The World Economic Forum began with cosy chats on the economy and tech. The climate issue has roared back, but businesses seem quietly positive and pragmatic.
| The battle between climate activists and the energy and resources industries muscled its way to the top of the Davos agenda on Thursday, puncturing the cosy sense of solidarity among the global elite.
But then Ms Thunberg came to town. She told a gathering outside the Davos secure zone that attendees at the summit were “the people who are mostly fuelling the destruction of the planet, the people who at the very core of the climate crisis, the people who are investing in fossil fuels”.“Yet somehow these are the people that we seem to rely on to solve our problems, when they have proven time and time again that they are not prioritising that.
Most of the CEOs or chairmen of the world’s largest mining and energy companies are in Davos, and the main street hosts shopfronts from big producer countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE.But the WEF has given greater public prominence to the climate activists. And in recent days they have been taking full advantage of the podium.On Wednesday, Mr Guterres gave a keynote speech that was punchy even by his recent rhetorical standards.
“This misleads consumers, investors and regulators with false narratives. It feeds a culture of climate misinformation and confusion. And it leaves the door wide open to greenwashing.”On the panels and fringes, though, discussion on greenwashing has given way to the more recently identified phenomenon of “greenhushing”: companies keeping quiet about their climate targets or achievements to avoid hostile scrutiny.
“Next Davos, people will continue watching the progress Fortescue has made - and I think we’re in there with a chance to persuade the mining industry to be the first industry to go green.” , said that her experience at Davos had been of the business and NGO communities “pointing the way” to practical outcomes on renewable energy and deforestation.
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