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World Economic Forum 2020, Davos, Switzerland
The Forum which engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas included sessions on the future and how digitization, financial and monetary systems would be affected. (Check out the links below).
The week started out on Monday with US President Donald Trump emerging as by far the most mentioned Annual Meeting participant ahead of his special address on Tuesday. Trump delivered a special address which focused on the US economy and environment, which many criticized, as Trump failed to give himself a reality check.
Greta Thunberg, the 17-year old environmental activist clashed with US Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, who questioned whether the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg is qualified to talk about economic issues linked to climate change and told her to go and study the subject in college. The teenager, who spoke after Trump, took to the stage on the second day of the gathering claimed “nothing had been done” to tackle the climate crisis. Since appearing on the sidelines of last year's Davos meeting, Thunberg's profile has taken off and she was named Time's "Person of the Year." Both Trump and Thunberg were the most mentioned people at Davos in the news and on social media.
Germany’s Angela Merkel called on world leaders to work together to fight global warming and take the views of concerned young people seriously, saying time is running out to protect the planet, as the problem above all the global elite planned to tackle at The Forum was climate change. In addition, Merkel added that the danger of Germany slipping into recession is receding thanks to an easing in tensions between major global trading partners. She also made a statement about how she believes excluding individual suppliers, like China’s Huawei Technologies Co., from fifth-generation mobile networks would not necessarily make them more secure.
With its key focus on climate change, there is hope that after The Forum, more action will be taken as the world heads into a new decade. Some highlights of WEF can be seen below.
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