The World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos 2025 is unfolding against a backdrop of escalating global challenges. The Global Risks Report 2025 highlights a fractured global landscape where geopolitical, environmental, societal, and technological risks are converging to threaten stability. The report emphasises the pressing need for collective action, as environmental risks dominate long-term concerns. At the same time, technological threats, such as adverse outcomes from artificial intelligence, are still in their early stages but pose a growing and significant threat.
Safeguarding the Planet has emerged as one of the central themes, with panels of leaders convening to discuss the need in forging innovative partnerships, accelerating investments in clean technologies, and developing equitable energy systems. The objective: achieving ambitious climate and nature goals, including Net Zero, to safeguard the planet and its people.
Key Insights on the Path to Net Zero at Davos
Nature and Climate: A Stocktake — Discussions revealed that the Earth is “losing resilience”. Six of nine planetary boundaries are now operating beyond safe limits, pushing the planet toward potential ecological collapse. In light of this, business leaders were called upon to move beyond target-setting and demonstrate tangible progress in their transition efforts.
European_Deal: Industrial, Clean or Green, Road to COP30 — Jesper Brodin, CEO of Ingka Group (IKEA), characterised the path toward Net Zero, decarbonisation, and societal transformation as both “massive” and “unstoppable.” Echoing this, leaders including Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo emphasised the critical importance of collaboration both within and across governments, corporations, and civil society. This unified approach, they argue, is key to ushering in a new era of climate action while driving meaningful change.
State of Climate and Nature — At Davos 2025, influential voices such as former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez underscored the potential of innovation and collaboration to transform the climate crisis into an opportunity for meaningful progress. However, they stressed that global efforts continue to fall short of the urgency required, calling for bold, unified action to bridge the widening gap between ambition and reality.
Getting EV Supply Chains Right – One area of optimism in scaling Net Zero was the ongoing evolution of electric vehicle (EV) markets with projections suggest over 30 million new EVs will hit the road by 2027. However, scaling production will require manufacturers to secure sustainable and resilient supply chains for critical components and materials. This emphasis on innovation extended to investments in climate and clean technologies that not only mitigate environmental risks but also drive equitable transitions.
The New Trilemma: Climate, Development, and the Middle Class — OECD nations are expected to spend 2% of their GDP annually on green industrial policies, a tenfold increase from pre-COVID levels. However, this shift introduces a “trilemma” – a challenge in balancing three competing objectives of climate mitigation, global development, and middle-class prosperity. Green policies may raise energy prices, burdening middle-class households, and restrict fossil-fuel-based development pathways critical to many Global South nations. A failure to address these trade offs can lead to increased polarisation, highlighting the need for more dynamic, fair and equitable strategies to Net Zero.
Green Ambitions, Real Trade-Offs — More than 50% of the world’s 2,000 largest companies have incorporated climate targets into their business strategies. However, fewer than 20% take into account how these targets affect workers, communities, consumers, and supply chains. This gap highlights the urgent need for an equitable transition, one that prioritises both environmental sustainability and social justice.
Davos 2025: Charting the Path to Net Zero
Key white papers released by the WEF ahead of Davos 2025, such as United for Net Zero: Public-Private Collaboration to Accelerate Industry Decarbonization and Bridging the Gap: How to Finance the Net-Zero Transition, emphasise two critical points for achieving Net Zero. First, they highlight the vital role of public-private partnerships and private capital in addressing the climate finance gap, which must increase sevenfold by 2030 to meet global goals. Second, they outline how businesses can overcome systemic barriers and accelerate the transition to Net Zero by fostering closer collaboration with public stakeholders, driving both innovation and promoting sustainable economic growth.
As Davos 2025 concludes, the conversations and insights serve as a powerful reminder that achieving Net Zero is not simply about setting ambitious goals—it is about addressing systemic barriers, fostering inclusivity, and mobilizing collaboration and innovation at an unprecedented scale to turn targets into reality.
