The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.
The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.
It was established in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It is independent, impartial and not tied to any special interests. The Forum strives in all its efforts to demonstrate entrepreneurship in the global public interest while upholding the highest standards of governance. Moral and intellectual integrity is at the heart of everything it does.
Four themes dominated the talks at Davos(Switzerland) 2024, which took place between 15 and 19 January:
– growth
– artificial intelligence (AI)
– climate, nature and energy
– peace and security.
Here’s how the Meeting served as a platform to rebuild a basis of trust, generate new ideas and develop partnerships that can improve outcomes for people, economies and the planet:
Security and cooperation
Rocky global peace, security and cooperation in 2023 will spill over into 2024 with evidential implications for trade, growth, climate action and advanced technological development. World leaders called for rebuilding trust in the face of this increasing fragmentation.
“Geopolitical divides are preventing us from coming together around global solutions for global challenges,” said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres,
The Forum’s new Global Cooperation Barometer showed that global cooperation has been resilient for much of the past decade, particularly in the areas of trade and capital, innovation and technology, and climate and natural capital, but has been pulled down by a sharp decline in cooperation on peace and security.
Ajay S. Banga, President of the World Bank Group, emphasized the interconnectedness of crises; “We cannot think about eradicating poverty without caring about climate. We cannot think about eradicating poverty without thinking about healthcare. We cannot think about eradicating poverty without thinking about food insecurity and fragility.”
A new white paper offered diverse ideas on what global cooperation can look like in a fragmenting world.
Artificial intelligence
Government, business, and academic speakers considered how the rapid development of Generative AI (GenAI) could benefit society while mitigating the risks.
Its potential to solve aspirational problems can’t be ignored, as explored in the Expanding Universe of Generative Models, for instance, around health, agriculture and climate change. But we’re not there yet – scaling of large language models and a more deliberate effort are still needed if AI is to be the “great equalizer.”
Towards this end, the Schwab Foundation’s Global Alliance launched its Artificial Intelligence for Social Innovation initiative to allow faster and more responsible adoption of AI for impact, especially in the Global South. Equitable access to the technology was another top-of-mind concern, and the Forum’s AI Governance Alliance announced a new global effort to address the issue by improving data quality and availability across nations and adapting foundation models to suit local needs and challenges. Their three-part briefing paper series also tackles AI governance challenges to help shape responsible and inclusive practices.
Discussions also revolved around the use of the technology by nefarious actors as the technology gets intertwined with geopolitics and building resilience against rising cyber threats, as outlined in the Forum’s Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2024.
But it’s the impact on jobs that dominates many concerns. The International Monetary Fund noted recently that almost 40% of employment globally is exposed to AI. Sixty per cent of tasks still need human input, countered Sanofi’s managing director Paul Hudson during a session on Thinking through Augmentation: „AI plus human beats AI.”
Boosting productivity and employing advanced technologies remain the focus of the Global Lighthouse Network as it announced 21 Lighthouses and four Sustainability Lighthouses at the Meeting. A new Digital Healthcare Transformation Initiative will also accelerate public-private collaboration around digital health, data and artificial intelligence while four new centres across the Centre of the Fourth Industrial Revolution network, including in Germany and Viet Nam, will strengthen efforts around digital transformation and green growth.
Beyond AI, a new report on innovations in quantum computing shows us how to mitigate new, complex risks posed by emerging technologies.
Summing up the impact of AI sessions and launches across the week, Cathy Li, the Forum’s Head of AI, Data and Metaverse, told Radio Davos: „I’m really, really proud of the presence of all of the key AI voices. But, at the same time also the key debates and the outcomes as well.”
Beyond the full spectrum of latest breakthroughs, industry and job transformation, geopolitical implications and regulation concerns, she said Davos also covered another important aspect of AI: „Access to AI models and data and applications and how do we ensure that we don’t further exacerbate the digital divide that’s been existing for a long time?”
Climate, nature and energy
Environmental risks continue to dominate the risks landscape over all three time frames addressed in the Global Risks Report 2024. At Davos 2024, global leaders and activists focused their discussions on driving energy efficiencies and addressing energy demand while protecting and restoring nature.
“We know exactly what we ought to be doing to slow down and eventually reverse climate change and loss of biodiversity,” said Jane Goodall, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and United Nations Messenger of Peace. “If only various countries lived up to promises they made about reducing emissions.”
The Giving to Amplify Earth Action (GAEA) initiative announced new commitments to unlock billions of dollars to finance climate and nature solutions, while the Global Commission on Nature-Positive Cities presented new guidelines for rehabilitating nature in the urban context. The week also saw the Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) welcoming Colombia, the Philippines and Zambia, bringing the network of national action partnerships to 15.
The critical need for energy efficiency was central to conversations about a carbon-neutral and nature-positive world. “It’s a no-brainer. But we have not seen enough policy attention on energy efficiency,” Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, opined.
The Forum’s Transforming Energy Demand report outlines actions for businesses and countries to enhance energy management, efficiency and carbon-intensity reduction. On the ground, the new Network to Mobilize Clean Energy Investment for the Global South was launched to provide a platform for developing economies to raise awareness about their clean energy needs, share best practices and sustainably accelerate their energy transitions.
Other pivotal economies, such as France, China and the US, joined the Transitioning Industrial Clusters initiative to drive economic growth, employment and the energy transition.
Economic growth and trade
This year’s Meeting saw participants deliberate on the findings of the Global Risks Report 2024, which warned of the risks that could pose future economic shocks and the latest Chief Economists Outlook, which revealed a global economy fraught with uncertainty as well as potential bright spots; two-thirds of economists surveyed said industrial policies may be successful in reviving growth, while generative AI was seen to increase productivity and innovation.
A case was made for a new growth model, that balances the drivers of growth and productivity with the complexity of innovation, inclusion, sustainability and resilience.
The Future of Growth Initiative is a two-year campaign to help policy-makers and economists exchange new ideas and best practices for achieving this balance, supported by the Future of Growth Report 2024 that presents a multidimensional framework to balance GDP with innovation, resilience, sustainability and inclusion.
At the Meeting, more than 20 trade, finance and environment ministers came together through the Coalition of Trade Ministers on Climate to identify a common agenda for sustainable growth within and across economies.
Read the full art. on „weforum.org”
Also read:
– Davos 2024: 4 things to know – „weforum.org”
– Annual Meeting 2024: Rebuilding Trust Amid Uncertainty – „weforum.org”
– AI – artificial intelligence – at Davos 2024: What to know – „weforum.org”
– Security and cooperation at Davos 2024: What to know – „weforum.org”
– Over 50 heads of state and government attended Davos 2024. Here’s what they had to say – „weforum.org”
– McKinsey and the World Economic Forum 2024 – „mckinsey.com”
