WEF: What’s on the Agenda at Davos 2025?
The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2025 Annual Meeting in Davos follows the theme of “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age”.
Its programme is planned around five thematic priorities:
- Rebuilding trust
- Reimagining growth
- Investing in people
- Safeguarding the planet
- Industries in the intelligent age
Katie McGinty, Vice President and Chief Sustainability and External Relations Officer at Johnson Controls, says: “At Davos, world events like military conflicts, trade wars, inflation and the AI revolution will dominate discussions. But I also expect climate change and sustainability will be crucial, especially in light of the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.
“The challenge — and opportunity — will be to highlight the essential connection of climate action to progress against the array of top-of-mind concerns.
“For CEOs worried about business growth, we can show that leaning into decarbonisation offers a competitive edge, as seen in Johnson Controls' own success in reducing both carbon and operating costs.”
Safeguarding the planet
The WEF Annual Meeting 2025 is set to host 26 live sessions under the theme of “safeguarding the planet”.
These range from looking at carbon pricing and nature markets to changes in the weather and COP30.
Speakers on the agenda include Al Gore, Former US Vice President and climate activist, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate and Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO of Sustainable Energy for all.
Ester Baiget, President and CEO at Novonesis and Co-Chair of the WEF Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, is scheduled to speak on Europe’s balance of economic competitiveness and decarbonisation.
She said in a social media post: “Climate transformation isn't about avoiding risks. It's about building resilience and unlocking growth. It's about turning challenges into competitive advantages and innovation opportunities.”
Katie says: “Despite – or because of – the weighty issues at Davos, climate action can be shown to drive global progress and corporate success.”
Industries in the intelligent age
More than 30 planned talks at the annual meeting fall under the theme of “industries in the intelligent age” with more than 120 speakers.
Some of these include Marc Benioff, CEO at Salesforce, Albert Bourla, CEO at Pfizer, Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President at Microsoft, Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO at Uber and Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer at Alphabet and Google.
Katie explains: “Addressing energy demands resulting from the AI revolution and exponential growth in data centres will also be key. There we can show that decarbonisation, again, is key. Through innovative cooling technologies, we can cut energy use by nearly 80% and zero out on-site water consumption for keeping chips cool in data centres.”
Live sessions under this theme will explore nuclear power capacity, industrial decarbonisation as a growth strategy and EV supply chains amongst other topics.
Investing in people
With more than 180 names on the agenda and 45 sessions planned, “investing in people” is a topic with a lot to bring at Davos 2025.
Speakers on the agenda include Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organisation, Barbara Frei, Executive Vice President and CEO for Industrial Automation at Schneider Electric, Historian and Author Timothy Snyder, Helen E. Clark, UNDP Administrator and Former Prime Minister of New Zealand and Olympic diving champion and LGBTQ+ advocate Tom Daley.