Davos Download: Allied Action

The beautiful mountains in the Rhaetian Alps surrounding Davos, Switzerland

This year’s Davos week during the World Economic Forum was one of those experiences that reminds me why these convenings still matter. At a time when trust and division are so high, coming together to collaborate to build solutions for our world is a salve - through action, we build hope. It was also a reminder that one voice matters - especially when amplified by others.

Let me be clear: clean is winning. I joined a high-level session on energy and geopolitics with corporate, finance and multilateral leaders, and during the opening panel with two fossil-fuel centric energy companies, they said solar is a problem and can’t supply the world’s energy needs. Specifically it was noted that the grids in China and Germany are having difficulty with too much solar, its intermittency creating grid challenges. This is true - to varying extents, and there is much that regulators could have done to prevent it, but here we are. I asked if, given solar and storage are the lowest cost power source, purely from a cost perspective, wouldn’t it make sense to add more storage to address the grid challenges? The speaker said they disagreed with my statement that solar and storage are the lowest cost, and doubled down that fossil fuels are the answer. Two things then happened: many in the audience looked back at me nodding in agreement with where I was going - including being handed a card to join an upcoming global business conference, and a gentleman next to me said, “You’re right. I am financing dozens of solar and storage facilities” He handed me my card and I noted he was the head of a major multilateral financial institution. Raise your voice, speak what you know, and you will find those on the road with you. 

Although less visible on some stages, climate and nature were not eliminated from the agenda, instead, they were integrated: topics of risk, resilience, stability, critical minerals, power needs of AI, and competitiveness were front and center - and climate and nature are foundational to these challenges. As we shared ahead of the week in the WEF’s 2026 Global Risks Report, global leaders continue to view climate change and environmental degradation as among the most significant risks worldwide. Those who understand the strategic risks and opportunities of climate and nature convened day and night, rolling up our sleeves together to mobilize the resources needed. Semafor’s takeaways on the energy finance discussion in Davos reinforces my assessment.

I focused my week on catalyzing finance for climate and nature, which has been a priority focus of mine since my earliest work guiding Latin American energy policy in the U.S. Department of Energy in the 1990s, drafting early carbon contracts at Baker & McKenzie and the World Bank’s carbon funds, guiding Google’s commitment to putting a price on carbon in 2007, coordinating the finance committee while advising private sector engagement for the UN Secretary General’s High-level Group on Sustainable Energy for All in 2012, helping Microsoft during the roll-out of their global carbon fee that same year, through to now - at Christensen Global and the Sun Valley Forum - supporting innovators, philanthropists and investors to mobilize the capital to unlock these solutions at scale. 

A few highlights and takeaways:

At Monday’s CSO roundtable at the Female Quotient hosted by Michelle del Valle, insights were shared among sustainability leaders including Daniella Foster of Bayer, (RED) Managing Director Kate Charles, and author and board adviser Helle Bank Jorgensen.

That evening, I joined Axios House to hear Matt Damon and Gary White of water.org announce their Get Blue program with Amazon, the GAP, Starbucks, EcoLab and others to scale their critical solutions to bring clean water to the millions of people still without it!

Matt Damon and Gary White of water.org discuss Get Blue with Amy Harder of Axios

I joined friend and futurist Chris Leubkeman of ETH Zurich for Climate Hub’s “How Fungi Can Help Save The World” featuring legendary mycologist Paul Stamets on the power of fungi to solve so many challenges our ecosystems face, across food systems and climate adaptation and beyond. There I got to visit with Paul and regeneration leader Marc Buckley and look forward to digging into his new book with systems change solutions from a new and insightful perspective. 

Clarmondial’s deep dive session with Co-founder and Director Tanja Havemann, “How Localised Nature Data can Empower Business and Unlock Finance,” centering localised, high-quality nature and climate data, hearing insights from small businesses, growers, and global financial institutions, captured in our post from Davos here.

At “Building Resilience: Critical Infrastructure for the AI Era,” Crusoe provided a stage for technology and energy leaders to address the challenges and opportunities from data center expansion and energy growth, brilliantly moderated by Steve Clemons, with Crusoe, Bloom Energy, Schneider Electric and others speaking to how reliable power is a must and that clean sources are the best, most cost effective way to deliver that reliability.

Kelly Sims Gallager, Dean and Professor of Energy and Environmental Policy at The Fletcher School commenting on the Crusoe panel with Steve Clemons, Editor-at-Large at The National Interest hosting the discussion.

Invited by Eron Bloomgarden of Emergent and the Leaf Coalition whose work is catalyzing over $1 billion for nature, the Carbon Markets Coalition breakfast hosted by KPMG showed how collaboration drives acceleration and results. The discussion was opened by Melanie Nakagawa, CSO of Microsoft whose purchasing commitments have played a vital role in catalyzing investments in carbon followed by Jennifer Morris, CEO of The Nature Conservancy, on the scientific contributions to strengthen integrity in nature-based carbon work. Salesforce and Symbiosis shared how their partnership is accelerating capital to quality nature projects benefiting communities; Deutsche Bank and Bayer outlined how global finance and business are partnering to invest in nature-rich nations Suriname and Honduras; and the Kinetic Coalition of the Center for Climate and Nature Solutions with Aveva and Schneider outlined how they are leveraging carbon markets to shut down polluting power plants early. This is the kind of leadership with integrity that we need urgently to align climate goals with finance.

At the nature finance session at Goals House hosted by Jay Lipman of Resilience Investments and the NAT, “Financing the Future: Investing in Regenerative Agriculture” was a rapid fire discussion on investing in the diverse points of leverage needed, including restoring soils to sequester carbon and absorb water and shifting diets to center plants for health, with experts including Sam Kass of Acre VC and Karen Fang of Bank of America, brilliantly guided by Hari Balasubramanian.

I am grateful for Canopy’s trust in me to facilitate "Financing India's Nature Positive Industrial Transformation,” an investor roundtable at TPC House hosted by World Economic Forum GAEA Award winner - and Sun Valley Forum speaker - Nicole Rycroft, Canopy Founder and Executive Director. The roundtable set the stage for a discussion among private sector leaders including UBS and Value Network Ventures to shape a US$2B Next Gen Blended Finance Platform to transform India’s agricultural and textile waste into feedstock for paper, packaging, and textiles. You may learn more about Canopy’s work in her interview with Edie Lush of Hub Culture. The TPC house was a welcome venue of aligned players across philanthropy, business, science and finance. A session on family office philanthropy featured the wise, consequential words and call to action of Uday Khemka, a longtime collaborator dedicated to climate leadership. Many thanks to TPC leaders Luis Alvarado and Saurabh Gaidhani for the warm welcome and congratulations on a powerful first year of TPC House!

With the Canopy-hosted sesion “Financing India's Nature Positive Industrial Transformation” panelists and Saurabh Gaidhani, Deputy Executive Director of the No. 17 Foundation who was a wonderful host at TPC House along with Foundation Executive Director Luis Alvarado.

The breakfast on “Resilience in Action: Strengthening Businesses and Communities Breakfast Roundtable” hosted by Gail Gallie of the NAT and Fin Earth at Goals House was the event that makes the early wake up worth it: inspiring leaders across sectors, sharing strategies for community resilience and individual resilience, a weaving of personal reflections and scalable strategies - and several new friendships. It was a beautiful community gathering welcome toward the end of a long week and I can’t wait to build on the connections sparked there. 

Pooja Tivawala sharing at the Resilience in Action breakfast hosted by Gail Gallie and The NAT at Goals House

If you care about climate and the future of clean tech, Climate Scale-Up’s Deal Day was  the place to be, with leading climate tech innovators, finance and family offices connecting to advance partnerships and investment in climate solutions. Speakers included co-host Tod Hynes, Libby Wayman of Breakthrough Ventures, Rick Needham of Commonwealth Energy, Susana Lopez of CliFi, Hans Kobler of Energy Impact Partners, and our Natural Capital Summit community finance guru Bill Tarr, and many more! After each session participants and speakers gathered to spark deals for climate - it was a dynamic and impactful afternoon!

Clean energy panel at Climate Scale-Up Deal Day

Finally, for building relationships, Davos delivered. 

On Monday evening at the Sustainable Construction dinner hosted by Saint Gobain and curated by Sophie Lambin, I was so glad to get to reconnect with Katie McGinty, my first boss in the Clinton Administration, then head of the White House Office on Environmental Policy, who is leading sustainability and more at Johnson Controls, showing how climate leadership and financial returns go hand in hand.

On Tuesday evening, I dropped into USA House with Vijay Vaitheeswaran of The Economist, my favorite person to spend time with in Davos, where he facilitated a conversation hosted by Zachary Bogue of DCVC on the future of technology and energy with Rick Needham of Commonwealth Energy Systems, a fellow ex-Googler dedicated to advancing energy solutions, and Varun Sivaram of Emerald AI, inspiring innovations all around - and a chance to connect with a diverse group of those working on energy’s future.

The NAT dinner brought together a beautiful group of inspired leaders at Goals House including Matt Damon and Gary White of water.org, her Deepness Dr. Sylvia Earle, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Jean Oelwang, Kara Hurst, and Leah Seligmann, and new friends including David Mackenzie, who I so enjoyed getting to know, and of course our incredible hosts, Gail Gallie and Jay Lipman.

On Wednesday evening I dropped into the Science House awards gala where Nicole Rycroft was honored (again!) and got to catch up with Dr. Johan Rockström whose work continues to galvanize action, and finally meet in person Pooja Tivawala who is advancing youth leadership and intergenerational collaboration. 

With Dr. Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Professor in Earth System Science at the University of Potsdam, and fellow Hillary Institute Laureate

Thursday evening capped a productive week with connection and inspiration at Game On: Investing in Nature, Carbon Removal & the Future of Sport dinner hosted by our friend Sarabeth Brockley and Gigablue and Leaders on Purpose at Hub Culture’s tech lodge where I was grateful to reconnect with Mary Jo Wilmore of Nia Impact Capital, Daniela Fernandez of Velamar, and Henk Rogers of Tetris and Blue Planet Alliance - who is always making global waves for good, (another book moment - will be reading The Perfect Game next!) And I loved seeing the Hub’s Stan Stalnaker whose work at Davos and around the world is the foundation for so much connection and action. Thank you, Stan! 

With Mary Jo Willmore of Sun Valley Forum partner Nia Impact Capital at the Game On dinner at Hub Culture’s Tech Lodge

The Nature Nightcap hosted by TNC CEO Jen Morris and Clarmondial’s Tanja Havemann and Fred Werneck, provided the chance to have a bit of quality time with friends who I’d barely seen over the week, including the brilliant Sandrine Dixson-Declève of Earth4All and Club of Rome, Hindou Ibrahim, Coordinator of the Peul Indigenous Women and Peoples Association of Chad and co-chair of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate, who always inspires me to look inward to ground the work we are doing, and Justin Worland of TIME (who we can’t wait to have with us in Sun Valley this summer).

With Sandrine Dixson-Decléve of Earth4All and Club of Rome and Hindou Ibrahim of the Peul Indigenous Women and Peoples Association of Chad and the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate

Canopy’s legendary karaoke night brought us all together to celebrate before departing the next day, so much fun singing with the Canopy team and friends at Second Muse - we chose Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey (nailed it!) and Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi (harder than you might think!)

Davos would not be complete without time well spent with longtime friend and colleague, the brilliant Vijay Vaitheeswaran of The Economist, plotting about where to spend our time in Davos as well as global developments – and the possibility of hosting an Oxford-style debate for the 2026 Forum! We are so looking forward to having Vijay with us this summer.

Finally, thank you to Edie Lush of Hub Culture for interviewing me to cap off the week, where I talk about how sustainability didn't go silent, it just got smarter. It is clear that the smart money - and the vast majority of all investment - is going to clean power as demand scales for datacenters and the electrification of transportation and industries, and that nature is the most important partner for resilience, health, community wellbeing, physical infrastructure protection and mental health. We will be continuing to advance these topics with many of our Davos connections at our 11th Sun Valley Forum, another moment where we seek to welcome our community, to inform strategy, to build relationships, and to restore ourselves in a very special place amongst the mountains. 

A few communities also made the week very special, thank you in particular to the Canopy team, TPC House, The NAT and Goals House, Hub Culture, and friends everywhere that I dropped by, happy to reconnect, curious to find ways to accelerate impact together. The mix of serious work, unexpected collisions, and long dinners reminded me how much progress still happens in these informal spaces. Grateful for the people, the ideas, and the momentum coming out of Davos. 

Onward.