A net zero carbon future for cities
The World Economic Forum is convening stakeholders with a role to play for global cities to have a chance of reaching the net zero carbon goal for by 2030.
Communities
Global Future Councils
Platforms
Communities
Global Future Councils
Platforms
Shaping the Future of Energy, Materials and Infrastructure
Watch the overview
Enabling business, governments and society to grow sustainable economies, help to halt climate change, and create a more equitable world.
A transition of energy, materials, and infrastructure is needed in the next two decades to keep global temperature increases below 1.5 degrees while ensuring the energy future is affordable, secure and inclusive. New trends and technologies are changing energy production, delivery and consumption. In parallel, world demand for raw materials could double by 2060. Getting on track to net-zero emissions by 2050 will require annual investment in clean energy infrastructure to reach nearly $4 trillion by 2030.
All of this will require a radical restructuring of the economy. Our Platform works with 6 main industries
- Engineering and Construction
- Mining and Metals
- Chemicals and Materials
- Oil and Gas
- Electricity
- Advanced Energy Solutions
to nurture and consolidate leading industry actions, incubate industry-driven initiatives on platforms within and outside the Forum, implement industry focus of institutional activities (eg ESG), and catalyze the transformation of the energy, materials and infrastructure industries at large.
To enable the transition, our Platform currently focuses on the following five key issues:
Energy and Industry Transition Intelligence: Accelerate transition of national energy systems and key industrial sectors through fact-based frameworks, dialogues and tools to benchmark progress of national energy systems and industrial transformation towards net zero emissions – promoting an inclusive understanding of priorities and challenges.
Initiatives:
Country and Regional Transition Acceleration: Mobilize efforts and investments to significantly contribute to the clean energy transition in countries and regions where the economy at large, energy demand and emissions are growing the most.
Initiatives:
- Mobilizing Investment for Clean Energy in Emerging Economies
- International Energy Community: China
- Energy Transition Country Roundtables
Net-Zero Carbon Cities: Align and scale efforts across private and public sectors to help national and city level leaders meet their emission reduction targets by creating an efficient, electric and circular urban energy landscape.
Initiatives:
Transforming Industrial Ecosystems: Consolidate the strategies and multi-stakeholder coalitions that will deliver net-zero materials industrial ecosystems, unlock the frontier technologies and agile human capital management that will enable them, and design new approaches towards their future performance.
Initiatives:
- Low-Carbon-Emitting Technologies
-
Mission Possible Partnership (including sectors such as Aluminium, Cement and Concrete, Steel) - Accelerating Clean Hydrogen
- Net-Zero Industrial Clusters
Clean Power and Electrification: address the roadblocks and enablers to scale clean power and electrification and mobilizing stakeholders to implement the necessary actions.
Initiatives:
Related Communities
Join the Platform
Our Partners comprise the world's 1000 leading companies, developing solutions to the world's greatest challenges.
Read more
Global Future Councils
Partners
Show More
Impact Articles
Preparing the world for a sustainable energy transition
More people than ever before have access to energy globally. But how can the world be prepared for a sustainable energy transition?
How blockchain is helping mining companies reduce carbon emissions
The Forum’s Mining and Metals Blockchain initiative has released a unique proof of concept to trace emissions across the value chain using the blockchain
Strengthening the cyber resilience of the global electricity infrastructure
This Forum's initiative brings together global cybersecurity leaders to collaborate and improve the cyber resilience of the global electricity infrastructure.
Related Projects
Clean Power and Electrification
Stakeholders are invited to join the new program on clean power and electrification. The program will not only address the massive scale-up of clean power infrastructure needed on the ene...
Cyber Resilience in the Electricity Industry
The Challenge The Fourth Industrial Revolution brings with it a rapidly growing need for energy to sustain global digitalization and interconnectivity, including a proliferation of connec...
Collaborative Infrastructure Delivery Initiative
Risk allocation and risk management are critical issues in the infrastructure delivery lifecycle. Imbalances in risk sharing in current contract structures pose a significant challenge to...
System Value
With special thanks to Henrik Andersen, CEO of Vestas and Chair of the World Economic Forum's Electricity Industry community for leading this work in collaboration with CEOs from electric...
Transitioning Industrial Clusters towards Net Zero
Countries representing approximately 70% of the global economy have committed to net-zero emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. To deliver on these ambitious commitments, ecosystems...
Net Zero Carbon Cities
Net Zero Carbon Cities’ mission is to create an enabling environment for clean electrification and circularity, resulting in urban decarbonization and resilience. The program aims to do t...
Accelerating Clean Hydrogen Initiative
Hydrogen is increasingly identified as a critical success factor for the transition to a net-zero world by 2050. However, clean hydrogen is currently not scaling fast enough to deliver on...
Country Transitions and Benchmarking
Country Transition and Benchmarking is one of the challenges identified by the World Economic Forum Platform for Shaping the Future of Energy and Materials.The world’s transition to secur...
Getting to Zero Coalition
The challengeShipping is central to the movement of goods around the world and a driver for global trade. Although it is considered one of the lowest emitting means of transportation, the...
Cyber Resilience in Oil & Gas
Event: Pathways to a Digital Resilient Oil & Gas industry on June 23rd 2021
Mobilizing Investment for Clean Energy in Emerging Economies
Accelerating clean energy transitions is a global imperative for the world to address the climate emergency. The decarbonization of energy production and use will require trillions of dol...
The Circular Cars Initiative
With the engagement of 100 plus global organizations and 250 executives – the Circular Cars Initiative (CCI) launched at Davos 2020 – is rapidly accelerating the transformation of circula...
Unlocking Value in Manufacturing through Data Sharing
Manufacturing industries are on the verge of a data-driven revolution. They collaborate in hyperconnected value networks employing a large variety of data‑and‑analytics applications. Data...
Mission Possible Partnership
The Mission Possible Partnership is a coalition of public and private partners working on the industry transition to set heavy industry and mobility sectors on the pathway towards net-zer...
Financing the Transition to a Net Zero Future
In order to avert a catastrophic climate disaster, global clean energy investments of approximately $4-5 trillion are required annually by 2030 – a more than threefold increase from exist...
Related Reports
Transitioning Industrial Clusters towards Net Zero: National Policy Enablement for Industrial Decarbonization
Our new white paper reviews the legislated policies driving industrial decarbonization in a selection of ten nations across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific, as well as the enabling ...
Accelerating the Decarbonization of Buildings: The Net-Zero Carbon Cities Building Value Framework
This briefing paper introduces the Building Value Framework, which aims to shift how the value of investments green buildings are perceived.
Harnessing Artificial Intelligence to Accelerate the Energy Transition
This whitepaper explores the potential of AI for the energy transition and establishes a set of principles to help the energy industry govern and scale AI technology in a rapid, safe and ...
Fostering Effective Energy Transition 2021 edition
This report discusses the key findings from the Energy Transition Index 2021. This 10th-anniversary report is the opportunity to reflect and ask the question of whether the energy transit...
Six Qualities of Sustainable Infrastructure in Action
The power of infrastructure to shape economies and societies is enormous. Infrastructure underpins commercial life, provides vital social services and supports human interaction around th...
Global Innovations from the Energy Sector 2010-2020
This paper, from the World Economic Forum’s International Energy Community in China, presents an opportunity to reflect on some of the energy industry’s successful innovations since 2010.
COVID-19 Risks Outlook: A Preliminary Mapping and its Implications
Two new reports from the team behind the annual Global Risks Report identify the headline risks, challenges and, encouragingly, the opportunities the world is facing as a result of the CO...
Energy Transition Index 2020: from crisis to rebound
The world’s energy transition has made slow and steady progress over the past five years, but the COVID-19 crisis risks derailing long-term progress. Will recovery and the shifting global...
Transforming Infrastructure: Frameworks for Bringing the Fourth Industrial Revolution to Infrastructure
Our new guidebook exploring major questions about how to bring the Fourth Industrial Revolution to infrastructure.
The Speed of the Energy Transition: Gradual or Rapid Change?
The energy industry is complex, and understanding the major trends changing the industry can be challenging. Investors, policy-makers, business people and other interested stakeholders re...
Fostering Effective Energy Transition 2019
Improving Infrastructure Financing in Brazil
Many governments are finding it difficult to finance the growing demand for essential infrastructure through public funding alone. With the significant increase of debt in many countries ...
Cyber Resilience in the Electricity Ecosystem: Principles and Guidance for Boards
Cyber resilience is a challenge for all organisations, but, due to its vital role as a societal backbone, it is of particular importance for the electricity ecosystem. The power grid is ...
Empowering Public-Private Collaboration in Infrastructure: National Infrastructure Acceleration (NIA) approach
The Forum’s National Infrastructure Acceleration (NIA) project, using a model developed and tested across its various national workstreams, designed a standardized governance structure – ...
Accelerating Sustainable Energy Innovation
Despite significant achievements in sustainable energy innovation and market scaling of technologies such as solar, wind energy storage and others, the rate of change is not fast enough. ...
Frameworks for the Future of Electricity: Leading the Transformation Through Multistakeholder Cooperation
In 2016, the World Economic Forum examined three major trends transforming the energy system: decentralization, digitalization and electrification. Building on this work, in 2017 a genera...
Fostering Effective Energy Transition 2018
The Global Future Council on Energy: Policy Recommendations
Global investment in clean energy amounted to more than 333 billion dollars in 2017 and households, businesses and governments are increasingly seeking new energy solutions due to the rea...
Transformation of the Global Energy System
As an integral part of the World Economic Forum System Initiative on Shaping the Future of Energy, the Global Future Council on Energy provides vision and thought leadership. Since 2016, ...
Electric Vehicles for Smarter Cities: The Future of Energy and Mobility
This report examines the major trends affecting the transformation of energy and mobility systems, with a special focus on cities. Topics addressed include: electrification, decentralizat...
Recycling our Infrastructure for Future Generations
"Recycling our Infrastructure for Future Generations" takes a closer look at an emerging approach to financing new infrastructure, which is known as “Asset Recycling”.
Global Energy Architecture Performance Index Report 2017
· The Global Energy Architecture Performance Index Report 2017 ranks 127 countries on their ability to deliver secure, affordable, sustainable energy
The Future of Electricity: New Technologies Transforming the Grid Edge
The electricity landscape is a prime example of the Fourth Industrial Revolution as it undergoes a transformation, becoming more complex than ever before with rapidly evolving technologie...
Game Changers in the Energy System: Emerging Themes Reshaping the Energy Landscape
In the next two decades, three game-changing themes have significant potential to impact the energy system: advanced energy acceleration, mobility revolution and energy system fragmentation.
Risk-Mitigation Instruments in Infrastructure: Gap Assessment
The report shows that current instruments are too complex, lack adequate standardization and are too costly for the private sector to use. The report identifies four key areas of action –...
Global Energy Architecture Performance Index Report 2016
The Global Energy Architecture Performance Index Report 2016 ranks 126 countries on their ability to deliver secure, affordable and sustainable energy.
More on
Energy Transition
View all
Why fighting corruption is key to addressing the world's most pressing problems
Corruption will exacerbate the current food, energy and environmental crises, and undermine post-conflict recovery. We must prioritize good governance
US wind outlook lifted and what you need to know about the global energy crisis this week
Top energy stories: France and Finland warn of winter power outages; US wind outlook lifted by tax breaks for long-duration storage; More finance needed for Africa's energy transition.
The future of energy is systemic, open and collaborative — and runs on a smart grid
The clean energy sector needs more young people
These are the world's largest hydroelectric dams
