Turning Challenge into Opportunity: Supplier Voices from Heavy-Emitting Sectors

The report examines the perspectives of suppliers in the aviation, shipping, trucking, aluminium, cement, steel, and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) sectors. It identifies a recurring gap between high-level net-zero ambitions and the practical realities of scaling up, specifically highlighting the need for bankable long-term offtake agreements, coordinated infrastructure development, and harmonized global standards. While technology is often ready, the 'pre-FID valley of death' persists due to weak market signals and fragmented policy landscapes.

• Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) currently represents less than 0.1% of the global jet fuel supply, and its scale-up is hindered by downstream infrastructure bottlenecks in blending, storage, and airport delivery systems.
• In the shipping sector, the primary barrier to scaling low-carbon fuels like e-methanol and e-ammonia is the lack of long-term, risk-sharing offtake agreements, which are essential for projects to reach final investment decision (FID).
• Electrification is the dominant near-term pathway for medium- and heavy-duty (MHD) trucking, but its economic viability depends heavily on asset utilization and the orchestration of charging to avoid peak power costs.
• The cement and concrete sector faces a critical financing gap where innovators cannot build commercial-scale plants without durable offtake, while buyers are hesitant to commit without proven volumes.
• Steel suppliers are navigating a transition from blast furnace technology to hydrogen-DRI and EAF, but the pipeline of near-zero projects (~10 Mt) is far below the ~100 Mt needed by 2030 for net-zero pathways.
• Aluminium decarbonization is primarily driven by electricity sourcing, with a target of 3.0 tCO2e/t being achievable by 2030 through current technology, provided there are sufficient demand signals.
• Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies like biochar, DAC, and BECCS are technically proven but lack a coherent market structure, suffering from volatile pricing and inconsistent voluntary market demand.
• Across all materials and mobility sectors, 'book-and-claim' systems are identified as a critical tool to decouple environmental benefits from physical delivery, thereby bypassing infrastructure gaps and increasing liquidity.

APA

World Economic Forum (2025). Turning Challenge into Opportunity: Supplier Voices from Heavy-Emitting Sectors. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Turning_Challenge_into_Opportunity_2025.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Turning Challenge into Opportunity: Supplier Voices from Heavy-Emitting Sectors. 2025. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Turning_Challenge_into_Opportunity_2025.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Turning Challenge into Opportunity: Supplier Voices from Heavy-Emitting Sectors |date=December 2025 |url=https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Turning_Challenge_into_Opportunity_2025.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2025turning, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Turning Challenge into Opportunity: Supplier Voices from Heavy-Emitting Sectors}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2025}, month = dec, url = {https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Turning_Challenge_into_Opportunity_2025.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }