Planet, technology and investment in focus in New York. Here's what to know

Cutting the greenhouse gas emissions from heavy industry has often been framed as a cost problem: why pay more for low-emission products when the conventional versions are cheaper?

But many companies are pushing ahead, with an eye on staying competitive, securing supply chains and preparing for future markets. A new Radio Davos episode hears from two green tech companies and a Silicon Valley investor who say low-emission technologies are already making business sense.

Get the latest news and analysis from SDIM participants published on Forum Stories.

Despite significant drag from geopolitical fragmentation and marked scrutiny on short-term performance, the global sustainability transition is advancing with a clear economic case.

That's according to the World Economic Forum's inaugural Chief Sustainability Officers’ Outlook, which captured the perspective of over 100 members of the Forum’s global Chief Sustainability Officers Community on how the transition is unfolding.

Overall, 63% said they expect progress to hold steady or accelerate over the next year, while over the medium term, a stronger business case and cheaper, more applicable technologies are the leading expected accelerators. At the same time, policy uncertainty, short-term pressures and geopolitical volatility are making progress more uneven across markets and sectors.

"Chief sustainability officers are telling us the transition is no longer a question of ambition, it's a question of execution," said World Economic Forum Managing Director Sebastian Buckup. “As companies deliberately anchor sustainability strategies in growth, security and resilience needs, execution speed and priorities increasingly diverge across regions and sectors.”

To better inform the discussions taking place at SDIM and elsewhere in New York this week, the World Economic Forum has published an array of new reports and white papers in recent weeks. The publications cover everything from outcome-based healthcare to the private sector's role in protecting global stability and de-escalating conflict.

Explore the latest publications below:

The Global Gender Gap Index turns 20 this year, giving us two decades of data on how economies have moved towards (and sometimes away from) gender parity.

Kim Piaget and Yanjun Guo, part of the team behind the publication, have gone back through that data to look at which economies have made the fastest progress and what can be learned from them.

One of their key findings is that being closest to parity is not the same as moving towards it the fastest. Some economies that started further behind have made rapid gains, while others that have long ranked highly have seen progress slow or stall.

It's worth paying close attention to both, they say, to understand how progress can become lasting momentum.

Access the full publication: Global Gender Gap Report 2026

Close to 1,000 leaders from government, international organizations and the private sector are gathering this week in New York for the World Economic Forum's Sustainable Development Impact Meetings (SDIM).

The meetings, taking place alongside the United Nations General Assembly, will focus on climate and nature, responsible artificial intelligence and frontier technologies, resilient growth, and mobilizing capital for greater impact.

Top leaders include Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund; Alexander De Croo, Administrator of the UN Development Programme; Jose Manuel Restrepo, Vice-President of Colombia; Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross; Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization; Roberto Velasco Alvarez, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico; and Mehmet C. Oz, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services of the United States, among many others.

The meetings will serve as a critical venue to help shape the collective responses and action-oriented discussions that will build momentum before the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2027.

Follow along here for the latest insights from the meetings as well as new research and analysis from the World Economic Forum and its partners.