Fuelling the Future 2026

Call to action Clean fuels present a high-growth market opportunity. For businesses to realize it, coordinated action across policy, finance and value chains will be key to unlocking investment and scale. Clean fuels are an established and necessary lever for meeting growing energy demand in a sustainable manner. They can reduce GHG emissions in transport and industry, diversify energy supply and create industrial and rural jobs, harnessing resources that are more widely distributed across regions. With sound safeguards and policies ensuring they are produced and used responsibly, clean fuels can be deployed quickly through blends and drop-in use, limiting impact on consumer prices while supply chains and technologies mature to improve economics. Ambition is rising, but real progress requires more projects to break ground than currently seen. Companies and investors struggle to commit capital due to high risks, compounded by immature value chains, incongruent policies, uncertain demand and complex market dynamics. Overcoming these barriers is not a simple task to solve. It will take policies that lower barriers and well-designed, stable incentives to create predictability for investors. It will take public and private stakeholders to collaborate on mechanisms to pool and share risks. And it will take corporates, including agribusinesses, technology providers, refiners, investors and demand sectors, to adopt innovative and collaborative approaches to de-risk investments. Examples from real-world case studies give cause for optimism. Despite challenging economics and higher risks, these projects are demonstrating how challenges can be overcome to deliver financial return and societal value. Regional and global platforms for collaboration can help. The World Economic Forum – through initiatives such as Future of Clean Fuels, First Movers Coalition, Airports of Tomorrow and Transitioning Industrial Clusters – convenes leaders from business, finance and government to collaborate, mobilize demand, share what works – and what doesn’t. The Clean Energy Ministerial process and the work of Mission Possible Partnership also catalyse important efforts for multilateral collaboration, particularly between governments and regulatory bodies. Ultimately, clean fuels represent a significant commercial opportunity and a route towards a more resilient, competitive and low-emissions energy system. Progress requires greater collaboration and transparency among stakeholders throughout the value chain to turn ambition into projects. To learn more and start collaborating, visit the Forum’s Future of Clean Fuels community. Four areas for collective focus Collaborate to shape policies for performance and predictability Policy designs that incentivize competition between pathways to provide the most affordable fuels with the lowest emissions are critical to reward continuous improvement. Collaboration between governments and industrial counterparts can remove barriers and turn societal value into transparent price signals, by focusing on public mechanisms that are durable amid changing political priorities. Design projects with regional priorities in mind Solutions will differ by region, making close public- private collaboration essential. Corporate leaders can engage local and regional policy-makers early in the project development stage to ensure investments support regional priorities, strengthen project viability, build local support and secure incentives or risk-sharing mechanisms that sustain investment over time.Build partnerships across the value chain Few companies will have the capabilities to effectively develop projects alone. Value chain leaders can proactively form strategic partnerships and adopt models where they are willing to share risk and rewards. This requires a different, customer-orientated mindset that shapes value propositions rather than traditional commodity market-type approaches. Engage financiers early and adopt new investment models Early collaboration with financiers is key to de-risk and structure projects for bankability. Leading companies and investors are reducing risk in creative ways, such as seeking non-traditional funding sources and mechanisms to reduce financing costs and considering future upside potential versus alternative investments in capital allocation processes. Fuelling the Future: How Business, Finance and Policy can Accelerate the Clean Fuels Market 40