Davos ends with Germany urging world to tackle climate change as protesters converge
- WEF meeting of global elites ended with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz calling for cooperation on climate change, hunger and war as activists swarmed streets
- German leader ratcheted up criticism of Russia’s onslaught in Ukraine, saying world is not bipolar as in Cold War era when the US and Soviet Union dominated
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed hopes on Friday for global cooperation on climate change, hunger and war, while dozens of climate activists demonstrated in the Swiss town of Davos as a meeting of global elites ended with many words but little concrete action to solve the world’s most pressing crises.
The German leader ratcheted up his criticism of Moscow’s military onslaught in Ukraine during a speech on the last day of the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering.
He said Russian President Vladimir Putin “wants to return to a world order in which the strongest dictate what is right, in which freedom, sovereignty and self-determination are not”.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin visits ‘hero’ soldiers wounded in Ukraine
Voicing hopes for countries to work together on shared crises, Scholz said today’s world is no longer bipolar as it was during the Cold War era – when United States and the Soviet Union dominated geopolitics.
“If some want to take us back to the past of nationalism, imperialism and war, our answer is ‘not with us’. We stand for the future,” he said in the final major address of this week’s Davos event.
“When we realise that our world is becoming multipolar, then that must spur us on to even more multilateralism, to even more international cooperation.”
As he spoke, scores of young people protested across town, with banners that read “Cut the (BS)!” and “There is no Planet B” – adding a coda of condemnation to the gathering of elites in Davos that is often derided for being more about talk, business and relationship-building than action. Forum organisers reject such claims, insisting they want to improve the state of the world by drawing in decision-makers.