planet Earth and its oceans, suggesting that: “If you want to talk about solutions for Planet Earth, we have three that have been working for thousands of years – biodiversity, the Ocean, and the knowledge of indigenous peoples.”
Participants also discussed key elements of the agenda for the upcoming COP30 in Brazil and how all stakeholders can unlock a new era for collaboration on climate and nature.
This year at Davos, 03 projects positive but quite unconventional to the theme were announced.
The Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor–stretching through the Congo Basin, from Virunga to Kinshasa, the transformative initiative is home to 10,000 bird species–including preservation of over 100,000 km² of tropical forest and 60,000 km² of vital peatlands. This corridor has the potential to sequester global emissions equivalent to three years.
Future of Minerals Forum–a dedicated initiative aimed at overcoming the looming supply shortage of critical minerals pivotal to the green energy transition. Achieving net-zero by 2050 requires tripling annual demand, and an estimated 300 new mines will be required within the next decade to support battery production alone.
Reskilling Revolution-a global initiative spanning 40 countries that fosters collaboration among businesses, governments, and civil society to equip one billion people with future-focused skills by 2030.
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