Shifting the Paradigm

As the 46th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum gets underway in Davos, participants are facing up to some of the most challenging economic and social conditions in a generation.

Increasing public concern over emissions of greenhouse gases and pollutants from cars, combined with advances in technologies for batteries and alternative fuels, has led to a rapid growth in the market for low emission vehicles.

In 2015, Japanese car giant Toyota began selling in Europe and California its Mirai car, a futuristic vehicle which uses a hydrogen fuel-cell for power and which emits only water vapor from the tail pipe as a by-product.

In the development of sustainable urban transport, partnerships between vehicle manufacturers, energy suppliers, academia and local authorities are playing a fundamental role.

While the high performance road vehicles of global brands such as Nissan, Renault and Toyota may be the most visible face of the fuels revolution, it is in the world of agricultural and industrial equipment that change is taking place at the fastest rate.

It is set to be a critical year for the world’s commercial aviation sector. By the end of 2016, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a UN agency, will endorse a global standard for CO² that all new aircraft will have to meet.

Long-established financial institutions are working hard to support financial inclusion and to increase their funding of socially and environmentally positive projects.

In many African countries, more people now use a mobile money account than a bank account. Many of them will be customers of Vodafone’s pioneering M-Pesa service.

At Davos  this year, politicians and policymakers are debating the next stage in the integration of  international trade, with giant regional free trade agreements set to transform  global  flows of goods and services.