Global warming dominates this year the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF), which opens Tuesday, January 21 in Davos. US President Donald Trump and environmental activist Greta Thunberg, with diametrically opposed visions on environmental challenges, are expected in the Swiss station.
Donald Trump, with climate-skeptical convictions, will open the ball, a few hours before the opening in Washington of his dismissal trial. Two years ago, he had been rather well received by the big bosses gathered in Switzerland, who had retained his fiscal generosity rather than his rant against free trade.
The billionaire must have talks in Davos with the president of the European Commission, as well as with the Iraqi president, shortly after the assassination in Iraq of an Iranian general by American forces.
More receptive audience?
Will he also meet Greta Thunberg? Invited to Davos for the second year in a row, the 17-year-old Swedish activist will speak shortly before the American president at a round table, and will open in the afternoon a session with the unequivocal title: "How to avoid the climatic apocalypse ".
This time, the audience may be more receptive. According to a WEF survey, some 750 political and economic leaders rank environmental crises (extreme weather, loss of biodiversity, etc.) at the top of the global risks deemed most likely.
And this perception is beginning to have consequences: asset manager BlackRock, a financial monster driving $ 7 trillion, announced last week that it would become a leader in sustainable investments.
The announcement could be emulated, at a time when the assessment of the costs of climate change is taking place. According to a report released Monday by WEF and PwC, more than half of the global economy depends on nature and ecosystems.
Lead by example
For Chris Williamson, economist at IHS Markit, "there is clearly a change of atmosphere: some may have underestimated the speed of this development and Davos may accelerate this pressure" on the business community.
However, NGOs present in Davos are wary of any triumphalism: "There is a huge increase in growth taking at the level of the big bosses, but the challenge is to translate it at lower levels, within gigantic groups" to complex production chains, insists AFP Marco Lambertini, secretary general of WWF.
The Davos Forum, sometimes accused of climatic hypocrisy because of the ballet of jets, helicopters and limousines that it causes each year, intends to set an example by banning single-use utensils, mounting meatless buffets ...
With AFP
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