The WEF's climate agenda in their own words
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Summary
The World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, the first in over two years, is taking place in the Swiss city-state of Davos. Davos is a gathering of the world's most powerful people, leaders from all walks of life, and business leaders, gathered to discuss the big picture issues they want to solve, like climate change. In the panel discussions this morning, there was a remarkable amount of candor about just what it is they wanted to do to transition away from reliance on fossil fuels.
Transcript
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Guten Tag from Davos, Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum's annual meeting,
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the first in over two years in person, is taking place.
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Officially it started yesterday, but most of that was just VIP arrival.
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You saw them in their private jets coming in limos.
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Today is when the programming started, and they did not waste time
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getting into the big picture issues they want to solve, like climate change.
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In the panel discussions this morning, there was a remarkable amount of candor
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about just what it is they want to do to transition away from reliance on fossil fuels
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and, as a result, transition away from the jobs that depend on the fossil fuel industry, on oil and gas.
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One individual who was on a panel, a CEO of a Norwegian financial institution,
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admitted and didn't actually have a problem with the fact that there would be, in her words,
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We need to accept that there will be some pain in the process.
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The pace that we need will open up for missteps.
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It will create inflationary pressures, and maybe we need to start talking about that,
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Because if we don't, there's no business case, there's no economy, there's no welfare.
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But so far I think we have been a little bit careful actually talking about the pain in the short term
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that is likely to come from this very important change.
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And as you heard, no denying there was going to be pain from inflationary pressures,
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from energy shortages, other economic challenges.
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She was speaking specifically, just to contextualize that clip,
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about small and medium businesses who she admitted moments earlier
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were much less suited to deal with this challenge.
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But she said, don't worry, all that pain is worth it.
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And there's a big disconnect here between the elites in politics and business
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and those who are affected by the policies when they're put into effect.
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As Klaus Schwab said, the chairman of the World Economic Forum this morning,
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all of the people in the room at Davos are the ones who can actually get together
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and change the future, as long as they work together.
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The future is built by us, by a powerful community, as you here in this room.
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We have the means to improve the states of the world.
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The first one is that we act all as stakeholders of larger communities,
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that we serve not only our self-interests, but we serve the community.
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That's what we call stakeholder responsibility.
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And this is the reason why you find many opportunities here during the meeting
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to engage into very action and impact-oriented initiatives
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to make progress related to specific issues on the global agenda.
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And when I speak about the candor that a lot of these discussions have been approached with
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I'd be remiss to not point out this mention from the Vice-Chancellor of Germany,
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who talked about how we might even need to change the fundamental rules of the markets
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And he said countries shouldn't actually look out for their own interests first and foremost,
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but should look out for the global interest and the global market.
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First of all, I would say that we have to stick to global markets.
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If we are now, and this is a tendency I feel everywhere in the world,
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Germany and other countries are caring for themselves,
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If we are only caring for our own food supply or energy supply,
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it must have a disastrous effect on the prices, on the markets.
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So first of all, we have to keep the markets open.
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Second, we have to see that we have to solve one problem,
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So if we are now increasing the production of fossil fuels
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we will definitely have more problems in the next years to come.
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Now, one of the reasons I came to Davos was to demystify
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a lot of what's dismissed as conspiracy theory.
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Now, make no mistake, there are a lot of conspiracy theories
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about the World Economic Forum, about Klaus Schwab.
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I'm focused on what they're saying in their own words
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and in the countries that are supportive of this agenda.
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who will be speaking about the jobs of tomorrow,
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It's hidden plain as day right here for all to see,
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From Davos at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting