DESCENDING ON DAVOS — If you thought COP28 was a whole lot of talk with little concrete action, you haven't seen anything yet. At the World Economic Forum's annual meeting taking place in Switzerland this week, the talk is the whole point. The Davos confab is now upon us — and it includes a smorgasbord of climate and sustainability agenda items running the gamut from climate impacts on human health to biodiversity loss. Unlike COP, there’s no formal mission or specific policy outcomes or commitments meant to be worked toward and delivered by the end of the swanky Swiss forum. But many of the world’s leading companies and top officials including World Bank President Ajay Banga, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, climate envoy John Kerry and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen deem it important enough to be on the ground. If nothing else, it’s an opportunity for global leaders to interact in the wake of the world’s hottest year on record and just six weeks after COP28 — even if it does give off Climate Week vibes. “Every opportunity where there’s private sector players available is an opportunity to discuss the importance of climate and the agenda and the opportunity for private sector players, and try and understand what holds them back and see if the bank or institutions like the bank can be removers of obstacles,” Banga told our Zachary Warmbrodt in an interview. Look out for certain climate technologies to get some buzz at this year’s conference. Carbon removal advocates are poised to make a case for their technology — buoyed by Biden administration funding and COP28 negotiations that made a not-so-subtle distinction in urging nations to address “unabated” fossil fuels, a likely nod to the technology. Some carbon removal industry leaders are attending WEF for the first time and hosting their own events, Allison Prang reports. Andreas Aepli, the chief financial officer for Swiss-based carbon removal company Climateworks, said the industry has grown exponentially in the last two years and that there are now enough examples of early adoption to attract more policy support and corporate commitments. “We’re going a lot bigger this year,” he said. “This year is really the year that this will accelerate.” Davos is also seen sometimes by high-profile leaders as an opportunity to get a little more real and reflective. Who could forget last year’s moment of ESG reckoning by BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink? “It's not really the space where we'd expect to see loads of announcements coming to the fore,” said Andy Garraway, climate policy lead at climate analytics firm Risilience and a former U.K. climate negotiator. “But one of the key things is it's an opportunity for businesses and policymakers to get together behind closed doors and an opportunity to say, ‘Hey, this is what was agreed at COP. What are we actually going to do about it?’”
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