In The News: World Economic Forum Appoints Circle of Blue Managing Director to its Global Future Council on the Future of the Energy Nexus

GENEVA (January 16, 2025) — The World Economic Forum (WEF) has appointed Circle of Blue Managing Director J. Carl Ganter to the Global Future Council on the Future of the Energy Nexus ahead of WEF’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, which will take place January 20-24.

The WEF’s Network of Global Future Councils is the world’s foremost multi-stakeholder and interdisciplinary knowledge network dedicated to promoting innovative thinking to shape a more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable future.

Circle of Blue is an award-winning independent, nonprofit digital news organization that informs critical decisions about the world’s escalating freshwater crises and their impacts on food, energy and health through rigorous investigative journalism, water data analysis, and serving as a trusted convener in the water sector and beyond.

“At this key moment in history that demands breakthrough, coordinated actions, the Global Future Councils inspire necessary systems thinking and collaboration,” Ganter said. “It’s an honor to be included among a cohort of global systems leaders and to bring water into urgent discussions and connective initiatives across food, energy, health, climate, and artificial intelligence.”

The Global Future Council on the Future of the Energy Nexus is among 35 thematic councils that bring together “the most relevant and knowledgeable thought leaders from academia, government, international organizations, business, and civil society,” according to the WEF.

Ganter has previously served as vice-chairman of the WEF Global Agenda Council on Water Security, and as a member of the Global Agenda Council on the Environment, New Vision for Agriculture Transformation Leaders Network and Water Futures initiative. He is also a member of the steering committee of the Center for International and Strategic Studies (CSIS) Project on Water Security. Circle of Blue also curates the WEF Intelligence Maps for Fresh Water.

During its upcoming two-year term, the Global Future Council on the Future of the Energy Nexus will explore the links between energy and water, study energy’s interconnections with the agriculture sector, and work to better anticipate tomorrow’s critical energy nexus connections.

Circle of Blue recognizes that through heat waves, floods, and droughts, water is the primary medium through which humanity experiences climate change. Circle of Blue meets the growing demand for better understanding the myriad connections between water and climate change by deploying a distinctive international and systemic operating model that combines trusted journalism with data literacy, thought leadership, strategic communications, and top-tier convening to inform responses to the world’s escalating water crises.

A founder of the Great Lakes News Collaborative and member of the Institute for Nonprofit News, Circle of Blue has an extensive track record working across sectors to bring together government officials, civic and business leaders, and the public to inform and motivate systems change. With recent support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and input from Dalberg Catalyst and APCO, Circle of Blue is expanding its reportage and systems approach to water through the development of a new collaborative initiative, “Designing Water’s Future.”