With no A-listers, can Davos still play a part on the global stage?

With no A-listers, can Davos still play a part on the global stage?

The highlight of the last gathering of the global elite in Davos was a spat between Greta Thunberg and Donald Trump. It was January 2020 and scant attention was being paid to reports of a new virus recently detected in China. Most of those who made the trek to the Swiss alpine resort were too busy virtue-signalling their deep concern about inequality and the climate emergency.

A lot has happened in the intervening 28 months. What was assumed to be a little local difficulty in Wuhan turned out to be the start of a global crisis. The January 2021 Davos was a virtual affair, and the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) pencilled in for January 2022 was postponed because of the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

This week’s WEF gathering will have a different feel, and not just because many of its slopes will be green rather than white. Attendance is down on pre-pandemic levels, and there are no A-listers among the headliners.