Post-Davos 2020: Leaders won't save us, we will

The World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, which happens once a year in Switzerland, was heavily focused on sustainability and climate change this year.

Davos is a moment when the richest and most influential people in the world, whether businessmen or politicians, meet for three days to discuss the global business agenda for the year ahead.

The theme for 2020 was "Stakeholders for a cohesive and sustainable world". This forum saw an unusually high number of speakers who would have never been invited beforehand, since the creation of the WEF in 1971 (when neoliberal economics started to pick up in the world), such as Greta Thunberg of course, but also Lynette Wallworth, or very young activists. Prince Charles warned about world leaders failing Millenials, while Donal Trump, one of the most famous climate skeptics (additionally President of the U.S) said that the U.S would be planting one trillion trees.

So, is the economy shifting for good?

Are world leaders ready to change?

Is the elite finally ready to save the world?

Unfortunately, I wouldn't say that just yet.

Leaders from banks, global corporations and worldwide groups have pledged to reduce their emissions, look at changing the models they run on, plant trees, and overall do more of what we call stakeholder capitalism, focused on benefiting society, rather than shareholder capitalism, which maximises profits in spite of social and environmental consequences to please shareholders (in a nutshell).

While these are undeniably good news, they're also empty promises for now. Very few leaders have actually given proper targets, and when they are specific, they remain very far away numbers, in 2030, 2040, 2050, without any clear roadmap or targets or even how they're going to do this. Furthermore, the fact that these corporations and big groups cannot be held accountable (they basically can get away with almost everything, still) gives them the freedom not to act, or to do it very slowly.

What we saw in Davos is another attempt to save neoliberal economics, because neoliberal economics work so great for the very people who meet there.

I think it's important to understand that what we saw in Davos is another attempt to save neoliberal economics, because neoliberal capitalism works so great for the very people who meet there. Let's not be fooled by the topic of the WEF meeting: yes, leaders are talking more about climate change and social injustice, as they should. But they haven't made proper moves yet. Proper moves would be for all of them to say that they will not invest in fossil fuels any longer from 2020, that plastic production is going to stop within five years, that huge amount of capital are going to be re-directed toward saving our dying ecosystems... But this didn't happen, or at least not on the scale that we need it to to safeguard humanity. Planting trees is nice, but it doesn't solve climate change.

Leaders' inaction is an issue for two main reasons. First, and obviously, it's an issue because our world is heating up and our natural ecosystems won't support us for much longer. Secondly, and most importantly, it's an issue because the way WEF and many media outlets, communicate regarding what happened at the forum let us believe that something important actually happened, that we can therefore be reassured and the world will be saved.

It's not. We need to emphasise this and understand that we need to keep fighting for a sustainable world, putting social justice at the forefront of the sustainable transition.

The world won't be saved by people who are benefitting tremendously from the way it is run now. We better remember this and not be fooled by superficial changes.

Leaders won't save us, we will.