Kerry explained, “The coalition has achieved scale across the world’s leading companies and support from committed governments around the world to tackle the hardest challenge of the climate crisis: reducing the emissions from the sectors where we don’t yet have the toolkit to replace unabated fossil fuels and swiftly reach net-zero emissions.”

From 35 members when the First Movers Coalition opened in 2021 at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, the coalition has now expanded to 96 members and includes some of the world’s largest companies.

The most recent members to join the First Movers Coalition include four transportation corporations:

• – Qatar Airways,
• – Neutron Holdings, Inc., doing business under the name Lime, formerly LimeBike, is a transportation company based in San Francisco, California. It runs electric scooters, electric bikes and electric mopeds in cities around the world.
• – Volvo Cars, Inc.,
• – Boom Technology, an American company designing a supersonic airliner named the Boom Overture. The company is developing a one-third-scale demonstrator: the Boom XB-1 Baby Boom

First Movers Coalition new members from other sectors this year include: Velux, The Coca Cola Company, GE Vernova, DP World Limited, Capgemini, Danfoss A/S, Hanwha Ocean, Chooose AS, Drax Corporate Limited and Norsk Hydro ASA.

In 2022, Ford Motor Co. joined the Coalition’s aluminum and steel sectors. “Ford is proud to be a founding member of the First Movers Coalition aluminum sector and is making progress towards our commitment that at least 10 percent of Ford’s primary aluminum and steel purchases will have near-zero carbon emissions by 2030,” said Cynthia Williams, global director of sustainability, homologation and compliance at Ford.

“This is a powerful example of how Ford’s scale and proven industrial expertise can be leveraged to accelerate the shift to EVs and to help build the future of zero-carbon technologies that are good for people and the planet, and good for business,” Williams said.

In 2022, General Motors joined the First Movers Coalition in the aluminum, cement and concrete, and steel sectors, offering to work toward a solution and signal demand support for the development of low-CO2 aluminum and steel products.

Anchored by General Motors, the First Movers Coalition launched an unprecedented set of new commitments under which companies will buy at least 10 percent near-zero carbon cement and concrete by 2030. 

Cement and concrete make up seven percent of global emissions today and are on track to reach nine percent by 2050. This ambitious set of purchasing commitments by First Movers Coalition members will create an early market to stimulate investment in the next generation of technologies needed to decarbonize the cement and concrete sector.

“We know climate change is an urgent priority, and we are advancing toward our bold goal to be carbon neutral in our global products and operations by 2040 so that we can be a part of the solution,”

Kristen Siemen, vice president sustainable workplaces & chief sustainability officer, General Motors, said in the company’s 2022 Sustainability Report.

“We cannot do it all alone; collaboration is key. So, we continue to work closely with others – from governments and policymakers to partners, suppliers and customers – as we take each step toward achieving our all-electric vision and our carbon neutral goal,” Kathi Walker, director, global sustainability strategies with GM, said in 2022.

In total, First Movers Coalition corporate members have pledged US$12 billion, the world’s strongest demand signal, for bringing emerging innovations to scale. These commitments will drive investment in next-generation clean steel, aluminum, and cement; near-zero carbon aviation fuels; zero-emission trucking and shipping; and carbon dioxide removal.

The companies that have stepped forward as First Movers will drive down the cost of emerging technologies and bring them to market this decade in order to decarbonize the sectors of the global economy that produce a third of global emissions.