WEF: Scientists and economists call for “serious leadership” to secure Safe and Just world
16/01/2026
As world leaders gather at the World Economic Forum in Davos, scientists, economists and business executives have signed an open letter calling for a shared prosperity path to replace the outdated model of fossil-fuelled growth, which is accelerating inequality, geopolitical instability, and climate and ecological collapse.
The letter’s signatories, which include Margarita Astrálaga, Chair of the Advisory Board for the Global Commons Alliance, Sandrine Dixson-Decleve, Executive Chair, Earth4All, and Global Commons Alliance board members Johan Rockström, Co-chair, Earth Commission and Director, Potsdam Institute Climate Impact Research, and Naoko Ishii, Director Centre for Global Commons, University of Tokyo, instead endorse ”serious leadership” rooted in prioritizing human wellbeing and aligning economic activity with the Earth’s Safe and Just boundaries.
JUST AND EQUITABLE
Signatories in the letter argue that maintaining the current economic trajectory – where the richest 1 percent capture around 20 percent of global income – is already causing multi-trillion-dollar losses while deepening environmental and social tensions. Alternatively an economy aligned with planetary boundaries delivers job creation from renewables, reduced vulnerability to climate and economic shocks, and a more just and equitable world for all.
The letter reads: “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. [..] 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.”
OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL
Signatories conclude the letter by asking 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 include:
- 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
- Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Carlos Nobre, Senior Scientist at the University of São Paulo, Co-Chair of the Science Panel for the Amazon
- Izabella Teixeira, former Brazilian Minister of the Environment, Co-Chair of the UN’s International Resource Panel
- Naoko Ishii, Director Centre for Global Commons, University of Tokyo and former Deputy Vice Minister of Finance Japan
- Catherine McKenna, Founder and CEO of Climate and Nature Solutions and former Canadian Minister of Environment
