Greenwashing Davos

Jetting to Switzerland to save the world

Davos.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse)

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"Davos is cloaked in white, but its agenda is green," said Peter Coy at Bloomberg Businessweek. Don't snicker. Yes, there was the typical swarm of private jets to whisk "some of the world's wealthiest and most powerful people" into Switzerland, where they paid $70,000 a ticket, plus $140,000 if they wanted to rent a chalet for the week. But climate change and the environment topped the agenda at the World Economic Forum, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. Many sessions were devoted to climate change, with a particular emphasis placed on ending "free-riding," or the tendency for businesses to shirk their own climate efforts "while benefiting from the efforts others make." Seeing the hypocrisy in having billionaires jet in for lectures about their carbon footprints, the conference tried to be as green as possible. Attendees got "shoe grips" to help them "walk the snowy promenade between meetings rather than take cars," said Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson at the Financial Times. The conference rooms were "decorated with seaweed-based paint and carpets made from end-of-life fishing nets." Also discouraged: paper maps of the Alpine town.

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