WEF Meeting: Report from Davos

This post is by Peter Goldmark, Program Director, Climate and Air, Environmental Defense.

The high and mighty are gathered in Davos, Switzerland for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), and right there in the center of the conversation, confabulation and champagne is our own Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense.

The annual WEF forum is an important venue for exchanging and shaping opinions on climate change and other environmental issues among global leaders from business, government, NGOs, and the press. (The other two sectors of human endeavor – religion and organized crime – are not heavily represented.)

The Financial Times invited Fred to write about the forum on its Davos Delegates blog. There are the regular meetings, but the most important things at Davos will happen in the byways and alleyways, and between mouthfuls of caviar from the groaning boards of hors d’oeuvres. Fred’s reports will give us some sense of those personal conversations as well. Here’s a snippet from today’s post:

Is there a more important quality for businesses, governments and NGOs than trust? Probably not, and in today’s age of access to information and opinions "anytime … anywhere" the eyes of the world are more open and aware then ever. Representing an NGO that has a long history of partnering, I’ve learned that collaboration between non-profits and business can have significant impacts on stakeholder trust. This was the key theme in a panel I participated in this morning put on by the communications firm Edelman (read about their "trust barometer").

You can see all Fred’s posts from Davos on the Financial Times site.