Davos likes to think of itself as the solution to the world’s problems, but Antonio Guterres isn’t so sure.
“We are in the worst shape of our lives,” the 73-year-old UN chief told the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, and the corporate leaders gathered with politicians at the Swiss mountain-top retreat of Davos are innocent.
“In the face of global challenges, we need the resource capacity and cooperation of the private sector to advance peace, sustainable development and human rights,” he said.
Davos has for years placed climate change at or near the top of its list of global threats. But its annual meeting is densely packed with the companies most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. The list of participants at this year’s forum included the CEOs or top executives of at least 27 fossil fuel companies, including Shell, Chevron, Aramco and BP.
“Today, fossil fuel producers and their supporters are still racing to expand production, knowing full well that their business model is incompatible with human existence,” Guterres said. “This madness belongs in science fiction, yet we know that ecosystem thawing is cold, hard scientific fact.”
Guterres highlights evidence was published last week detailing accurate climate change predictions dating back to the 1970s made by scientists working for ExxonMobil.
“Like the tobacco industry, they abused their science,” he said, “and now the world is headed for a ‘catastrophic’ rise in temperature of 2.8 degrees Celsius.
The world’s largest financial institutions and asset managers – many of whom are also on the guest list – are collectively pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into companies that still produce and burn fossil fuels. report good published by the NGO on Tuesday despite pledging to align its investments with a net zero emissions world by the middle of this century.
Those findings echo criticisms made last year by a task force launched by Guterres to hold corporate actors accountable for their pledges.
“More and more businesses are making a net zero commitment,” he said. “But benchmarks and criteria are often ambiguous or unclear. This confuses consumers, investors and regulators with false narratives. It feeds a culture of climate misinformation and confusion. And it leaves the door open to greenwashing. “
He called on all corporate leaders to submit a “credible and transparent transition plan” before the end of 2023.
The UN chief said it was not just climate change where corporations were falling short.
He called on the “banking sector, traders and shippers” to join insurance companies in assisting the export of Ukrainian and Russian food and fertilizer, thereby alleviating the food price crisis in poorer regions of the world.
“I’m not sure the rich world really understands the degree of frustration and anger in the Global South,” he said. The pandemic, food and energy supply shortages, have “exposed a morally bankrupt financial system in which systemic inequalities are exacerbating social inequalities.”
But he acknowledged that governments needed to enable and encourage the private sector to “play its full role for good”.
“In many ways, the private sector is the leader,” he said. “Governments need to create an adequate regulatory and incentive environment to support this.”
Ryan Heath contributed reporting.