After the 2019 edition of the Annual Meeting when a 16 year old Greta Thunberg became famous with her unforgettable speech asking the Forum to “act as if the house was on fire”, it is good to see the WEF is taking travel-related climate footprint more seriously..
And no wonder. Transport is the main source of emissions of the Annual Meeting, as the Forum itself acknowledges. The WEF has made its travel policy much greener this year by offering participants a 100% ticket refund if they travel to Davos by train.
A significant number of WEF participants are from global companies with an impact on the economy, the climate and society greater than that of many governments. This is why their use of private jets – the most polluting mode of transport of the planet per passenger kilometer –
is all the more disturbing, contributing greatly to the WEF’s reputation as a private jet bonanza.
So what do we know about how companies are travelling to the 2025 Annual Meeting starting today? The Travel Smart campaign has called on companies going to WEF to avoid using private jets.
The bad news is that of the more than 100 global companies contacted, only two have committed to avoid using this disproportionately polluting mode of transport. But the good news is that although still weak, there are signs that some companies are taking their travel footprint seriously. In 2023, the Supervisory Board of ABN Amro travelled by train to the Annual Meeting. This year, two companies committed to avoid private jets, with the CEO of Saint-Gobain travelling by train, and KPMG representatives travelling by commercial airline or train.
By avoiding using a private jet, companies traveling from different locations in Europe like KPMG, will save around seven tonnes of CO2. This means that they would save more emissions than a car journey around the globe! And this is not to mention the non-CO2 emissions that any aircraft emits, which further increases the contribution of aviation to global warming. Following WEF’s recommendation, KPMG European employees will save 99% of the emissions when choosing travelling by train instead of by private jet.
Not only does more sustainable travel save emissions, but it saves costs as well. New analysis by Travel Smart and T&E shows that chartering a private jet from New York or from Berlin to get to Davos costs more than €130,000 and €13,000, respectively. As a comparison, similar trips using commercial aviation business class would cost 15 and 10 times less.
Although there is more talk about the disproportionate impact of private jets than ever before, the commitment of two companies not to fly by private jet is insufficient. Zurich Airport already reported that “a total of around 1000 additional flight movements are expected before, during and after” the 2025 WEF, similar to last year.
So we will have to wait and see what the final count of private jets at airports around Davos is on these dates, whether they continue to hold steady or even increase compared to previous years or if we see the effect of the new WEF policy reflected in a decrease of private jet flights and an increase of participants arriving by train.
What is clear is that the WEF can continue to include incentives to travel more sustainably at its Annual Meeting, but it also should assume the responsibility of serving as watchdog and safeguards of the sustainability of their convening, and once and for all shake its reputation as an annual private jet destination.
Erin Vera, Manager of the Travel Smart Campaign
Originally published in Business Green