The World Economic Forum, a global platform engaging leaders from business, governments, international organizations, academia and civil society, aims to improve global governance through public-private cooperation. Environmental issues are addressed by the World Economic Forum System’s initiative Shaping the Future of Environment and Natural Resource Security. The 48th World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos, was focused on the theme Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World.

Climate change is the greatest threat to civilization

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi acknowledged climate change to be the greatest threat to civilization. He announced that India wanted to produce 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022. Climate change was also addressed by Greenpeace’s Jennifer Morgan urging leaders to catch up with their citizens, customers, and employees in increasing the pace and scale of climate action. French President Emmanuel Macron announced France would shut down all coal-fired power stations by 2021. Anand Mahindra (Mahindra Group) described efforts to address climate change as the century’s biggest business opportunity and called on his peers in business to step up and align their business strategies with the Paris Agreement. Thomas Buberl, head of the global insurance giant AXA, said that climate change had become a reality for the insurance sector. He also announced that AXA would no longer insure coal projects.

Friends of Ocean Action partnership

Although the oceans play a major role in climate mitigation by absorbing 90% of the excess heat and around 30% of CO2 emissions, the world has paid little attention to their protection. Inadequate protection of the oceans resulted in plastic pollution, overfishing, global warning and acidification. In order to save life in the oceans, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean Peter Thomson launched the Friends of Ocean Action partnership. It will comprise leaders from science, technology, business and non-governmental groups to scale and accelerate action to meet Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

Overall, there is a strong agreement that the environmental challenges the world faces are urgent and cannot be ignored. Thus, 2018 must be a pivotal year for climate action.