The world’s political and economic elite will meet next week in Davos with the ambition to “cooperate in a fragmented world” and consider the war in Ukraine, climate change and globalization in an existential crisis, AFP and Agerpres write.

This year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) in the ski resort of the Swiss Alps “takes place in the most difficult geopolitical and geoeconomic context in recent decades,” WEF President Borge Brende said at a briefing. .

The Covid-19 pandemic, trade conflicts between China and the US, as well as the war in Ukraine in recent years have contributed to widening geopolitical rifts and fueled protectionist policies.

“The era of globalization will soon end”

“One of the main reasons for this fragmentation is a lack of cooperation,” and this translates into “short-term and selfish politics,” laments WEF founder Klaus Schwab, who speaks of a “vicious circle.”

Some have even begun to wonder about the future of globalization, which has been at the center of the Davos philosophy for half a century.

There was a moment of “hope for a return to the old normality of the globalized world,” explains Karen Harris, an economist at Bain&Company. “I think we recognize today that this era is going to end soon,” even if cooperation is maintained “around a small series of issues,” she predicts.

“Even the fight against climate change is becoming an increasingly isolationist battle,” observes Karen Harris, citing the example of the Inflationary Reduction Act (IRA) passed by the United States, which provides significant aid to companies based in the United States in the electric vehicle or renewable sector. energy, but even carbon taxes at the borders, taxes that will also be applied in the EU.

Zelensky will speak via video conference in Davos

Almost a year after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this conflict and its consequences for global energy and defense policy will occupy a large part of the discussions in Davos.

While the Russians are absent for the second year in a row, the Ukrainian delegation will be present at the forum, and the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, will speak via video conference.

The opportunity for them to address hundreds of prominent political figures such as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, UN Secretary General António Guterres or NATO Jens Stoltenberg, approximately 600 company executives, numerous representatives of the media and civil society, non-governmental organizations, researchers and even stars such as an actor Idris Elba or soprano Renée Fleming.

Eco-activists are preparing protests in Davos

Climate change will be another key topic as forum organizers want the debate to feed into the next round of international talks at COP28, a meeting to be held at the end of the year in the United Arab Emirates.

Activists aim to use the Davos forum to remind rich nations and energy companies of the need to finance the energy transition of developing countries and compensate for the damage caused by the natural disasters that accompany climate change.

Thus, the organization “Swiss Socialist Youth” (JSS) called for a demonstration on Sunday in Davos with the demand to pay the rich a tax on climate change and write off the foreign debts of the southern countries.

“In four days they can do more things than in several months of round-the-world flights”

However, as every year, the most important activity at Davos will take place behind the scenes, where politicians, investors and business leaders will take advantage of their presence in one place to hold discussions outside the formal confines of the conference.

“In four days in a private room, they can do more things than in several months of flights around the world,” says American journalist Peter S. Goodman, author of a book published last year called “Davos Man, How the Billionaires Devoured.” the world” (Man from Davos: How billionaires swallowed the world, no.

According to Goodman, the most important contribution Davos could make would be to advance global tax reform to reduce inequality.

Karen Harris also hopes that there will be “sincere discussions” in Davos about the implications of the development of the world economy, not only for the US, Europe or China, but also “for emerging markets, which often lose out in economic development.” “.

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