Green technologies imperative to achieve net-zero emission by 2050

World Economic Forum has partnered with, 50 global businesses to invest in innovative green technologies to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

Davos: With the aim of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, the World Economic Forum has partnered with the First Movers Coalition, a group of 50 global businesses, to invest in innovative green technologies.

“These financing commitments will ensure new technologies are available for scale-up by 2030 and make a critical contribution to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050” said the official statement.

During the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2022 in Davos, First Movers Coalition members Alphabet, Microsoft and Salesforce collectively committed $500 million to carbon dioxide removal (CDR).

Microsoft will further serve as an expert partner by sharing lessons from its carbon removal auctions and the Boston Consulting Group committed to remove 100,000 tonnes of carbon by 2030.

Since it was launched at COP26, the First Movers Coalition has brought together global companies with supply chains across carbon-intensive sectors. More than 50 companies have joined the First Movers Coalition which aims to decarbonize the heavy industry and long-distance transport sectors responsible for 30% of global emissions.

“Through the Coalition, these companies collaborate with other private sector members such as A.P. Møller – Mærsk, Amazon, Apple, Bank of America, FedEx, National Grid, Ford Motor Company, Mahindra, SSAB Swedish Steel, Trafigura, Vattenfall, Volvo Group, Yara International, Western Digital and many more” it said.

Denmark, India, Italy, Japan, Norway, Singapore, Sweden and the United Kingdom have joined the coalition, to create early markets for clean technologies through policy measures and private sector engagement.

“The coalition’s members are truly the ‘First Movers’ who are focused on scaling disruptive innovations that pave the way for long-term transformation rather  than the lower-hanging fruit of short-term process efficiency gains” said Børge Brende, President of the World Economic Forum.

The companies – whose collective market value exceeds $8.5 trillion across five continents – have sent the largest market signal in history to commercialize emerging clean technologies by making advance purchase commitments by 2030 for near-zero carbon steel, aluminium, shipping, trucking, and aviation as well as negative emissions through advanced carbon dioxide removal technologies.

“The coalition has achieved scale across the world’s leading companies and support from committed governments around the world to tackle the hardest challenge of the climate crisis, said US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry

He added that, “reducing the emissions from the sectors where we don’t yet have the toolkit to replace unabated fossil fuels and swiftly reach net-zero emissions.”

The coalition will provide a platform for a wide range of companies to make these purchasing commitments during this decade and send a clear demand signal for the technologies needed for net-zero emissions by 2050.

The coalition has committed to delivering impact in six sectors by 2030: Carbon dioxide removal, Aluminium ,Aviation, Shipping, Trucking , Steel.

The commitments will be technology-neutral, but they will be stringent enough to target solutions with the potential to completely decarbonize these sectors rather than only partially reducing emissions through efficiency gains or other incremental approaches.