Juno News - May 25, 2022


Does the WEF practice what they preach？


Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

198.41978

Word count

1,038

Sentence count

74


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In Davos, I asked the question: does the World Economic Forum tell people not to fly on private jets? And the answer surprised me... not one of the people in the room had a clue. Does the WEF even tell the Davos elites not to use private jets here?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.080 I'm coming to you from Davos, Switzerland on the promenade here for the World Economic Forum's annual meeting.
00:00:06.500 One thing I would note that's been a recurring theme throughout the conference has been discussion about climate change,
00:00:11.980 the transition away from traditional oil and gas, the transition away from the energy sector,
00:00:16.980 which is the backbone in many regards of the Canadian economy.
00:00:21.200 So as a Canadian, I've been paying particularly close attention to the prescriptions that are being given here
00:00:25.840 by the Davos elites for what the rest of us need to do.
00:00:29.100 As you heard yesterday, some people are even suggesting we need to have a tracker
00:00:33.320 that monitors our carbon footprint by tracking what we eat, what we do when we travel,
00:00:38.520 where we travel, how we travel, all of that fun stuff.
00:00:41.780 And it's interesting when you look around and see the private jets and the limousines,
00:00:45.540 you have to wonder, are these people just prescribing things for the rest of us that they don't intend to live by?
00:00:50.960 One example of this came in a panel discussion yesterday.
00:00:53.960 The moderator asked the room how many of them drive electric cars.
00:00:58.500 Just take a look at what happened.
00:01:00.720 So I'm going to throw this immediately out to the audience and say,
00:01:05.380 how many of you are driving an electric vehicle at the moment?
00:01:13.040 One, two, three, four.
00:01:15.940 So I would say that probably constitutes less than 5% of the persons sitting here in this room.
00:01:22.660 You know, I think the moderator did a tremendous job there.
00:01:24.740 She was trying to make the point that I think all of us outside of the World Economic Forum,
00:01:29.120 outside of Davos, would see, which is that a lot of these people don't practice what they preach.
00:01:33.320 Only four people in the room put up their hands.
00:01:36.640 She said it's about 5% or so.
00:01:38.480 That's assuming there was, you know, just under 100 people in that room.
00:01:41.620 So what we see here is a big divide between what's being promoted for us
00:01:46.260 and what's actually being done by the people here.
00:01:48.380 Now, yesterday, I asked the head of climate for the World Economic Forum about the private jet quotient.
00:01:54.100 Does the WEF even tell the Davos elites not to travel here by private jet?
00:01:58.460 And, well, she didn't have time to answer.
00:02:00.780 I'm just wondering what the climate, what the global emissions are for this conference.
00:02:04.320 Like, does the WEF tell people to not take private jets here?
00:02:07.380 I'm sorry, guys.
00:02:08.300 I'm on fire.
00:02:08.620 Now, again, how she didn't have time for a yes-no question, I don't know.
00:02:12.580 But, again, it's a busy place.
00:02:14.040 Lots of important people walking around.
00:02:16.020 I asked the same question with Adrian Monk of the World Economic Forum today.
00:02:20.060 And he, to his credit, did take some time to chat.
00:02:22.660 Here's our exchange.
00:02:23.660 Mr. Monk, hi.
00:02:24.220 Andrew Lawton with True North in Canada.
00:02:25.760 Do you have a moment to chat about the carbon footprint of the conference?
00:02:28.220 It's actually, funnily enough.
00:02:29.440 Yeah.
00:02:29.900 I need to take this gentleman.
00:02:31.000 He does.
00:02:31.860 I do.
00:02:32.780 Do you know what?
00:02:33.280 Emissions actually go down during this meeting.
00:02:35.260 It's quite bizarre because we've measured them.
00:02:37.660 And because we use a lot of electric vehicles, they actually get reduced.
00:02:42.100 So, funnily enough, when you hear a lot of the kind of BS about private jets,
00:02:46.980 what you're actually going to see is a conference that's ISO certified,
00:02:51.400 sustainably organized, and probably the model for any conference,
00:02:54.960 if you can organize a conference.
00:02:56.680 So, if you or anyone you know needs advice or help, you know, ask,
00:03:00.480 because we know how to do it.
00:03:01.900 But there are private jets.
00:03:03.020 Dozens of them, Martin.
00:03:03.780 Does the WEF tell attendees to not come by private jets?
00:03:06.220 We do ask them not to, yeah.
00:03:07.700 But they do anyway.
00:03:08.540 And we come by, well, some do, and a fraction of them, frankly.
00:03:11.640 You know, most people come here by rail, which is brilliant in Switzerland.
00:03:15.420 Most people come by shuttle if they're coming from a commercial airport.
00:03:18.560 We actually try and carbon offset all of the travel here.
00:03:22.660 We know there's problems with carbon offsetting.
00:03:25.180 It'd be nuts not to think there were.
00:03:27.020 But, you know, it's everything you've got to keep trying to make things better,
00:03:32.000 because otherwise, you know, you lapse back.
00:03:34.580 So, we make the best effort we can.
00:03:36.440 And, you know, if we find ways to improve it, we'll do that.
00:03:39.480 But, yeah, it's always a work in progress, you know.
00:03:45.000 And, you know, we're going to have an energy transition.
00:03:49.580 And we want to be part of making sure that's the right transition.
00:03:53.340 We've got a lot of people in the energy industry here,
00:03:55.120 a lot of people from almost every industry represented, in fact.
00:03:59.620 And, you know, trying to make sure that that happens with people getting good jobs,
00:04:03.680 making sure that they're looked after properly,
00:04:05.520 making sure that energy stays cheap, affordable,
00:04:08.740 and that people have a decent moment.
00:04:10.600 You know, we're a business-facing, business-orientated meeting
00:04:13.520 that's trying to incorporate extra elements to get that going.
00:04:16.940 But that's it, basically.
00:04:18.180 Now, my apologies to Mr. Monk for videographically decapitating him.
00:04:22.120 I'm here alone. I don't have a videographer.
00:04:23.880 And sometimes in the haste of getting things, the frame isn't necessarily added up.
00:04:27.760 But you can hear the words, which is what matters the most.
00:04:30.280 And he said the carbon footprint of Davos actually goes down.
00:04:33.280 And all of the criticisms about the carbon footprint here, the carbon emissions,
00:04:36.740 that's all a load of BS.
00:04:38.280 But he conceded, well, yeah, they tell some people not to take the private jets,
00:04:42.120 but they do it anyway.
00:04:43.620 So the question is, when you have people that are coming here,
00:04:45.720 they are traveling private, or at the very least,
00:04:48.160 they're coming with large delegations, they're driving around and idling limos,
00:04:51.780 should we listen to anything they tell us to do for the climate,
00:04:55.140 especially when it comes at the expense of the Canadian economy,
00:04:58.380 of the oil and gas sector?
00:04:59.720 I would say no.
00:05:00.700 For True North from Davos, I'm Andrew Lutton.
00:05:03.280 Thank you.
00:05:04.500 Thank you.
00:05:07.660 Thank you.
00:05:12.780 Thank you.