Heiße Luft oder Schritte nach vorn?

The 50th World Economic Forum in Davos has ended. This year's meeting was influenced by the climate debate. In the end, activists were disappointed.

By Dietrich Karl Mäurer, ARD Studio Zurich, currently. Davos

"Fight for climate justice, take your hand and fight ...". So the mostly young activists sang on the village square in Davos. As close as possible to the World Economic Forum, they wanted to reiterate their concerns about the climate. The 17-year-old Swede Greta Thunberg, who was a guest of the forum and asked for an exit from the financing of fossil fuels, was massively disappointed at the end of the forum: "Of course, our demands were completely ignored, but we didn't expect anything else. "

A trillion trees for the climate
This year's World Economic Forum, where almost 3000 top managers, top politicians, scientists and representatives of civil society have met since Tuesday to exchange views, was more than ever characterized by responsibility towards society and the environment. The president of the World Economic Forum, Norwegian Børge Brende, said it was remarkable that there had been real progress.

Climate activists Isabelle Axelsson, Loukina Tille, Vanessa Nakate, Greta Thunberg, and Luisa Neubaue. Davos | The climate activists Isabelle Axelsson, Loukina Tille, Vanessa Nakate, Greta Thunberg and Luisa Neubauer (from left).
"In the fight against climate change, we launched the initiative with them that a trillion trees should be planted by the end of the decade. That is really historic." But even many who took part in the strictly sealed meeting in the Swiss ski resort rated the forum more differently. Humzah Yazdani from Pakistan said he missed concrete steps. There are goals for 2030 and 2050, but "we still don't know how these goals can be achieved."

Climate protection is a key issue
The Swede Carolina Eklöw spoke of a "very emotional challenge": "We hope that this challenge for corporate social responsibility, climate protection and so on no longer needs activists, but only realists."

And the Australian Peter Holmes à Court came to a very positive conclusion: The meeting "is not as green as Greta wanted it to be, but how it developed with her help from last year is extraordinary." Climate protection is no longer marginalized, but is the main topic of every meeting.

Parking in the fog: Davos visitors' private jets at an airfield of the Swiss Air Force. | Image source: REUTERSgalerieParking in the fog: Davos visitors' private jets at an airfield of the Swiss Air Force.
Who does well and who makes money
The debate on responsibility and climate protection did not ignore high-ranking representatives of the economy, said Jim Hagemann Snabe, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Siemens AG. Davos brings together representatives of different interest groups, stakeholders, as they are called here, and thus a wide variety of positions:

"Of course companies want to make money, otherwise they won't survive at all. And before that was a conflict, either doing business well or doing good for the world. And then we had NGOs and others who then took on this task. And I actually think it is nice that different stakeholders can be brought together here. "

According to Hagemann Snabe, the dialogue that took place at the World Economic Forum led to solutions that were beneficial for both the economy and society.

A lot of climate debate, but little concrete? World Economic Forum in Davos
Karl Dietrich Mäurer, ARD Zurich currently. Davos
01/24/2020 05:54 PM
Download the audio file
Deutschlandfunk reported on this topic on January 24, 2020 at 6:34 pm in the program "Information in the evening".

More on this topic:
Merkel's speech in Davos: Climate protection as a "question of survival", January 23, 2020
World Economic Forum: Climate demo at the end, January 23, 2020