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The annual World Economic Forum got underway on Tuesday in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, providing a snowy stage for government and business leaders to opine on international affairs. With attention focused on the latest crisis – a potential US-European trade war over Greenland – climate change has slid down the agenda.

Despite this, a number of panels are addressing issues like electric vehicles, energy security and climate science. Keep up with top takeaways from those discussions and other climate news from Davos in our bulletin, which we’ll update throughout the day.

From oil to electrons – energy security enters a new era

Energy crises spurred by geopolitical tensions are nothing new – remember the 1970s oil shock spurred by the embargo Arab producers slapped on countries that had supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War, leading to rocketing inflation and huge economic pain.

But, a Davos panel on energy security heard, the situation has since changed. Oil now accounts for less than 30% of the world’s energy supply, down from more than 50% in 1973. This shift, combined with a supply glut, means oil is taking more of a back seat, according to International Energy Agency boss Fatih Birol.

Instead, in an “age of electricity” driven by transport and technology, energy diplomacy is more focused on key elements of that supply chain, in the form of critical minerals, natural gas and the security buffer renewables can provide. That requires new thinking, Birol added.

“Energy and geopolitics were always interwoven but I have never ever seen that the energy security risks are so multiplied,” he said. “Energy security, in my view, should be elevated to the level of national security today.”

In this context, he noted how many countries are now seeking to generate their own energy as far as possible, including from nuclear and renewables, and when doing energy deals, they are considering not only costs but also whether they can rely on partners in the long-term.

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In the case of Europe – which saw energy prices jump after sanctions on Russian gas imports in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine – energy security rooted in homegrown supply is a top priority, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Davos on Tuesday.

Outlining the bloc’s “affordable energy action plan” in a keynote speech at the World Economic Forum, she emphasised that Europe is “massively investing in our energy security and independence” with interconnectors and grids based on domestically produced sources of power.

The EU, she said, is trying to promote nuclear and renewables as much as possible “to bring down prices and cut dependencies; to put an end to price volatility, manipulation and supply shocks,” calling for a faster transition to clean energy.

“Because homegrown, reliable, resilient and cheaper energy will drive our economic growth and deliver for Europeans and secure our independence,” she added.

Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng speaks during the 56th annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 20, 2026. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

China pitches itself as clean energy champion

While the US under President Donald Trump doubles down on fossil fuels and retreats from international climate bodies, China is openly pitching itself as the flagbearer of the clean energy transition and multilateralism.

In Davos, the country’s Vice-Premier He Lifeng invited nations and companies from across the world to “embrace the opportunities from the green and low-carbon transition” by working closely with China.

He boasted about China’s dominance of the global cleantech industry where it controls vast parts of the supply chain – from critical mineral processing to the manufacturing of finished products such as solar panels and electric vehicles.

At ‘Davos of mining’, Saudi Arabia shapes new narrative on minerals

At the same time, He Lifeng told leaders in Davos that Beijing wants to share these opportunities with the world and called on partners to “ensure the free flow of quality green products globally”.

Western nations, including the European Union, have imposed hefty tariffs on Chinese cleantech in an attempt to protect their home-grown businesses from what they regard as unfair competition. But there are signs of those trade tensions easing. Canada announced last week it would let 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles into the country under a much reduced tariff as part of a sweeping trade deal.

He Lifeng also reaffirmed Beijing’s commitment to achieve for the first time an absolute emissions reduction target by 2035 and to peak its carbon emissions by the end of this decade, as laid out in the country’s latest climate plan.

He described this plan as “a testament to China’s firm resolve and maximum efforts”, although climate experts believe Beijing’s promise to cut emissions by between 7% and 10% by 2035 against an unspecified peak level is weak and unambitious.

In the month that saw the US announce its intention to withdraw from the UN climate convention (UNFCCC), He Lifeng confirmed China’s engagement in climate diplomacy. “China will work with all other Parties to fully and effectively implement the UNFCCC and its Paris Agreement, and uphold the multilateral process,” he said.

AES boss calls for “more technical talk” on supply chains

Earlier, the energy security panel tackled the risks related to supply chains for clean energy and electrification, which are being partly fuelled by rising demand from data centres and electric vehicles.

The minerals and metals that are required for batteries, cables and other components are largely under the control of China, which has invested massively in extracting and processing those materials both at home and overseas. Efforts to boost energy security by breaking dependence on China will continue shaping diplomacy now and in the future, the experts noted.

Copper – a key raw material for the energy transition – is set for a 70% increase in demand over the next 25 years, said Mike Henry, CEO of mining giant BHP, with remaining deposits now harder to exploit. Prices are on an upward trend, and this offers opportunities for Latin America, a region rich in the metal, he added.

At ‘Davos of mining’, Saudi Arabia shapes new narrative on minerals

Andrés Gluski, CEO of AES – which describes itself as “the largest US-based global power company”, generating and selling all kinds of energy to companies – said there is a lack of discussion about supply chains compared with ideological positioning on energy sources.

Instead he called for “more technical talk” about boosting battery storage to smooth out electricity supply and using existing infrastructure “smarter”. While new nuclear technologies such as small modular reactors are promising, it will be at least a decade before they can be deployed effectively, he noted.

In the meantime, with electricity demand rising rapidly, the politicisation of the debate around renewables as an energy source “makes no sense whatsoever”, he added.

New energy vehicles (electric or hybrid) are seen at Changan Automobile’s vehicle distribution center in Chongqing, China, on June 16, 2024. (Photo: Costfoto/NurPhoto via Reuters)

BYD exec says EV batteries will make mining CEOs happy

A top BYD executive told the head of a mining company that the rise of electric vehicles (EVs) will make him the “happiest person” because “we’re going to consume a lot of copper, a lot of lithium, a lot of different mining”.

Stella Li, executive vice-president of the world’s biggest electric car company, made the comments to Vale’s CEO Gustavo Pimenta during a panel entitled “Can EVs really dominate?” on Tuesday morning.

EV batteries typically use copper, lithium, nickel and manganese. While these minerals and metals are mined around the world, they are mainly processed in BYD’s home country of China, a dominance that alarms Western powers.

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Climate Home News has highlighted numerous environmental and social problems associated with the mining of these critical raw materials in its Clean Energy Frontier series. Doctors in Chile claim that a copper mine is causing autism, while lithium miners in Nigeria face physical dangers and bad pay.

From the audience, the head of the global IndustriALL trade union Atle Høie said he knows the transition to EVs is “coming” but “mining is still ridden with exploitation” and “minerals are coming from countries where human rights are very poorly developed”.

Pimenta said he wanted mining to be cheap and fast but also ethical, with minerals that can be traced, human rights policies implemented and mines using less land and water. He said Vale was looking at recovering materials from mining waste piles instead of digging new mines.

He added that he didn’t want competitors with low ethical standards because “it’s not a level playing field”, highlighting the need to “rebuild the reputation of the mining industry” in order to convince society to let mining projects go ahead.

He and BYD’s Li played down fears of an under-supply of minerals like copper and lithium, saying sustained and predictable demand would encourage more supply. Li noted there had been a shortage of lithium copper oxide during the COVID-19 pandemic but then the price shot up by a factor of 30 and “suddenly” reserves were found in new countries.

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Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan – a major US car-producing state – told the panel that Americans still need both EVs and polluting internal combustion engine vehicles, as seen at the recent Detroit Auto Show.

Whitmer, a Democrat, criticised the US federal government for “back and forth policies” which have made it more difficult for the car industry to go all in and ramp up in the way Chinese firms have been able to.

BYD’s Li said that, unlike China, “some countries” – which she did not name – have gone “back and forth” and “this will confuse manufacturing”.

“Nuclear renaissance” predicted to power AI data centres

The need for clean but reliable electricity to power data centres is likely to lead to a “nuclear renaissance”, according to participants on a panel on artificial intelligence.

Sweden’s centre-right energy minister Ebba Busch told the panel that while Sweden is “still loving renewables”, wind and solar can not provide the kind of power available on demand that is needed to run data centres around the clock because they are too variable. To provide clean, reliable electricity, she said, Sweden is “doing a nuclear renaissance”.

Fellow panellist Joshua Payne – founder of a company called Nscale, which builds and owns data centres – agreed that a nuclear renaissance was “very likely” in the early 2030s. But he also added that northern Norway is the best place to build data centres because it has an oversupply of clean and reliable hydropower electricity.

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As Bloom Energy CEO KR Sridhar noted, data centres often consume more electricity than big industrial users like aluminium smelters or petrochemical refiners. Like these industrial sites, data centres will soon be forced by governments to “bring your own power” rather than continuing to free ride from the grid, Sridhar said.

But Payne defended data centres’ electricity use, arguing that it provides more “economic output per electron” than industries like steel or oil. This means it’s better for the economy to use electricity for data centres than other energy-intensive sectors, he argued.

Panellists discussed whether AI will become more energy efficient in future, perhaps due to shortages of computing memory forcing companies to use memory more efficiently and therefore use less electricity. Or because the theory of artificial general intelligence is flawed and a more energy-efficient model of AI – such as that championed by China – will emerge.

The CEO of Schneider Electric Olivier Blum argued AI could help combat climate change by making economies more energy-efficient in general, although earlier in the day the CEO of Saudi Aramco Amin Nasser also claimed the technology was helping his company extract more planet-heating oil while cutting costs.

The post Climate at Davos: Energy security in the geopolitical driving seat appeared first on Climate Home News.

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