Spain joins the First Movers Coalition – but what is it and what has it achieved so far?

This article has been updated.

It's been four years since the First Movers Coalition was announced at COP26, and the need to decarbonize the so-called hard-to-abate industries has only become more urgent.

Countries from China to the UK recorded their hottest summers on record in 2025, while forest fires and extreme weather events are getting worse and more frequent.

Launched in partnership between the World Economic Forum and the then US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry in 2021, this coalition of companies has more than tripled its membership to more than 100 members who have collectively made 125 purchasing commitments across six heavy-emitting sectors and carbon removal.

On September 8, 2025, Spain became the 14th country to join the coalition as a government partner, to accelerate decarbonization efforts for the heavy-emitting sectors active across the country. The announcement was made during an event at the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX) in Madrid.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said it marked "another step forward" in the country's commitment to climate action and sustainable innovation.

By joining the First Movers Coalition, Spain positions itself as a European leader in the clean industrial transition, committed to using policy instruments to support market creation and accelerate the scale-up of clean industrial technologies.

Several Spanish companies are already members of the coalition, including sheet metal manufacturer Egui and energy companies Iberdrola and Moeve. They will be joined by infrastructure and energy firm Acciona.

Sanchez thanked them for their commitment and asked them to "be even braver and push to make this great national consensus we need a reality, because our lives depend on it."

Spain has seen a "paradigm shift" to achieve economic growth without increasing emissions, Sanchez said, adding: "Spain is currently the fourth most sustainable major economy on the planet and has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions linked to the electricity sector by 60% in the last six years."

Currently Europe's fastest-growing major economy, Spain ranks as the world's sixth largest destination for foreign direct investment, according to the Financial Times, and secured 77 new renewables projects in 2023.

It’s a platform for businesses to commit to buying zero-emission goods and services, to create demand for low-carbon technologies, make them cost-competitive and build the clean supply chains of the future.

By 2030, the commitments made to date will represent an annual demand of more than $16 billion for near-zero-emission products and services, and over 30 million tonnes (Mt) CO2e in annual emissions reductions.

The aim is for these commitments to be “significant enough” that industrial decarbonization technologies are commercially widespread within the next five years.

Half the low-carbon technologies the world needs to reach net zero by 2050 – and limit warming to 1.5 degrees – are still in the early development or prototype stages, according to the International Energy Agency.

In total, the First Movers Coalition platform operates across seven sectors that can drastically reduce global emissions, six of which do not have cost-competitive energy alternatives to fossil fuels. These are: steel, cement, aluminium, shipping, aviation and trucking.

It will cost less than 1% of global GDP for these industries to go carbon-free by 2050, according to the Energy Transitions Commission. While transitioning to a greener economy could create 24 million jobs, according to the International Labour Organization.

The seventh sector is carbon dioxide removal, which could help to reduce levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but needs greater investment in technological innovation to make it commercially viable.

In order for these technologies to make a difference by 2050, they must be ready to go by 2030.

“Technology has given us the tools to reduce our emissions and build a stronger and more inclusive economy of the future,” Børge Brende, President of the World Economic Forum, said at the launch in 2021, calling on business leaders to join the coalition.

“For innovators and investors to play their part in tackling the climate crisis, they need clear market demand. The First Movers Coalition will leverage the collective purchasing power of leading companies and drive the need for these technologies.”

There are 102 members of the First Movers Coalition. They are all companies aiming to accelerate innovation through investment in solutions that are essential to achieving the Paris climate goals.

They have all made at least one purchasing commitment to the hard-to-abate sectors:

Members have committed to using sustainable aviation fuels and other emerging technologies to significantly decarbonize air travel. Airlines and airfare and air freight purchasers will replace at least 5% of their conventional jet fuel demand with sustainable aviation fuels that reduce life-cycle emissions by 85% or more, compared with conventional jet fuel and without any offsets. This can be further supported by the use of zero-carbon-emitting propulsion technologies.

Global aluminium demand will rise by nearly 40% by 2030, according to a CRU International analysis commissioned by the International Aluminium Institute. Decarbonizing aluminium while tackling emissions will depend on upscaling primary aluminium production while leveraging new technologies. To that end, FMC's aluminium sector is sending a strong demand signal for low-carbon primary aluminium produced with less than 3t of CO2 per tonne of primary aluminium, helping to drive the development of a deeply decarbonized product. Members commit to procure low-carbon aluminium for at least 10% of all their annual primary aluminium procurement volumes by 2030. To meet the growing global demand for aluminium, the FMC is also helping in surfacing the low-carbon secondary, recycled aluminium.

Carbon Dioxide Removal is increasingly seen as a critical decarbonization tool to offset the hardest-to-abate (last 10% of) emissions. Up to 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide removal per year is expected to be needed by 2050, according to the median estimates of scenarios considered by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Members of the FMC’s Carbon Dioxide Removal sector commit to contract for durable and scalable net carbon dioxide removal to be achieved by the end of 2030, in addition to their maximal direct emissions reduction efforts.

Companies belonging to the cement and concrete sector of the FMC are across the entire value chain, from construction companies to architects, and they have committed to purchasing 10% of their cement and concrete per year as near-zero by 2030. In 2023, the FMC cement and concrete members reflected approximately $60 million in demand. Significantly, they also represent 100,000 tonnes of potential greenhouse gas abatement.

FMC members from the shipping industry have committed to use zero-emission fuels in new and retrofitted zero-emission vessels by 2030. Carriers set a target that at least 5% of their deep-sea shipping will be powered by zero-emission fuels by 2030, enabled by ships capable of using zero-emission fuels. Cargo owners have also set a target that at least 10% of the volume of their goods shipped internationally will be on ships using zero-emission fuels by 2030, on the way to 100% by 2040.

Deploying breakthrough iron and steelmaking technology is critical to deliver a net-zero steel sector with minimal residual emissions. Such technologies will include hydrogen direct reduction, carbon capture use and storage, and electrolysis-based production processes. Steel purchasers set a target that at least 10% of their annual steel procurement volumes by 2030 meet or exceed the FMC definition for near-zero emissions steel.

To create early markets for innovative clean technologies, the trucking-sector members of the First Movers Coalition have committed to purchase or contract zero-emission medium and heavy-duty vehicles, either battery or fuel-cell electric, by 2030. In particular, trucking owners and operators set a target that at least 30% of their heavy-duty and 100% of their medium-duty truck purchases will be zero-emission trucks by 2030. Concurrently, retailers & manufacturers commit to requiring all of their trucking service providers to meet the trucking owners and operators’ commitment by 2030.

These commitments were made in consultation with technical experts from public, private and civil sectors and in partnership with these existing initiatives: Getting to Zero Coalition (shipping); Climate Group, Mission Possible Partnership and Energy Transitions Commission (steel); Clean Skies for Tomorrow (aviation); Road Freight Zero (trucking).