Trump attacks renewables at Davos as business leaders sideline climate

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, President Trump used a Wednesday speech to attack clean energy, saying “there are windmills all over Europe… they are losers,” assailing the “green new scam,” promoting fossil fuels and, the paper reported, making inaccurate statements about China’s use of coal.

The New York Times said climate change and renewable power had been largely relegated to the sidelines at the annual meeting. Organizers and attendees attributed that shift in part to corporate reticence: Sebastian Buckup of the World Economic Forum’s centre for nature and climate said programming reflects what chief executives want to discuss, and many C.E.O.s have turned their attention to cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence and geopolitics.

Jennifer Morris of The Nature Conservancy said “we’re not talking enough about oceans here,” adding, “Water is not woke.” The paper recalled that six years ago BlackRock’s Larry Fink used Davos to rally Wall Street on climate, but it reported that, amid pushback from Republicans, the war in Ukraine and Mr.

Trump’s return to the White House, many banks and investors have retreated. The Times said many sustainability alliances have faltered and that investors have withdrawn tens of billions of dollars each quarter from E.S.G. funds. Even with Mr. Fink now a co-chair of the forum and helping shape this year’s program, discussion of climate change was largely absent from the most prominent sessions — apart from Mr.

Key Topics

Politics, Donald Trump, Davos, World Economic Forum, Renewable Energy, Blackrock