THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2024 43 Pablo Burkolter is lead on Corporate Climate Ambition at the World Economic Forum, supporting business engagement across the organization’s climate initiatives, including the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders and the First Movers Coalition. He previously led the forum’s Network of Global Future Councils and supported programming and session development in nature, climate, and energy for top-tier events such as the annual meeting in Davos. Before joining the World Economic Forum in 2014, he worked on policy and academic research on sustainability. Global companies work to facilitate firm market demand signals for the breakthrough technologies essential for a net-zero transition in “hard-to-abate” sectors. BY PABLO BURKOLTER DECARBONIZING INDUSTRY THROUGH DEMAND The First Movers Coalition Following years of insufficient climate action, it is becoming increasingly evident that the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius (2°C) and pursue all efforts to limit it to below 1.5°C could be in jeopardy. Every fraction of a degree of warming carries greater risks of cascading climate tipping points, which society must do all it can to mitigate. About 40 percent of the emissions reductions FOCUS ON THE CLIMATE DIPLOMACY LANDSCAPE necessary to transition the global economy to net zero by 2050 relies on the development of breakthrough technologies and energy solutions, such as bioenergy, renewable hydrogen-based fuels, green methanol and ammonia, sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), or carbon dioxide removal (CDR)—all of which are at a critical period of early deployment and carry a green premium, a higher cost than traditional technology. The window is rapidly closing to demonstrate and commercialize these innovative technologies over the critical 2020s decade, so they become available for massive scale-up to enable net-zero emissions by 2050. Recognizing the urgency of bringing these technologies to market, President Joe Biden and the World Economic Forum launched the First Movers Coalition (FMC) at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26) in November 2021. The launch was supported by 35 global companies that joined to send a powerful signal that there is firm market demand for the emerging technologies essential for a net-zero transition in “hard-to-abate” sectors. Six economically essential sectors— aluminum, cement and concrete, steel, aviation, shipping, and trucking—currently account for a third of global emissions. If left unabated, these sectors are projected to account for 50 percent
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