Davos 2019: Climate change pressure and inequality worries - as it happened
Young people hold a climate change strike on the final day of the World Economic Forum, after campaigner Greta Thunberg addresses delegates
- Thunberg tells delegates 'our house is on fire'
- Teenage activist takes School Strikes 4 Climate Action to Davos
- Oxfam: Stop rigging the system for the rich
3.24pm GMT
Davos attendees who hung around for the last day heard behavioural scientist Jane Goodall talking a lot of sense.
She called for:
"love, compassion and making decisions not based on how this will help my bank account " but how will it affect future generations."
"As we destroy the natural environment...we are destroying our own future, our own children and grandchildren. We all care about them, but we're not thinking about how what we do today is stealing their future."
2.09pm GMT
Britain's biggest retailers and wholesalers have raised their stockpiling efforts to the highest levels since the 2008 financial crisis, according to a key industry report, with little more than 60 days to go before Brexit.
According to the latest snapshot from the CBI's monthly distributive trades survey, retail businesses raised the ratio of their stocks to expected sales in January to the highest level since February 2008.
Related: Brexit stockpiling by UK retailers and wholesalers reaching 2008 levels, says CBI
1.49pm GMT
Novartis is the latest firm to warn about the potential pitfalls of a no-deal Brexit, including a shortage of medicines.
The Swiss pharmaceuticals company says it is stockpiling drugs in the UK before a possible no-deal, which it warns would be "hugely impactful for patients, particularly around the supply and safety of medicines".
Related: Drug firm Novartis fears no-deal Brexit will harm patients
1.19pm GMT
Who said deals are never done in Davos?
Today in @Davos, Ueli Maurer and I signed an agreement which will ensure the UK and Swiss #insurance sectors can continue trading freely with one another after #Brexit. The UK insurance industry contributes approx. 35bn to our economy and employs over 324,000 people #WEF19 pic.twitter.com/AGgcX62RIZ
1.09pm GMT
Brexit has been a key talking point in Davos, where business leaders have urged clarity from the government amid mounting warnings from firms that a no-deal scenario would be disastrous for jobs and the economy.
One businessman who has consistently taken the opposing view is Tim Martin, the founder and chairman of pub group Wetherspoon and a firm supporter of Brexit.
12.09pm GMT
The climate change protest is breaking up now. And so is the World Economic Forum, in a rather downbeat mood .
There's really not been much drama here today, alas. The early finish means many delegates seem to have skipped sessions, and skipped off.
12.07pm GMT
More from the Lagarde panel:
@KGeorgieva says the war on extreme poverty will be lost in Sub-Saharan Africa and the weapon of choice has to be digital. @WorldBank is backing a 'digital moonshot' to help small farmers and use connectivity to link small producers to markets and create entrepreneurs. #wef19
11.49am GMT
The students protesting outside the World Economic Forum are on the right side of history....but are the delegates scurrying past them?
Greenpeace International executive director, Jennifer Morgan, says she's disappointed that Davos hasn't provided the "moral, business and political" leadership needed to fight global warming.
It is deeply disturbing that, as the world tinkers on the brink of a climate catastrophe, avoiding further temperature rise is not at the very centre of all of the meetings of CEOs and world leaders. The solutions are in front of them and they need to prioritise solving this crisis, join the youth who are leading the way forward and thus be on the right side of history.
Yesterday there were 32,000 school strike students on the streets of Belgium and today children are taking to the streets of Berlin clamouring for an early coal phase-out. The youth are demanding to be heard, the question is, why isn't the Davos elite responding with the scale and pace required? Short-term business interests and making a greater profit, whatever the cost to others, clearly remains the Davos elites priority. We have no time to waste.
11.42am GMT
Davos delegates are getting a taste of the anger over climate change.
As they leave the congress hall, they will see a group of young people holding a climate strike - urging world leaders and business chiefs to wake up to the crisis and Actually Do Something, not just talk about it.
She's settled outside the Davos security gates with three other youth so far, and the media attention is huge pic.twitter.com/1pesllwLK2
A local 19 year old has joined the strike and says she hope this kind of action becomes regular around WEF until change is made pic.twitter.com/Kd2ifNDIkN
Around a dozen young people have now gathered to protest alongside Greta pic.twitter.com/ndSP67lvPY
There's now around 30 youth with @GretaThunberg and some passing Davos attendees are stopping to take a look. Police are keeping watch but one policenan assured me there are no plans to intervene as long as it stays peaceful pic.twitter.com/6nbenXEaGC
11.30am GMT
More highlights from Greta Thunberg's press conference:
Greta thinks she has been heard by people at Davos, but maybe not listened to by the most important attendees
She hasn't met with coal, oil and gas companies at Davos but if she did, Greta would tell them they have committed crimes against humanity for failing to act on information they've had for years on their impact on climate change
She is proud of the impact she has had the behaviours of even her immediate family. Greta's mother was an opera singer who flew often for work but she eventually changed careers in order to reduce her carbon footprint
11.28am GMT
Economist Mariana Mazzucato is outlining how to encourage innovation, and warning that some popular policy measure are flawed.
R&D tax credits sometimes don't work, she says, because companies use them to fund research they'd have paid for anyway.
11.19am GMT
It's a mistake to fight technology because you fear it will make some jobs redundant, argues Kganyago.
You can't protect the job of an encyclopedia salesman, because the internet took that job away.
11.12am GMT
Lagarde's panel has turn to demographics and the world of work.
Japan's ageing society has caused a labour shortage. BoJ central bank chief Haruhiko Kuroda says this has forced farms and companies to embrace automation.
Does the curriculum we have, in various institutions, cater for the needs of the changing economy, so that when these young people come through the educational system they can engage with an economic system that is being drive by technology?
10.59am GMT
Kristalina Georgieva has also got the message that climate change is going to hurt younger generations, (who didn't create the problem, of course).
She tells delegates:
When you think about climate, get a photo of your children and grandchildren in front of you. I guarantee you it will change your perspective. I did this and it works.
10.57am GMT
Kristalina Georgieva, World Bank CEO, says global leaders can help fight climate change by eliminating harmful subsidies [on energy and agriculture, for example].
Georgieva says progress has been made - these harmful subsidies have shrunk from $600bn to $300bn, but "we still have $300bn to go".
So, those who tell you that low carbon is bad for the economy - don't bite.
10.47am GMT
Christine Lagarde begins by singling out the issue of climate change (maybe Greta had a word...)
Average surface temperature has risen by nearly once degree Celcius since the late 19th century.
If we don't make the minimum global effort, which will be hopefully upped next year, to curb emissions, rising temperatures will wipe out whole segments of economies, not to mention the dramatic human damage it will cause.
10.40am GMT
The final main event of Davos, on the state of the global economy, is underway.
But the cavernous congress hall is remarkably empty -- so much that our Larry Elliott has bagged a front row seat.
10.32am GMT
Thunberg is now addressing the media, repeating her warning about the urgent need to reduce emissions.
"I don't want you to be hopeful" Greta says, she wants us to panic pic.twitter.com/WndxhteUQD
10.17am GMT
Three Yale university psychology professors who are experts in well being have an uncomfortable message for the wealth-seeking billionaires in Davos: your brains are lying to you.
Laurie Santos, one of the trio, says:
"One reason we are not as happy as we could be is because our minds are lying to us. It asks us to want the wrong sort of stuff. It tells us that more money bring us happiness."
"Once you get much above the poverty line happiness flatlines".
"If our goals are happiness and well being, we are doing it wrong."
10.04am GMT
UK health secretary Matt Hancock is featuring on a Davos panel this morning covering genome sequencing at birth
Hancock starts the session by plugging Genomics England, which he said in December successfully hit its target of 100K whole genomes fully sequenced. The goal is to reach 1m in the UK over the next 5 years
The panel is asked whether they've had their own genomes sequenced. Hancock says his half brother bought him a 23andMe kit for Christmas, but it's still sitting in his kitchen and he's mulling whether to use it. "So this is a live debate in the Hancock household," he says
Hancock says the ethics of genome sequencing is "very straight forward" in cases where a baby is ill, thought its still a clinical decision that takes place with their guardians. He clarifies that the UK sequencing is paid for by taxpayers via the NHS
"Not allowing people to opt out...would be a huge imposition of the state into people's lives."
9.39am GMT
Climate activist Greta Thunberg has lived up to her pledge to warn Davos to address the climate crisis.
At places like Davos, people like to tell success stories, but financial success has come with an unthinkable price tag on climate change.
We have failed.
It's a simple issue. We need to stop emissions of greenhouse gases. Either we do that or we don't. Either we prevent 1.5 degrees of warming, or we don't.
There are no grey areas when it comes to survival.
She's right, we have not panicked enough.
Related: Teenage activist takes School Strikes 4 Climate Action to Davos
9.26am GMT
You know the tax system is in trouble when even the accountants won't defend it!
Bob Moritz, the chairman of accountancy giant PcW, has told Davos that today's taxation systems are old, outdated and not fit for the future.
We want to pay our fair share of taxes, but the reality is the tax laws and regulations we have today are absolutely antiquated and not fit for the multiple stakeholders that we have to focus on.
9.12am GMT
Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International, has delivered a stinging blast at governments for not tackling wealth inequality.
We are now in an economy that is really rigged, so that a few get better off and others now.
Rich companies, rich people, have been able to write the rules of the economy so they are winners and others are losers.
Women are pulling out of work to care for the sick, of the elderly, of disabled people.
This is because governments have sat back, not done their job and allowed a few to take away the bulk of the wealth.
8.56am GMT
A quick audience poll at a Davos panel on wealth inequality shows that 61% don't support a basic income.
8.54am GMT
Investors are in a relatively upbeat mood this morning, with European markets up across the board following gains in Asia.
Despite the ongoing uncertainties around US, China trade markets in Europe have opened higher this morning, taking a positive lead from a strong performance for Asia markets.
It's been a decent week for markets in Asia with the Nikkei 225 closing higher for the third week in a row, the first time that has happened since October last year.
8.40am GMT
Chancellor Philip Hammond has just arrived at the Congress Centre.
He wouldn't stop to talk and his team has said he's on his way to a "bilateral meeting" downstairs but would not say with who. He was with about half a dozen staff, with a camera in tow.
8.35am GMT
Never mind Khashoggi, let's make money!
That, I'm afraid, is Saudi Arabia's message to Davos - as illustrated by this massive poster outside the congress centre.
At an event where success is often measured by who's seen at a reception or speaks on a panel, the Saudis aren't getting the cold shoulder any more. James Gorman, the head of Morgan Stanley, spoke on Thursday in a debate alongside two Saudi ministers. And the likes of Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and John Flint of HSBC Holdings Plc attended the annual Davos party thrown by Saudi oil giant Aramco, according to a person present.
"I don't think Saudi Arabia is in the penalty box," Gorman said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. Khashoggi's murder "was utterly unacceptable and the world including the Saudis want to understand exactly what happened. In the meantime, Saudi is a country of 32 million people. These folks deserve a shot," he said.
8.15am GMT
In case you missed it, here is the full story on our interview with Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old climate change campaigner, who will be addressing delegates in Davos later this morning:
Related: Teenage activist takes School Strikes 4 Climate Action to Davos
8.04am GMT
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the final day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, and other events across the economy and the markets.
In Davos, the global elite will be looking nervously to the future today - with sessions on inequality, bioethics and the global economy.
Related: George Soros: China is using tech advances to repress its people
I have said that every Friday I will sit outside the Swedish parliament until Sweden is in line with the Paris Agreement, and now this Friday I can't be there. So I will have to do it here, and send a message that this is the only thing that matters.
Today I have been invited to meet with Klaus Schwab and Christine Lagarde. Then I will speak to the @wef on "Preparing for climate disruption".
At 11:15 I will hold a press conference at Icehouse, Promenade 93.
Then there will be a local Davos schoolstrike outside at 12. #wef19