World Economic Forum Annual Report 2025–2026

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how organizations hire, develop and advance talent, and this is most visible at entry-level. Globally, more than one in three young workers are employed in occupations with medium to high exposure to AI-driven task change. How these roles evolve will have significant implications for organizational performance, workforce participation and economic mobility.

The Energy Transition Index 2026 tracks energy transition progress across 120 countries, measuring both how energy systems perform today and whether the conditions for future progress are in place.

This insight report presents a global, cross-industry analysis of where progress towards gender parity in senior leadership stands today and the structural factors that continue to shape it. Developed by the World Economic Forum’s Centre for the New Economy and Society as part of the Global Gender Parity Sprint, the report draws on novel data from the LinkedIn Economic Graph Research Institute and Egon Zehnder, alongside case studies and insights from leaders across business, government, academia and civil society.

Marine ecosystems continue to degrade under pressure from warming seas, rising tides, pollution and overuse, undermining the long-term well-being of the communities and economies that depend on them. This report examines how to shift from the status quo – which perpetuates this decline – towards a regenerative blue economy.
Roughly 40% of the world's population lives within 100 km of the coast. That narrow band – just 5% of inhabited land – generates 30-50% of global GDP and concentrates ports, energy infrastructure, aquaculture, desalination and tourism. This is where most of the regenerative blue economy will be built. The report analyses how the interaction of four systemic levers – integrated ocean governance, innovative and equitable finance, investment in human capacity, and advances in technology and AI – can help transform these ocean-based industries.
Rather than focusing on short-term returns, a regenerative approach offers an ambitious vision of blue economic activity that helps restore ecosystems, strengthen resilience and support equitable prosperity for coastal communities within planetary limits. This approach challenges decision-makers to judge success not only by the wealth generated from the ocean, but by the extent to which that wealth supports restoration, fairness and intergenerational well-being.

Every year, an estimated 130 million tonnes of plastic waste are unmanaged or improperly discarded, polluting soils, waterways and seas. While efforts continue to promote a circular economy and pursue a global plastics treaty, far less attention has focused on how plastic pollution affects biodiversity and the ecosystem services that underpin economies and human well-being. This report addresses that gap.

Plastic pollution has particularly severe impacts on sectors such as fisheries, agriculture and tourism, which directly depend on healthy natural systems. These impacts demonstrate that biodiversity loss and plastic pollution are not just environmental challenges, but economic and resilience challenges too. More than half of global GDP is moderately or highly dependent on nature. So degraded ecosystems create growing risks for communities, industries and economies at a time when they are already under pressure from climate change and geopolitical uncertainty.

This report draws on field assessments conducted across nine geographies on three continents – developed by the World Economic Forum’s Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) – which together represent one of the most detailed multi-country evidence bases on plastic pollution and biodiversity to date. It concludes with recommendations for governments, corporates, investors and communities to translate this evidence into coordinated action to deliver measurable benefits for nature, people and economies.