World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2017

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has established fourteen System Initiatives to move from fragmented responses to systemic, proactive cooperation across industries and governments. These initiatives are underpinned by the Fourth Industrial Revolution—focusing on the co-evolution of social and political systems with technologies like AI and blockchain—and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Key focus areas include energy transition, environmental security, food security, and the digital economy. The WEF aims to use these platforms to scale impact, such as closing a $1 trillion annual infrastructure investment gap and reducing the environmental footprint of energy to meet COP21 targets.

• The World Economic Forum's System Initiatives are designed as a cooperative platform to resolve problems at the intersection of multiple industries and disciplines, utilizing Stewardship Boards of ministers and CEOs to guide work programmes.
• The Fourth Industrial Revolution is integrated into all System Initiatives based on four principles: focusing on systems rather than just technologies, empowering society against fatalism, ensuring active governance by design, and prioritizing values like human dignity and environmental stewardship.
• The System Initiatives serve as platforms to mobilize a multistakeholder response to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, aiming to move from incremental to exponential progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• The 'Shaping the Future of Energy' initiative focuses on accelerating the transition to sustainable energy to meet COP21 and SDG targets, while addressing the fact that 1.3 billion people currently lack access to affordable modern energy.
• The 'Shaping the Future of Environment and Natural Resource Security' initiative seeks to decouple the global economy from resource use and unlock a $1 trillion opportunity in the circular economy.
• The 'Shaping the Future of Long-Term Investing, Infrastructure and Development' initiative aims to address a $1 trillion annual shortfall in infrastructure investment against a $4 trillion demand.
• The 'Shaping the Future of Food Security and Agriculture' initiative targets a 20% improvement each decade in food security, economic opportunity, and environmental sustainability to feed a projected global population of 9.7 billion by 2050.
• The 'Shaping the Future of Economic Growth and Social Inclusion' initiative has developed the Inclusive Development Index (IDI) based on 12 National Key Performance Indicators for 110 countries as an alternative to GDP per capita.

APA

World Economic Forum (2017). World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2017. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Media/AM17/AM17_System_Initiatives.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2017. 2017. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Media/AM17/AM17_System_Initiatives.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2017 |date=2017 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Media/AM17/AM17_System_Initiatives.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2017world, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2017}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2017}, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Media/AM17/AM17_System_Initiatives.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }