Industry Agenda

The report proposes a structured value chain approach to move beyond incremental emissions reductions, emphasizing that the most significant carbon impacts often occur at the design, use, and end-of-life stages. It provides a three-step implementation process—analyzing the value chain, mobilizing for action, and delivering/scaling—while highlighting the role of digital platforms and circular economy models. Case studies in aviation biofuels and waste-to-energy illustrate how pooling resources across diverse stakeholders can overcome barriers like price premiums and regulatory gaps.

• The Paris Agreement's national pledges are insufficient on their own, as optimistic estimates suggest they would only limit warming to 2.7°C above pre-industrial levels.
• Collaboration is viewed as a critical leadership behavior for climate action, particularly in asset-intensive sectors such as chemicals (61%), energy (61%), and mining and metals (55%).
• A value chain approach is necessary because the largest carbon impacts often occur during early design, consumer use, or end-of-life stages, which offer the best opportunities for non-incremental emissions reductions.
• The oil and gas sector's carbon footprint is dominated by the end use of its products, with 80-90% of total GHG emissions coming from use in industry, power plants, buildings, and transport.
• Information and communications technology (ICT) has the potential to reduce global carbon emissions by 20% by 2030, including 1.8 gigatons of CO2e savings through smart grids.
• Successful value chain mobilization requires a structured three-step process: analyzing the value chain (including life-cycle analysis), mobilizing for action by convening partners and identifying shared value, and delivering and scaling the initiative.
• The aviation sector faces significant barriers to biofuel adoption, including a price premium where biofuels are approximately twice as expensive as fossil fuels and concerns over food supply disruption.
• Waste-to-energy solutions provide a double carbon benefit by avoiding landfill emissions and displacing fossil fuels used in energy production.
• A partnership between ArcelorMittal, Lanzatech, and Primetals demonstrated that steel blast furnace waste gas can be converted into bioethanol, potentially reducing carbon emissions by 80% compared to fossil fuels.

APA

World Economic Forum (2016). Industry Agenda. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_2016_Scaling_Up_Climate_Action.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Industry Agenda. 2016. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_2016_Scaling_Up_Climate_Action.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Industry Agenda |date=January 2016 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_2016_Scaling_Up_Climate_Action.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2016industry, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Industry Agenda}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2016}, month = jan, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_2016_Scaling_Up_Climate_Action.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }