In this pivotal moment for humanity and the planet, we, the undersigned, urge all participants of the World Economic Forum (WEF) to demonstrate bold leadership in stewarding a safe and just world — one that safeguards humanity from climate and ecological collapse and redefines prosperity through a global economic model that delivers a decent standard of living for everyone within safe and just planetary boundaries.
The WEF’s focus this year on new growth models and prosperity within planetary boundaries is timely as the world now stands at a crossroads between two competing visions of prosperity.
One path doubles down on fossil‑fuelled, extractive growth and narrow GDP gains. The other embraces a prosperity agenda that safeguards climate and nature, prioritises human wellbeing and resilience and aligns economic activity with Earth’s safe and just space.
The first vision of prosperity anchored in a model of fossil-fuelled, extractive growth rewards actions that heighten ecological risk and geopolitical instability. A case in point relates to global financial markets, which often treat military escalation and resource grabs as opportunities for short-term gains. Indeed, evidence from recent conflicts shows that oil, gold and related equities often surge following crises that increase both climate and conflict risk.
This outdated economic model rewards environmentally harmful activity, locking capital and innovation into high‑carbon, resource‑intensive sectors. It has also generated multi‑trillion‑dollar costs for the global economy and has systematically failed to safeguard the health and wellbeing of the majority of people in a world where the richest 1 percent capture around 20 percent of global income. Prosperity can no longer be measured solely by how much the few can accumulate. Economies that concentrate wealth at the top while wages stagnate, public services erode and ecosystems collapse are failed economies that are already generating massive environmental and social costs, which will only increase exponentially in the medium and long-term.
The alternative vision of prosperity that we endorse is one that ensures the shared, long-term flourishing of people, nature and future generations, measured by the health of communities, the resilience of ecosystems, enduring peace and the cultural richness passed on. In this vision, prosperity is not based on growth at all costs, but rather on growth that serves societal flourishing and shared abundance.
There is compelling evidence that economies aligned with planetary boundaries deliver better outcomes: investments in renewable energy create more jobs per dollar than fossil fuels; nature‑positive strategies help safeguard more than half of global GDP that depend on ecosystem services; and robust social protection systems reduce vulnerability to climate and economic shocks — all of which strengthen long‑term competitiveness, reduce exposure to conflict and instability, and lower financial risk.
We are convinced that prosperity within planetary boundaries is the only credible path to resilient economies, healthy societies, and global peace and security in the 21st century. The most successful economies in the next decade will be those that deliver high levels of human wellbeing with a low ecological footprint. There is already ample evidence of leaders across national and municipal governments, as well as in the private sector, who are acting on this understanding by designing climate- and nature-positive industrial strategies, building resilience into food, energy, and infrastructure systems, and advancing just transition plans grounded in basic human rights. These leaders understand that crossing environmental and social tipping points are the greatest existential risks facing humanity.
With rising global conflict and renewed geopolitical instability, now is the time for leadership to embrace a planetary stewardship mindset as the basis for human wellbeing, shared peace and security. Our common future depends on leaders who acknowledge the climate emergency, recognise and reverse the rollback of hard‑won human progress, and use safe and just boundaries as a compass to define the operating space for humanity. Prosperity within planetary boundaries must become the defining test of serious leadership.
We therefore ask decision‑makers at Davos: Are you prepared to keep gambling on a model that is already failing on its own terms? Or are you willing to protect the biophysical foundations of the global economy and expand opportunity for the majority? We urge leaders to choose the latter — a shared prosperity path that transforms wealth into wellbeing, and power into partnership, in service of stewarding Earth’s safe and just space.
Signatories:
Sandrine Dixson-Decleve, Executive Chair, Earth4All
Margarita Astrálaga, Chair of the Advisory Board for the Global Commons Alliance
Wendy Broadgate, Executive Director, Earth Commission and Global Hub Director, Sweden, Future Earth
Jean Oelwang, Founding CEO, Planetary Guardians and Virgin Unite
Johan Rockström, Co-chair, Earth Commission, Director, Potsdam Institute Climate Impact Research
Carlos Nobre, Senior Scientist, University of São Paulo, Co-Chair of the Science Panel for the Amazon
Naoko Ishii, Director Centre for Global Commons, University of Tokyo and former Deputy Vice Minister of Finance Japan, Planetary Guardian
Hunter Lovins, President, Natural Capitalism Solution
Ralph Chami, CEO and Co-founder of Blue Green Future and Rebalance Earth, Planetary Guardian
Izabella Teixeira, former Brazilian Minister of the Environment, Co-Chair of the UN’s International Resource Panel
Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
Joyeeta Gupta, Earth Commission; Professor, University of Amsterdam
Mamphela Ramphele, Former Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, Former Co-President, Club of Rome
Eva Zabey, Executive Director of the Business for Nature Coalition
Hiro Mizuno, Special Advisor to the CEO of MSCI, Inc., Leader, B-Team and former UN Special Envoy on Innovative Finance and Sustainable Investments, Planetary Guardian
David Obura, Director, CORDIO East Africa, Member Earth Commission, and Chair IPBES
Fatima Denton, Director, United Nations University-Institute for Natural Resources in Africa, Co-Chair, Earth Commission
Paul Shrivastava, Co-President, The Club of Rome
Sharan Burrow, former General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation
Catherine McKenna, Founder and CEO of Climate and Nature Solutions and former Canadian Minister of Environment
Wade Davis, former National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, writer, photographer, filmmaker, and Professor of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Planetary Guardian
Sunita Narain, Director-General, Centre for Science and Environment, Planetary Guardian