Lhe snow falls on the Swiss health resort that once treated wealthy tuberculosis patients in the magic mountain (1924), by Thomas Mann. The incessant ballet of Mercedes now forms a black and sparkling ribbon surrounding Davos until late at night. The air is no longer so pure. In the sky, a helicopter sometimes parks to monitor the comings and goings. The powerful are uneconomical. On the podium and in the corridors, we lament because of inflation, obstacles to free trade, and we attack ecological virtue and social responsibility. And then, suddenly, a welcome little slip.
On the stage, Wednesday January 18, strangely neighbor the CEO of an American multinational technology company (Salesforce), the president of the National Congress of American Indians, the president of a large Australian mining company (Fortescue), a former US Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Al Gore, and the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro.
At first glance, and as is appropriate, everyone is convinced of the need to fight against global warming, but probably everyone at their own pace. Manufacturers claim to do their utmost, direct their generous foundations, often devoted to repairing the damage of their own companies. And then Al Gore speaks.
A COP presidency that leaves a mark
He welcomes the progress made since he alerted the public in the early 2000s. But today, the inconvenient truth, named after the title of his famous 2006 film, is, according to him, that we let’s lose the climate battle. The former senator from Tennessee, who came to the Alps in cowboy boots, gets carried away. The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize is firing on all cylinders: political leaders lack ambition, young Germans are right to oppose the extension of coal mines, the World Bank is seriously failing.
And, an absolute symbol of the current failure, according to him, the appointment of the boss of the oil company of the United Arab Emirates as president of COP28, the next United Nations conference on climate change, which will be held in December. “We cannot let the oil companies and the oil states dictate their pace”, he asserts vehemently. Now is the time to act. The room rises, especially young people, it is the ovation.
Behind the American, the former guerrilla who became president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, in a much more measured tone, underlines, in the temple of capital, that what does not work is perhaps capitalism itself. same, and that perhaps it is not reformable. The cellist Yo-Yo Ma’s bow eases the tension, everyone leaves with their questions and their fragile certainties.