The Davos razzmatazz is gone, but the issues are more urgent than ever | Larry Elliott

Urgent questions from the climate crisis to tax avoidance remain on the table

It is January 2020. Donald Trump and Greta Thunberg are the star turns at the annual festival of globalisation organised by the World Economic Forum in Davos. The fossil fuel-loving president and the teenage environmentalist have a pop at each other. There are reports of a new virus emerging from China but Covid barely gets a mention.

Much has happened since. For a second year running, Davos is not going ahead in person. US billionaires will not be parking their private jets at Zurich airport. The skies above the ski resort made famous by Thomas Mann in the Magic Mountain will not be thick with helicopters. Hotels will not be able to charge five times their normal rates for a captive audience of policymakers, business leaders, academics, campaigners, journalists and assorted hangers-on.