Over 100 Billionaires Worth More Than $500 billion To Storm Davos For World Economic Forum

A group of ultra-wealthy guests worth a total of $500billion are to arrive Davos for World Economic Forum whose mission is cited as “committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas”.

It is a membership-based organization, and membership is made up of the world’s largest corporations. .

The guest list for this year’s World Economic Forum meeting in Switzerland next Tuesday stretches to more than 2,000 names, representing around 100 countries.

The elite group includes regular attendees such as Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates LP, Steve Schwarzman, chairman of Blackstone Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO, Jamie Dimon.

It is thought President Donald Trump will renew his running battle with young climate campaigner, Greta Thunberg, when they join the A-list movers and shakers attending the 50th anniversary of the Davos conclave.

Six of those attending are in the world’s richest people list, with the biggest amount of guests coming from the US, which has 33, followed by India with 19 heading to Davos.

Many attendees arrive by private jet and prices for food is said to be at eye-watering levels, including $43 for a hot dog.

From climate change to tensions in the Middle East, via trade conflicts and fears of pandemics, the more than 3,000 delegates at the World Economic Forum will thrash out challenges as imposing as the surrounding Swiss Alps.

The WEF has come a long way since its inaugural edition in 1971 and if the main business of Davos remains deal-making among corporate titans, climate change has come to dominate the catalogue of long-term planetary risks identified in a pre-meeting report compiled by the forum.

After trolling each other on Twitter, Trump and the 17-year-old Thunberg will bring rival messages to the well-heeled crowd.

The Swede’s impassioned speech, and famously hard stare at the US leader, at the UN General Assembly in September symbolised anger over climate inaction.

Climate denier Trump, escaping his Senate impeachment trial back home, said his keynote address on Tuesday would tout ‘the most incredible’ economy ever seen.

President Donald Trump pictured at the White House today in Washington

‘I expect him to send a message to the American people and not to the international community,’ Carlos Pascual, a former US diplomat and now a vice president at IHS Markit, said.

‘The purpose of that message is to reinforce with the elector in the United States that his number one concern in international policy is America firs’.’

Swedish activist Thunberg and a crowd of some 10,000 protesters marched in the Swiss city of Lausanne today before many of them head to Davos to challenge the political and business leaders over the climate crisis.

Thunberg, who launched the #FridaysforFuture movement that has sparked global protests, denounced a lack of government action to cut heat-trapping emissions before it is too late.

‘So, we are now in a new year and we have entered a new decade and so far, during this decade, we have seen no sign whatsoever that real climate action is coming and that has to change,’ Thunberg said in a speech in Lausanne.

‘To the world leaders and those in power, I would like to say that you have not seen anything yet. You have not seen the last of us, we can assure you that. And that is the message that we will bring to the World Economic Forum in Davos next week.’

Protesters held signs including ‘Wake up and Smell the Bushfires’ and ‘It is late but it is not too late’.

Hundreds of campaigners will take trains over the weekend and then march to Klosters near Davos, which Thunberg is attending for the second year in a row and will take part in two panel events.

Climate change and environmental destruction top the risks highlighted by world decision-makers in a survey ahead of the 2020 gathering of the global elite.

This year’s gathering takes place against the backdrop of some of Australia’s worst ever bushfires.

While the government there has avoided making a link to climate change, the fires have added to public concern about the heating of the planet.

Last year was the Earth’s second-hottest since records began, and the world should brace itself for more extreme weather events like the bushfires ravaging much of Australia, the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Wednesday.

‘We are…an alliance that is organising next week in 20 countries to say: ‘time is up’ to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Time is up,’ a Kenyan activist, Njoki Njoroge Njehu, told the crowd in Lausanne.

‘It is time to abolish billionaires. It is time to abolish billionaires, because we cannot afford them, the planet cannot afford billionaires,’ he said.