World Economic Forum resumes meeting in Davos under shadow of war and inflation and apathetic Brazil

The World Economic Forum begins its annual meeting this Monday (23) in Davos with a mission to reconnect authorities, executives and third sector leaders around the world in the shadow of the Ukrainian War, a global inflation crisis and fears of a slowdown. China after a two-year and four-month hiatus caused by the pandemic.

Through the streets of the Swiss Alpine resort, this time without the charm of the snow that usually covers it in January, the traditional month for meetings, fewer heads of state and government will pass than usual: 32, from the German (and newcomer) Olaf Schölz to the Paul Kagame, and only two Latin Americans this time, the Colombian Iván Duque, who is about to leave office, and the Costa Rican Rodrigo Chaves, who has just taken office.

Brazil will be represented by the Ministers of Economy, Paulo Guedes, and of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, the latter without public commitments related to the Forum.

Also visiting Davos were the president of BNDES, Gustavo Montezano, and the investment coordinator of Apex, Helena Bonna Brandão; presidents and chief economists of the country’s main banks and Vale, and, as part of the organization’s effort to expand its discussions beyond the owners of the money and those responsible for governments, social entrepreneurs.

Including ministers, other executives, academics, journalists, researchers and third sector leaders, the postponed meeting should attract around 2,000 people to the city of just over 12,000 inhabitants revealed to the world’s imagination in “The Magic Mountain”, the masterpiece by writer Thomas Mann.

Leaders of global entities, such as the Bulgarian Kristalina Georgieva, from the IMF (International Monetary Fund), the Nigerian Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, from the WTO (World Trade Organization), and the French Christine Lagarde, from the European Central Bank, will also take part in the presentations and panels that seek to point the way to the global scenario clouded by war.

The triplet also reflects the increasing female participation in the event created by economist Klaus Schwab in 1971, in an attempt by the Forum, in recent years, to make its participants less male, white and European and seek to better reflect global political and social changes.

But it is an absence, more than any name, that stands out in this year’s debates. After decades of strong Russian presence, government representatives in Moscow were disconnected from the entity, which nevertheless took the Ukrainian side in the war. Punishments aside, it will be strange to debate solutions and paths to the conflict with only one of the sides involved present.

Volodymyr Zelensky, by the way, will be the first head of state to make a speech at this year’s event, maximum status. Although the Forum indicates the presence of Zelenskiy, he should address the participants on a big screen this Monday morning (6:15 am Brazilian time, with live broadcast on the event’s website).

Ukrainian parliamentarians and regional politicians will also participate in the panels with protagonist status in a year when pop names were left out.

In addition to the war — discussed without Putin — and the difficult global economic equation — debated without the Chinese Xi Jinping and the American Joe Biden — the climate crisis and the global healing process of pandemic, still a risk lurking above all due to the possibility of new lockdowns in China.

With little to show on these two fronts, Brazil should appear as a window in the first case and be a non-voice in the second.

Debates and presentations on the Amazon, for example, would take place until the last minute without the participation of Brazilian authorities —Montezano was included a few days after the event—, and other discussions on the environment will pass by the Brazilian government, such as the one led by the American representative for the climate, John Kerry, on Tuesday (24), and the debate on the increasingly strategic carbon credit market, on Monday (23).

It is something that would have been unthinkable in the recent past, when Brazil, today a pariah, was seen as a leader for actions in the area.