World Economic Forum : Global Leaders, Industry Captains Talk Environment

The world’s leading gathering of political and business leaders, the World Economic Forum, WEF, opened in the Swiss ski resort of Davos on January 22, 2019 with more than 3,000 participants – including activists, politicians and captains of industry. Running until January 25, 2019, the WEF has been skipped for various reasons by United States President Donald Trump, French leader Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May.

Nevertheless, other world leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Brazil’s new far right leader, Jair Bolsonaro, are attending. Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, cut short a trip to Europe and his participation at the summit to rush back amidst violent protests following a steep rise in the price of fuel announced by his government.

Just before the opening of the forum, campaign group, Circle Economy, published its latest report on how businesses can achieve climate change targets. The survey notes that only 9 per cent of the billions of tonnes of materials that enter the world economy are recycled, a figure that must drastically increase to avoid dangerous climate change. It advocated a “circular economy&rdqu...