A die-hard environmentalist and head of a polluting company walk into a conference center.
The World Economic Forum in Davos is one of the few places where environmental activists attend the same events as the private jet crowd and get a chance to try to convince them to change their ways face-to-face.
To go or not to go to the swanky forum in the Swiss Alps? That is the question that Greenpeace asks itself each year.
Photo: Reuters
Going is “not for us a given, because this is a group of elites who have gotten us into the lot of messes that we have around the world right now,” Greenpeace executive director Jennifer Morgan said.
Last year, US President Donald Trump addressed the forum just months after announcing that he would abandon the Paris Agreement.
This year, new far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro — another climate skeptic — headlined the event, to the chagrin of non-governmental organizations that have warned about the impact his economic development projects would have on the Amazon rain forest and indigenous peoples.
Despite her misgivings, Morgan is attending this year’s event alongside the likes of chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall, veteran wildlife documentary maker David Attenborough and former US vice president Al Gore.
They have their work cut out for them: From the oil industry to the agri-food business, there are plenty of executives walking the forum’s halls who have yet to be fully convinced of the merits of converting to renewable energy sources and alternatives to plastic.
However, although the Davos elite told a forum survey that they are more worried than ever about climate change, selling them on shifting to a more environmentally friendly approach might not be easy, judging from the record number of private jets chartered for this year’s event.
Air Charter Service forecast nearly 1,500 private jet flights over the week to airports near the ski resort.
That is up from more than 1,300 aircraft movements seen at last year’s forum, indicating that the convenience of flying privately continues to outweigh any concerns about the outsized carbon footprint it involves.
Meanwhile, the forum is trying hard to “green” its annual event, providing electric limousines to transport many of the big names between events, while it strongly recommends that others bundle up and brave the icy streets on foot.
All plastic straws have been banned, plates are made of recyclable cardboard and soda bottles are all made of recyclable glass.
“The forum is committed to reducing and compensating for the event’s carbon footprint,” read signs sprinkled about the conference area.
Organizers have insisted that they are making the annual forum environmentally sustainable, offsetting the carbon emissions generated by private aviation as much as possible through their own initiatives on the ground.
The program is full of sessions with titles like “Plastic pollution: an end in sight?” alongside a screening of Attenborough’s documentary Our Planet.
After years of lobbying, the message is starting to sink in, WWF director-general Marco Labertini said.
“I think many this year who are coming to Davos understand that the conservation of the environment ... is not any more a nice-to-do or a nice-to-have thing, it’s actually fundamental for the sustainability of their business,” he told reporters.
“Climate change, extreme weather, floods, drought, crop failures, overfishing, deforestation are all issues that are affecting their bottom lines, their businesses,” he added.
Some executives have been sold on the message.
“I think all businesses should start doing something,” DHL Express chairman Ken Allen said following a screening of Our Planet, whose dramatic images of icebergs as tall as skyscrapers crashing into the sea left many visibly shaken.
“Nothing can change without legislation, but it should start with us,” he said, before heading off to a meeting with an expert on alternatives to plastic.
Meanwhile, Bolsonaro told the crowd that he believed development policy and environmental issues “should go hand in hand.”
Morgan was not convinced.
“There is a lot of double-speak going on,” Morgan said.
If the forum organizers really want to make a difference, they should “get all the energy guys” around the table to discuss “how you decarbonize,” she said.
“That’s not happening here, and it’s at best a lost opportunity and at worse a lack of taking responsibility for the problem that this group has caused for the world,” she added.
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