Since its founding in 1971, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has held an annual meeting at the end of January to discuss global issues. Set in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos, it brings together thousands of people from heads of state and governments to business leaders and celebrities.
In 2026, the event is scheduled for the week of 19 January and will be the 56th occasion of the WEF’s annual meeting. More than 2,000 participants are expected to attend and, as a crucial global issue, sustainability is bound to be on the agenda.
“In this new, more uncertain era, dialogue is our greatest source of innovation and resilience.”
What happened at Davos 2025?
In 2025, the meeting’s theme was “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age”. This inevitably brought about conversations on AI, digitalisation and the energy transition.
Its programme focussed on five thematic priorities:
- Rebuilding trust
- Reimagining growth
- Investing in people
- Safeguarding the planet
- Industries in the intelligent age
Reflecting on the event, Angela Hultberg, Global Sustainability Director at Kearney, said: “I am more positive now than I was a week ago. I fully expected sustainability topics to be set aside, but this was not the case.”
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Around 3,000 leaders attended Davos 2025, including more than 50 heads of state
Jim Andrew, Chief Sustainability Officer at PepsiCo, said: “The themes of the week have been action and collaboration – how do we move faster and move together to drive progress.
“I’m optimistic and excited for what’s ahead.”
Vincent Clerc, CEO of A.P. Moller – Maersk, said: “Attending Davos this week highlighted just how critical it is to build resilience in global supply chains. Solving challenges at scale demands meaningful action, collaboration and solutions that deliver real impact.
“Every discussion brought valuable perspectives, from strengthening partnerships and driving economic growth to advancing sustainability in logistics. While each country, partner and customer has unique priorities – whether modernising port infrastructure, improving connectivity or addressing environmental challenges.
“What unites us is the shared commitment to progress that benefits industries, nations and communities alike.”
Insights from Davos 2025
“If you had women participating as actively as men in the economy, the GDP of the world would be 20% higher,” Anna Bjerde, Managing Director of Operations at the World Bank, told the Adding Trillions with Gender Parity session.
Former US Vice-President Al Gore told the State of Climate and Nature session audience that accumulated greenhouse gases now trap as much extra heat as would be released by 750,000 first-generation atomic bombs exploding every day on the Earth.
In his virtual address at the event, US President Donald Trump said that “we need double the energy we currently have in the United States for AI to be as big as we want to have it, because it’s very competitive”.
“Leaders must adapt with urgency and collaboration to turn today’s turbulence into tomorrow’s resilience.”
Why sustainability matters at Davos
“Economic” is in the WEF’s name, and this topic has strong ties to sustainability. Sebastian Buckup, Managing Director and Nature and Climate lead at the WEF, explains: “Green markets have quadrupled in size over the last few years.
“It’s clearly a growth opportunity for many companies. And it’s also a reality – there’s much more climate related regulation that companies need to cope with and companies, especially those that have large supply chains, need to build resilience to extreme weather events.”
Sebastian explains: “There’s one type of challenge, of course, around political stability and geopolitical tensions. Long-term investment needs stable expectations.” With global politics in flux, this stability is increasingly difficult to guarantee. Financing, skills shortages and regulatory hurdles add further layers of complexity. “Companies are dealing with lots of challenges in the execution of their green strategy,” Sebastian says.
“Companies are dealing with lots of challenges in the execution of their green strategy.”
Topics on the table for Davos 2026
While the official topics for Davos are usually released close to the January event, discussions at WEF events throughout 2025 have started to set the stage for which themes may take the spotlight.
The official theme of Davos 2026 is “A Spirit of Dialogue”, which may call on leaders to come together across boundaries like industry, geography and generation.
Sylvia Earle, Co-Chair of the Annual Meetings of the Global Future Councils and Cybersecurity 2025, says: “This is the best time ever to be a human because of what we know, but we should always keep front and centre the magnitude of what we don’t know.”
Sustainable Development Impact Meetings
During the week of 22 to 26 September 2025, alongside the United Nations General Assembly and Climate Week NYC, the World Economic Forum hosted the Sustainable Development Impact Meetings. These brought together more than 1,000 global leaders and could set the tone for sustainability’s inclusion at Davos.
The meetings covered topics including:
- Carbon capture and utilisation
- The AI trust crisis
- The global energy transition
- Sustainable finance
- Drug resistance
- Workforce resilience
- The costs of climate health
- COP30
“The conversations this week were consequential in shaping priorities for the months ahead,” said Børge Brende, President and CEO at World Economic Forum, reflecting on the meetings.
“As we now look toward the Annual Meeting 2026, many of these discussions will continue to guide the agenda leading up to Davos.
“With strong collaboration and commitment, I am confident we can turn shared challenges into shared solutions.”
The Chief Economists’ Outlook
The WEF’s Chief Economists’ Outlook, released in September 2025, looks at dynamics shaping the global economy and the results of surveys it conducted from July to August 2025. The findings and topics included may shape the conversations at Davos.
The report says that some 72% of surveyed chief economists expect the global economy to weaken over the next year, amid intensifying trade disruption, rising policy uncertainty and accelerating technological change.
Chief economists overwhelmingly agreed that today’s disruptions are structural rather than cyclical. Large majorities anticipate long-term disruption in natural resources and energy, technology and innovation, trade and global value chains and global economic institutions.
The chief economists warned that advanced and developing economies are on increasingly divergent growth pathways and 56% expect greater divergence over the next three years.
“The contours of a new economic environment are already taking shape, defined by disruption across trade, technology, resources and institutions,” said Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director of the WEF. “Leaders must adapt with urgency and collaboration to turn today’s turbulence into tomorrow’s resilience.”
Dubai Global Future Councils
From 14 to 16 October 2025, the WEF’s Global Future Councils meetings in Dubai were positioned by the organisation as “setting the tone” for Davos 2026 in a press release. These ran alongside its Annual Meeting on Cybersecurity which brought together 150 cybersecurity leaders.
The meetings addressed trade and geostrategic shifts, innovation for growth and prosperity, cybersecurity, as well as climate action, food innovation, health and the energy transition.
In line with the Davos 2026 theme ‘A Spirit of Dialogue’, Børge said of the Dubai events: “In this new, more uncertain era, dialogue is our greatest source of innovation and resilience. Only through open exchange – across disciplines and industries, with a range of perspectives – can we unlock the ideas and trust that we need to move the world forward together.”
https://sustainabilitymag.com/news/wef-whats-on-the-agenda-at-davos-2026
