Davos: Mexico Pushes Circular Economy as Global Order Frays

During Day 1 of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos, Mexico’s Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Alicia Bárcena, urged global leaders in industry, finance and policymaking to join Mexico in accelerating the transition from a linear to a circular economy. Her agenda included high-level policy discussions and bilateral meetings focused on mobilizing financing, advancing the energy transition and scaling circular economy initiatives. Bárcena attended the forum on behalf of President Claudia Sheinbaum, who said the minister was tasked with “explaining the vision of Mexico’s development model and our approach to sustainability and inclusive growth.”

Bárcena delivered that message during her participation as a panelist in the session “How Can We Build Prosperity Within Planetary Boundaries?” During the discussion, she outlined three core pillars guiding Mexico’s development strategy, stressing that while economic growth remains a priority, ecological limits are “not negotiable.”

She said Mexico is committed to conserving and restoring 30% of its territory by 2030. The country currently has 99 million hectares under some form of protection, encompassing jungles and diverse terrestrial ecosystems, and plans to expand protections to marine environments as well.

Bárcena added Mexico is seeking to “do business with nature,” positioning nature-based solutions as both a climate tool and an economic opportunity. She explained that the country is developing ecosystem taxonomies to quantify the environmental services provided by natural assets such as mangroves, including their capacity to absorb carbon emissions. These metrics, she said, can support corporate decarbonization strategies through compensation mechanisms and carbon initiatives.

“At the end of the day, our goal in Mexico is to decarbonize,” Bárcena said. While acknowledging that the country is not yet prepared to fully eliminate fossil fuels, she reaffirmed Mexico’s long-term commitment to achieving net-zero emissions and emphasized the role of nature-based solutions in that transition.

The environment minister highlighted Mexico’s shift away from a linear economic model toward circularity. Bárcena said the country is “leaving behind the linear economy” and developing circular economy industrial parks focused on turning waste into resources. She cited initiatives targeting tire recycling, construction debris, plastics and solid waste, including Mexico’s first Circular Economy Park, which is set to begin construction this year in Puebla. “No more linear economy, no more extractivism, no more deforestation,” she said, calling for a broader transformation in production and consumption patterns.

As an example of private-sector collaboration, Bárcena referenced PetStar, a plastic bottle recycling plant backed by Coca-Cola in Mexico. The facility has an annual capacity of 86,000 tons of food-grade recycled resin, making it the largest of its kind in the world.

Responding to questions about how a country historically dependent on natural resource extraction can pursue sustainable development, Bárcena said Mexico is ushering in what she described as “the age of restoration.” “The Earth needs to be restored,” she told the audience, arguing that future economic growth will only be possible if aligned with conservation and regeneration.

In a second intervention during the panel, Bárcena stressed the urgency and scale of the climate crisis. While several energy transition and circular economy initiatives are underway, she said they must accelerate and expand. “The current scale of these initiatives is not enough,” she said, noting that her presence in Davos was aimed at engaging companies capable of driving change at scale.

She  identified two areas where action is most critical: energy transition and the circular economy. “The most important thing the planet needs today is to move away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy,” Bárcena said. She pointed to energy storage and grid modernization as key challenges, particularly for developing countries seeking to fully leverage solar, wind and geothermal resources.

Beyond the panel discussions, Bárcena held a series of bilateral meetings throughout the day. She began with Marcus Wallenberg, chair of the board of SEB Group, to discuss financing mechanisms for green transition projects and energy efficiency. She later met with Peter Thomson, the UN secretary-general’s special envoy for the oceans, to review cooperation on marine conservation and regional initiatives.

Another bilateral meeting was held with Bart Sap, CEO, Belgian materials group Umicore, focusing on circular economy strategies, recycling and potential collaboration in Mexico’s planned circular economy parks and related value chains.

Bárcena also participated in the forum “Who Is Winning on Energy Security?” which examined clean energy deployment, grid infrastructure and the continued role of hydrocarbons. She additionally joined the panel “Economic Outlook 2026,” where global trends and risks related to growth, inflation and interest rates were discussed.

Day 1 at Davos

The first day of the WEF Annual Meeting was headlined by a keynote address from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, which concluded with a standing ovation. In his remarks, Carney warned that the international order anchored in US hegemony was fracturing, describing the current moment as “a rupture.”

“Every day we are reminded that we live in an era of great-power rivalry,” Carney said. “That the rules-based order is fading. That the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.” He cautioned that middle powers such as Canada and Mexico face a strategic choice: “to compete with each other for favor, or to combine to create a third path.”

Carney’s comments came amid ongoing tariff pressure from US President Donald Trump, who has imposed duties affecting key sectors in Canada and Mexico, including autos, steel, aluminum and lumber, and has threatened additional trade actions. His remarks were also widely interpreted as a response to what he described as increasingly aggressive and expansionist U.S. foreign policies in the Western Hemisphere. On Jan. 4, 2026, US Army Delta Force bombed the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and abducted President Nicolás Maduro over allegations of international drug-trafficking. In recent weeks, Trump has also intensified threats to annex Greenland, imposing tariffs on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland after those countries rejected any change in the Arctic island’s status.