Green procurement $6.5t to $8.5t lever, WEF says

Report urges firms to sharpen business cases and governments to de-risk capital.

Business and government need to move faster to scale the green economy, with public procurement alone representing $6.5t to $8.5t a year across OECD governments, the World Economic Forum report said.

The report said companies that grow in the green economy tend to pair core fundamentals with three “growth accelerators”, spanning technology maturity and cost efficiency, regulation and ecosystem shaping, and access to “smart capital”.

It stated that past “winners” were typically led by CEOs who personally championed quantified ambitions, insisted on business-case rigor, and invested in R&D and pilots before scaling, whilst managing expectations on near-term financial outcomes in immature markets.

The report also highlighted recurring pitfalls, including relying on a green narrative without commercial viability, underestimating the need to improve unit economics, and overreliance on policy support, as well as taking incremental approaches rather than targeting “truly net-zero” propositions.

For companies, it set out four priorities, including enabling customers to make greener choices, building stronger business cases by lowering costs, shaping demand through offtake partnerships and coalitions, and engaging regulators and peers to influence market rules.

For policy-makers, the report urged clearer long-term decarbonisation targets, greater use of procurement to create early demand, and measures to de-risk private capital such as guarantees and concessional tools, alongside steps to remove permitting, infrastructure, and skills bottlenecks.

It also called for aligning incentives, including reviewing fossil fuel subsidies, and developing clearer standards for green markets to reduce transaction costs and build trust across jurisdictions.