WEF gathering wraps with no major security incident

Around 30 activists gathered outside the WEF annual meeting in Davos on Thursday to demand greater action from participants on the climate crisis. © Keystone / Gian Ehrenzeller

The first meeting of the World Economic Forum to take place in springtime ended on Thursday in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos the way it began – with talk about the war in Ukraine.

In a speech, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Russia had already fallen short of all its military goals and would not win the war. Scholz said that global security was at a critical juncture, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine being “the biggest challenge for all of us” since he took office at the end of 2021.

The final day of the annual event was also marked by a climate protest outside the venue. About 30 activists demanded more action from WEF participants to tackle the climate crisis. One demonstrator from Africa told news agency Keystone-SDA no progress had been made since the last climate strike in Davos, dating back to January 2020. Organiser Niklas Todt also blamed local authorities in the Swiss resort for the low turnout, saying they had only received a permit roughly ten days ago, even though they had made the request in March.

“There was far too little time to mobilise,” he told Keystone-SDA.

For its part, the Swiss Army, which deployed 3,750 personnel to ensure security around the event, reported seven airspace infractions over the course of the week but no security incident or serious accident.

Next year, the WEF will go back to its wintertime slot, after the Covid-19 pandemic forced cancellations two years in a row, Reuters reported on Thursday after speaking to a WEF official.

The gathering will take place January 15-20, 2023 – if the pandemic or other unforeseen events do not interfere with these plans, according to Reuters.

The political and business elite last met in a wintry Davos in January 2020. This year’s meeting was moved to springtime because of Covid.