At the recent 50th World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (21-24 January), attended by nearly 3,000 participants, including global corporate leaders, some 50 heads of state or government, ministers, academics, scientists, trade unionists, prelates, environmental and youth activists, Prince Charles warned that "global warming, climate change, and the devastating loss of biodiversity are the greatest threats humanity has ever faced - and one largely of our own creation".
"In order to secure our future and to prosper, we need to evolve our economic model. Sustainable markets generate long-term value through the balance of natural, social, human and financial capital."
Ten practical actions would drive the initiative including the protection of natural capital, identifying just transition pathways to net zero carbon economies, connecting investments to investables using platforms that can rapidly scale solutions.
"On every pressing issue we face, there are solutions that are not just available, but increasingly cost-effective," the Prince added. "I will be convening a broad range of industry and issue roundtables including, but not limited to, aviation; water; carbon capture and storage; shipping; forestry; plastics; financing; digital technology; the bio economy; nature-based solutions; renewable energy; batteries, storage and electric vehicles; fisheries; integrated healthcare; cement; steel; traceability and labelling and agriculture."
In another keynote address, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of four "huge challenges" to the world today: climate change, mistrust of leaders, increased geopolitical tension and the dark side of the technological revolution. "Climate change is the defining issue of our time ... an existential threat to humankind. The planet will not be destroyed. What will be destroyed is our capacity to live on the planet."
According to the WEF's The Global Risks Report 2020 "climate action failure" is a central risk: "the world cannot wait for the fog of geopolitical and geo-economic uncertainty to lift", the report says.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel also focused on climate emergency. "Will we attain the goals we committed to in the Paris climate agreement?" she asked. "[That] may well be a question of survival for the whole planet. So we are under pressure. We have to act. The whole way that we do business, that we live and that we have grown accustomed to in the industrial age will have to be changed."
The European Commission president, Ursula van der Leyen said that under the Commission's proposed European Green Deal, "Europe will be the world's first climate neutral continent by 2050. And it will do what it takes to unlock the investment, innovation and the creativity that is needed. Last month, 44 of Europe's largest investors, representing €6trn of assets, called on the EU to put climate neutrality into law. We have to act now".
In his usual "climate denier" mode, President Trump, however, lauded US economic achievements under his watch and the major current and future local and world role of fossil fuels - seen as the key drivers of ever increasing greenhouse gas emissions - dismissing climate change concerns by saying that "the world must reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse".
The speech was met with almost total silence, while Nobel prize-winner US economist Joseph Stiglitz reportedly circulated a sheet of the statistics to the audience challenging the claims about the economy. "He managed to say absolutely zero on climate change, beyond a commitment to join an initiative to plant a trillion trees worldwide. Meanwhile, we're going to roast," Dr Stiglitz complained.
"Planting trees is nowhere near enough," commented WEF keynote speaker Greta Thunberg, the 17-year-old Swedish schoolgirl and initiator of the global FridaysforFuture weekly student strikes. "We need to start listening to the science and treat this crisis with the importance it deserves." She demanded the immediate halt to fossil fuels production and exploration.
Twenty-four major US and other global banks, insurers and pension funds have poured $1.4trn into the fossil fuel sector since the 2015 UN Paris Agreement on climate change. Greenpeace International's Executive director Jennifer Morgan presented her organisation's new report and said: "It's the finance, stupid." A previous report, co-authored by UN Environment and five think-tanks, found that governments plan to produce about 50% more fossil fuels in 2030 than consistent with the Paris Agreement target of limiting warming to 2°C and 120% more than consistent with the related aspirational 1.5°C target.
The outgoing Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney called for a credible trajectory towards a green transition, based on an agreed timeframe and common metrics which along with public pressure and government policy would determine capital flows.
While "saving the planet" emerged as the headline topic under the conference theme of Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World, updated information on the 80+ strong WEF Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders could not be supplied to this paper by the WEF press office. Other themes discussed were tech for good, fairer economies, better business society and the future of work, healthy futures and beyond geopolitics.
A number of initiatives emerging from the Forum included: the Trillion Trees Platform (to be planted by 2030)
supporting the reforestation community; the Reskilling Revolution, to provide one billion people with better education, skills and jobs by 2030; the Global Consortium for Digital Currency Governance to increase access to the financial system through inclusive and interoperable innovative policy solutions; the OECD-Forum Partnership to accelerate inclusive and sustainable growth globally and a Food Action Alliance.