What happened at the World Economic Forum in Davos
Economy & innovation — di Valentina Neri
The environment also carves out a space on the agenda of the world's powerful, gathered in Davos for the World Economic Forum.
What happened at the World Economic Forum in Davos
The environment also carves out a space on the agenda of the world's powerful, gathered in Davos for the World Economic Forum.
Like every year, the cream of the global economy gathered in the city of Davos, in the Swiss Alps, which from Tuesday 22 to Friday 25 January played host to the World Economic Forum. The overarching theme of the programme is Globalisation 4.0, but as always the leading figures from institutions, businesses and civil society took advantage of this stage to put the economic issues they consider most urgent on the table.
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Even if it cannot exactly be described as a "pop" event in its own right, the World Economic Forum attracts a grassroots interest that grows more intense year on year, helped by the powerful (and in some ways surprising) information work it carries out day after day on the web. In practice, the WEF has transformed itself into a tool for staying up to date above all on the global economy, but also on environmental sustainability, digitalisation, gender equality and more. These are topics that 6.7 million people follow on Facebook and 3.4 million on Twitter. Numbers one would expect from a football or fashion star, certainly not from in-depth journalism on issues that can in some cases appear highly complex. The following on its LinkedIn and Instagram channels (each exceeding one million followers) and YouTube (269,000) is equally worthy of an influencer.
Notable attendees (and absentees)
Even before it began, this 2019 edition of the World Economic Forum in Davos made itself noticed for its high-profile no-shows. For the very first time, the United States delegation is absent: first President Donald Trump, and then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, decided to stay at home to deal with the shutdown. French President Emmanuel Macron made the same choice, caught up with the gilets jaunes protests, as did Theresa May, in the thick of the tortuous negotiations over Brexit.
The Swiss town, under virtually total lockdown, did however welcome Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel (who highlighted the significant progress achieved globally in the fight against extreme poverty), Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
Among the most anticipated names was that of Jair Bolsonaro, at one of his very first engagements on the international stage. Faced with pressing questions about the future of the Amazon, Brazil's new president promised to protect the environment, without going into detail. Meanwhile, the Peruvian government announced its accession to the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020, committing to reduce deforestation and support the sustainable development of rural areas. A choice that gives grounds for hope, given that more than half of the country's surface area is covered by forests, totalling 69 million hectares.
Greta Thunberg arrives, the very young champion of the climate
Having astonished everyone with her speech at COP 24, Greta Thunberg had no fear of making her voice heard among the world's economic leaders too. The sixteen-year-old Swede travelled to Davos by train, where she was housed in her tent at the Arctic Basecamp, and was invited to debate climate change alongside Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change from 2010 to 2016.
Goodnight from Davos. -15 and we’re sleeping in tents at the @ArcticBasecamp #wef
The WEF audience listened to her in complete silence as she addressed the world's powerful with an appeal as heartfelt as it was hard-hitting. "Solving the climate crisis is the greatest and most complex challenge that humanity has ever faced. But the solution is so simple that even a small child can understand it: we need to put an end to greenhouse gas emissions," something that requires changing our way of life almost entirely, she continued. "Adults keep saying 'We need to give hope to young people'. But I don't want your hope, I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And I want you to act, as if you were in the middle of a crisis, as if our house was on fire. Because it is, the house is on fire."
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The environment finds a place on the WEF agenda
In general, the environment played a far from marginal role in this edition of the Forum. Chairing the session dedicated to the oceans, Al Gore described them as "a full-blown global emergency". If people knew how serious this problem is, Rev Ocean chief executive Nina Jensen echoed him, everyone would become an activist.
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For the world's powerful, doing something concrete about climate change must not be a sacrifice but a plain and simple necessity, according to New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. "Do you want to be a leader who at some point looks back and realises you were on the wrong side, just as the world was loudly demanding a solution? That's what it comes down to," she declared. The Ardern government has also committed to finding indicators that go beyond GDP (gross domestic product), taking into account the wellbeing of the population and ecosystems as well. "GDP might tell you a country is thriving, but it's not true if at the same time it's destroying the environment and driving up CO2 emissions," the Prime Minister continued.
Among the many figures presented at Davos are those from a report that takes stock of electronic waste. And they are undoubtedly striking. Every year the world produces 44.7 million tonnes of it, the equivalent of 125,000 Boeing 747s, or 4,500 replicas of the Eiffel Tower. Although it represents only 2 per cent of total waste by volume, it accounts for 70 per cent of hazardous waste. All this while technology evolves incessantly, rendering models released just a handful of years earlier obsolete.
What is to be done, then? The solution, the report stresses, lies in the circular economy: designing products built to last longer, ensuring that at the end of their useful life they are recycled in a simple and safe way (unlike what happens in Africa, where millions of tonnes of devices are dismantled and handled without any precautions). Perhaps through buy-back mechanisms, whereby it is the manufacturer (or the retailer) who takes on responsibility for disposal. Something that major companies are beginning to promise. Recovery policies, moreover, represent a business opportunity worth $62.6 billion a year.
Amid so many noble promises and statements of intent, there are those who point out a few inconsistencies. Such as the Guardian, which points the finger at the 1,500 private jets that, over the course of a single week, stopped at the small Swiss ski resort, carrying world leaders on board. According to Air Charter Service, this is an all-time record (last year there were "only" just over 1,300), and what's more, there appears to be a growing preference for larger, more expensive and more polluting models. The World Economic Forum contests this data, publishing a separate analysis showing that private jet use is down 14 per cent compared to 2018. "For several years now we have been offering participants incentives to use public transport. If they need to fly, we encourage them to share the flight," reads the article published by the Wef on this topic.
Capitalism according to Bono of U2
As every year, the World Economic Forum is a stage not only for the great and the good of politics and economics, but also for music and film stars. Among them Bono, frontman of U2, who wanted to have his say on our economic system. "Capitalism is not immoral, it's amoral. It has lifted far more people out of poverty than any other economic system, but it is a wild beast that, if not tamed, can bite a lot of people along the way." The very people who until now have only suffered the backlash of capitalism, he continued, are helping to push our politics further and further towards populism.
Bono continued his speech by expressing words of admiration for Christine Lagarde (who was on stage with him). Having considered the International Monetary Fund "the devil" for years, the singer says he has markedly revised his opinion, thanks in no small part to the responsible and reasonable approach demonstrated by its leader.