In a letter sent to company leaders ahead of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2020, Klaus Schwab, the Forum's Founder and Executive Chairman, Brian Moynihan, the Chair of the International Business Council, and Feike Sybesma, Founder and Co-Chair to the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, invited participants to set a target to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner.

While the Net-Zero Challenge is a voluntary initiative, it is a prerequisite only for those who are or wish to be members of the Forum’s Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, who are driving this challenge across the Alliance and wider Forum membership. The letter came after the publication of The Net-Zero Challenge report which examines the current state of global climate action by companies and governments, providing a clear way forward. Climate action is first and foremost an opportunity for countries and businesses to build a competitive advantage. The report was published ahead of the Forum’s Annual Meeting 2020 providing the analytical underpinning for the challenge ahead.

The second edition the Net-Zero Challenge: The Supply Chain Opportunity launched ahead of the Davos Agenda 2021, and now puts a spotlight on a critical factor in achieving the targets companies have set – decarbonizing supply chains. Addressing supply-chain emissions enables many customer-facing companies to impact a volume of emissions several times higher than they could if they were to focus on decarbonizing their own direct operations and power consumption alone – and achieving a net-zero supply chain is possible with very limited additional costs. This report shows how.