How can we shift national economic development onto a low carbon path, while international negotiations remain entrenched? On Sunday in Durban, the World Economic Forum welcomed South African President Jacob Zuma, together with five cabinet ministers and more than 50 leaders from business and the NGO community, to answer this question. President Zuma set the tone for the session in his opening address, laying out the bold steps South Africa is taking to deliver on a third of its new power generation from renewable energy sources and moving its economy onto a low carbon path.

“We must form strong partnerships to save tomorrow today. This World Economic Forum roundtable offers an opportunity to forge and strengthen partnerships between business and government,” President Zuma stated, challenging business and government to move out of their comfort zones to take the lead on solving the climate challenge.

Minister for Water and Environment Edna Molewa welcomed the Durban Growth Series as an opportunity to showcase national success stories in advancing solar and renewable energy, water partnerships for sustainable economic growth, and agricultural growth corridors.  “We must make both bottom up actions and top down approaches work,” Minister Molewa stressed, adding the “government can set the target and the regulatory framework, but business must play a significant role in leading the transformation to a greener economy.” 

President Zuma was joined by business leaders from Nestlé, Yara International, Deutsche Bank, Eskom and J&J Group, who welcomed the South African government’s leadership in forging strong partnerships with industry and explained a number of existing collaborative models. They agreed that a key challenge was to scale up these successes, and stressed the need to ensure a holistic approach that takes into account the nexus linking the development of scarce water resources, agriculture and energy.  In closing, WWF Director General Jim Leape commented that “this is the richest dialogue I have yet seen at COP17 about substantive partnerships between industry and government.”     

Sunday morning’s opening was an excellent start to the Durban Growth Series and offered a flavour of what promises to be a rich set of discussions over the next two days of how national progress is being made on bottom up green growth solutions.

*Thomas Kerr is a Director at the World Economic Forum and Head of Climate Change Initiatives. He is in Durban South Africa hosting the Durban Growth Series as part of the COP17. 

What is the Durban Growth Series? Watch Director Thomas Kerr explain below. 

No matter how well we foresee and plan, some aspects of both man-made and natural risks will remain random and unpredictable. This uncertainty is inherent in the very nature of risk, and its chaotic and fickle nature has been reaffirmed by the recent tragedies in Japan. As the Japanese people and their government gradually shift from responding to the immediate safety and humanitarian aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami and radiation threats, now is an appropriate time to begin thinking about rebuilding and recovery, as well as possible lessons to be learned.

Japan is perhaps the most prepared nation in the world when it comes to earthquakes and tsunamis, benefitting from centuries of experience, a well-developed economy and considerable investment in preparedness and mitigation strategies. As we mourn the tens of thousands who lost their lives in the disaster, we can take some comfort that many more survived thanks to the country’s remarkable disaster readiness.

In a recent meeting with senior private and public sector officials focused on risk convened by the World Economic Forum, I was impressed by Japanese officials’ descriptions of several carefully designed engineering and technological efforts: a sophisticated early warning system sent SMS messages to millions of people before the earthquake’s tremors reached land, giving them precious seconds to take cover; high-tech accelerometers signalled Shinkansen bullet trains to stop before they risked derailment; seismic sensors automatically sent elevators to the ground floors of their buildings, preventing people from being trapped; and “intelligent” gas metres able to detect seismic activity cut off gas supplies, minimizing fires. All of these examples, coupled with strict building codes and efforts focused on education and readiness, saved numerous lives. 

The Japanese officials also explained how low-technology, community-level planning played a key role on 11 March. During the tragic 2004 tsunami that struck Banda Aceh in Indonesia, one of the heartbreaking stories among many was the number of schoolchildren whose lives were lost when they failed to leave their schools for higher ground. Learning from this painful experience, in parts of Japan a “buddy” system was enacted where older students helped evacuate younger students when the tsunami warning was sounded. The benefits of learning and adapting based on prior disasters are unmistakable.

On the other hand, containing and communicating about the radiation from the badly damaged Fukushima Dai’ichi nuclear reactor has been and continues to be a different type of challenge. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which has been deeply focused on minimizing radiation leakage, has been forced to improvise solutions since initial containment efforts failed. The Japanese government has been criticized both for excessive conservatism in its communications in order not to alarm the public, and for not being sufficiently transparent and sharing more information. The authorities may have been well prepared to communicate about a meltdown under more normal circumstances, but tasked with the immediate humanitarian relief crisis, the challenges and complexities multiplied. It has therefore been the combination of multiple risks, the difficulty of wrestling with the concurrent effects of the earthquake, the tsunami and radiation that has proved to be most difficult.

Building on Japan’s experience in recent months requires looking at different types of risks and responses, and making sense of a wide landscape of interrelated factors, many of which have implications beyond Japan. As factories have been idled and supply chains disrupted as a result of the events, global manufacturing and distribution have been significantly affected. Politically, fears about nuclear power are altering questions about long-term energy supplies as well as the power base of governments. The cascade of secondary and tertiary effects of the Japanese disaster has therefore impacted the whole world.

Thus a global network that shares best practices, promotes lessons learned in one part of the world for application in another, and assists its members both to better prepare before an event and better respond after can be of enormous value. By establishing direct channels of communication to government leaders, risk experts from some of the world’s leading companies, academic institutions, NGOs and other parts of society can provide valuable assistance in times of crisis.

Prompted by these aims, in January 2011 the World Economic Forum launched the Risk Response Network. Its goal is to bring top leaders from the public and private sectors together to develop practical approaches to better manage, respond to and prepare for global risks. As part of the initiative, senior officials from the Japanese government, the Forum’s risk community, business executives and others will meet in Tokyo on 18 May to discuss practical solutions for how the private sector can contribute to Japan’s post-disaster response and recovery efforts, and how best to share lessons learned with the rest of the world. Such an approach can promote learning from both the successes and failures of Japan’s recent experiences.

Kevin Steinberg, Chief Operating Officer, World Economic Forum USA

The international balance of power has shifted, according to the Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Geopolitical Risk, from a world order dominated by the G7 free market democracies to one in which emerging market states enjoy much greater economic and political clout.

Many of these states hold quite different views than leading industrialized states on how the global economy should operate and on the proper role for the state in economic development. “The result is a vacuum of leadership that will complicate efforts to restore confidence in global economic growth following the most significant market meltdown of the past seven decades”.

The new reality will provide the following opportunities:

• for governments of medium-sized rising powers like Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey  to redefine their roles on the regional and international stages
• for resource-rich African countries to benefit from new economic relationships
• for the United States to find a sustainable international leadership role that allows for the sharing of more of the burdens of provision of global public goods.

 
For international companies and investors the opportunities come with the understanding of the new reality. The Global Agenda Council on Geopolitical Risk forecasts that:

• CEOs who understand the increased role of governments in market activity in many countries, particularly in state capitalist emerging markets, will be best positioned to benefit from first-mover advantage
• Companies with diversified risk exposure will be better placed to survive an inevitable period of volatility in global markets
• The players who recognize that emerging markets pose unique risks and opportunities will be best placed to profit.

Some of the challenges include increased nationalism in both developed and developing states, increased potential for West-East tensions, and greater state intervention in the economy by developed and developing nations.

The full Geopolitical Risk Report can be found here.

Labour leaders are at the heart of the debate that is helping to shape the post-crisis world.

Their message at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting has been a highly vocal one, urging policymakers to observe social values while tackling the consequences of the global financial crisis.

In recent years international labour leaders have criticised what they saw as a failure by business and government to respond adequately and in a timely manner to the market meltdown around the world.

Labour leaders’ main concerns focus on the social aftermath of the financial upheaval, perhaps highlighted by fears that widespread unemployment caused by slowing economies will lead to civil unrest and instability. Indeed, protests across Europe against austerity measures being implemented by national governments appear to reflect the labour leaders’ perspectives.

Speaking at the 2009 Annual Meeting, Sharan Burrow, the president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, said that massive job losses and home repossessions were the price of “casino capitalism” that would have to be paid for by millions of of individuals and their families as they became unemployed and watched the value of their savings and pensions depleted in the wake of the financial crisis.

Emerging economies have recovered faster from the crisis than developed countries and are set to become the main engine of growth for the world, leading economists and Chinese officials said in a panel at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, People's Republic of China, while addressing the outlook for the global economy.

Gerard Lyons, Chief Economist and Group Head, Global Research, Standard Chartered Bank, said that the recovery in global growth has been led by emerging economies. "It is a tale of two worlds," he said, pointing to stagnation in the West versus strong growth in the East.

This is not necessarily a disaster, noted Nariman Behravesh, Chief Economist, HIS. “Japan has showed us that sluggish growth doesn’t have to mean a deteriorating quality of life," he added.

"China’s government responded rapidly to the crisis of 2008, taking the lead in achieving economic recovery," said Ma Jiantang, Commissioner, National Bureau of Statistics of China. China’s GDP growth rate rose far more than expected, from 6.1% in early 2009 to 11.9% in 2010. Measures have since been taken to address rapid credit growth and fears of overheating. "I am not worried about the speed of the economic recovery," he added. "China is looking to achieving 10% growth in 2010, with CPI less than 3%."

Xia Bin, Director-General, Financial Research Institute, Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC), People’s Republic of China, stressed that growth expectations need to be moderately adjusted downwards to ensure growth is sustainable: "China cannot enjoy the same double-digit growth rates of 2003 to 2007."

The World Economic Forum created the Network of Global Agenda Councils in 2008. The network comprises Councils on the foremost topics in the global arena. Each convenes relevant thought leaders from academia, government, business and other fields to capture the best knowledge on each key issue and integrate it into global collaboration and decision-making processes.

As multistakeholder groups formed to advance knowledge and collaboratively develop solutions to the most crucial issues on the global agenda, the Councils represent transformational innovation in global governance. Specifically, the Councils monitor key trends, identify global risks, map interrelationships and address knowledge gaps. Equally important, Councils also put forward ideas and recommendations to address global challenges.

Council Members meet virtually on WELCOM, the Forum's private members platform, and at the Summit on the Global Agenda in the United Arab Emirates. Moreover, they are fully integrated into the broader Forum Community and are regular panellists in sessions at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, and at the Forum’s Regional Meetings and Industry Activities.

In a global environment marked by short-term orientation and silo-thinking, Councils foster interdisciplinary and long-range thinking to address the prevailing challenges on the global agenda.

The Forum's Global Gender Gap Report has found that although more women are in employment than ever before, major corporations are still not capitalizing on their talents. Pay equality is not there either. So why are women still not equally represented in major multinational companies and, when they are, why aren't they being paid equally? 

The report shows much progress still being made but a lot of ground still to make up. Its co-author Ricardo Hausmann, Director of the Centre for International Development at Harvard University, says countries have to adjust for the fact that marriage and motherhood are not at odds with women's advancement in the workplace. 

He said: "We have found that gaps are closing between women and men’s health and education – in fact, current data show that in the 134 countries covered, 96% of health gaps and 93% of education gaps have been closed. And, yet only 60% of economic participation gaps have been closed. Progress will be achieved when countries seek to reap returns on the investment in health and education of girls and women by finding ways to make marriage and motherhood compatible with the economic participation of women."

Fellow co-author Laura Tyson, S.K. and Angela Chan Professor of Global Management at the Hass School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, reflects: "The Global Gender Gap Report demonstrates that closing the gender gap provides a basis for a prosperous and competitive society. Regardless of level of income, countries can choose to integrate gender equality and other social inclusion goals into their growth agenda – and have the potential to grow faster – or they can run the risk of undermining their competitive potential by not capitalizing fully on one-half of their human resources. The economic incentive for closing the gender gap in health, education, economic opportunity and political power is clear."

Members of the Global University Leaders Forum have created task forces in each of the key areas of focus. The task forces report to the broader community once a year. Below is a synthesis of their activities in each area:

1. Capacity Building
At the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2009, GULF members and other university leaders signed a common statement on the responsibility of leading universities in capacity building. Synergies were created between the GULF and the African University Leaders Forum at the summit on "The Next Generation of Academics in Africa" in November 2008 in Accra, where a team of GULF members participated. Following up on the Accra meeting, members of the GULF engaged the World Bank and other key players from the public and private sector to explore synergetic opportunities for the GULF in Africa. With the support of the World Bank, a workshop of university leaders from African countries and key representatives of GULF members was held in Johannesburg on March 4-5, 2010 and offered the participants an opportunity to mainstream potential areas of collaboration between the GULF community and the community of African university leaders. The report highlighted Human Capital, Teaching Materials and Harnessing Networks as areas of major challenges and opportunities of collaboration going forward.

2. Environmental Sustainability
Early in 2008, the GULF agreed to focus on energy issues and on the development of energy efficient campuses, which have benign environmental footprints. A conference, “Sustainable Academic and Corporate Campuses: Time to Implement” will take place in June 2009 at EPFL. Hosted jointly by the International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN) and the GULF, the conference will bring together different networks of universities and corporations involved in sustainable campus practices, which have made sustainability a priority, to promote the exchange of best practices on sustainability and understanding of different advantages and synergies among the existing networks. The outcome of the conference is a charter on sustainability practices that was signed by the majority of GULF members at the Annual Meeting 2010.
At Davos 2011 the GULF reported on the progress in implementing the Charter.  

3. Digital Enterprises 
The involvement of different GULF universities in digital dissemination of content, along with the substantial technological advancements of the last decade, led to the idea to create a searchable database of world-class online educational materials. A meeting in autumn 2009 at Tecnólogico Monterrey brought together key deputies of the GULF members for strategic interlinkages in joint digital dissemination projects.

4. Middle East: Partnership and Challenges
Part of the Middle East is pursuing advances for scientific research and higher education that involve ambitious partnerships with GULF institutions and others; at the Annual Meeting 2009, the community held a discussion on these initiatives and the new forms of emerging collaboration. At the World Economic Forum on the Middle East, Dead Sea, Jordan, May 2009, the World Economic Forum helped a group of scientists from the region and the diaspora and public and private sector participants develop a long-term strategy for scientific research and higher education in the region.
Issues of Intellectual Property 

In November 2009, six American universities and the Association of University Technology Managers issued a statement of principles and strategies regarding the equitable dissemination of medical technologies.  Four GULF institutions (Brown, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale) were involved in the development of the document. A discussion on the topic started at Davos 2010, where other GULF members expressed an interest in endorsing the document. 

A pile of bricks is not necessarily the image that best sums up new technology. But in the case of one World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer it is the perfect reflection of how technology has brought about a revolution to a traditional industry, in this case cement. 

Novacem has developed a carbon negative cement that presents a revolutionary solution to the challenge of reducing carbon emissions from the cement industry. Novacem's cement is based on a non-carbonate raw material, magnesium silicate, and uses a relatively low temperature production process. More carbon dioxide is absorbed during production than is emitted, meaning that for every tonne of Ordinary Portland Cement replaced by Novacem, carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by up to 850kg. 

This is just one example of the many innovative approaches to society's pressing problems that are represented among the Technology Pioneers Class of 2011. 

Other issues addressed are as wide-ranging as the problems facing the world today - everything from how society will cope with the crucial issue of water management and treatment, how to treat rare and neglected diseases, to how to handle 24/7 connection to the internet and the resulting reputational and security risks that this presents. 

While the traditional strongholds in the United States and Europe still lead the way in innovative technology, the number of start-ups with roots in emerging markets continues to surge year on year. And the rising concern for the environment has seen the highest numbers ever of candidates and selected companies in the clean-technology arena.

• Identifying and highlighting the world’s leading social entrepreneurs: Annually, the Foundation and its Partners select 20-25 Social Entrepreneurs from a pool of 1,000 applicants through national "Social Entrepreneur of the Year" competitions and regional selection processes in Africa, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The winners are highlighted at national celebrations and during key plenary sessions at Forum events. 

• Community building: Currently, over 190 social entrepreneurs form part of the Schwab Foundation community. They come from around the world and work in a wide range of sectors, but they have many challenges and characteristics in common. The Foundation fosters the peer-to-peer exchange of the social entrepreneurs and supports the replication of their methodologies among each other.

• Connecting Social Entrepreneurs with corporate and other leaders: The Foundation supports the participation of selected Social Entrepreneurs at regional and global meetings of the World Economic Forum. It ensures the active participation of Social Entrepreneurs in the relevant initiatives and conversations shaping the future agendas of industries, and places them as experts on the Global Agenda Councils. 

• Generating solutions in partnership: Social entrepreneurs participate in Forum initiatives, the conversations shaping the future agendas of industries, and are experts for the Forum’s Global Agenda Councils. The Foundation works with selected companies to advance specific activities of social entrepreneurs or initiatives that support social entrepreneurship (partners).

• Identifying next generation of social entrepreneurs: The Foundation works with the Forum of Young Global Leaders to identify rising social entrepreneurs with a significant impact under the age of 40.

• Additional services: The Foundation works with Harvard University, Stanford University and INSEAD to provide scholarship opportunities to the best executive education courses in the field to the selected social entrepreneurs. The Foundation works closely with leading academic institutions to publish case studies on specific social entrepreneurs for incorporation in undergraduate and graduate level courses. 

The Foundation does not give grants or invest financially in the organizations of its selected social entrepreneurs.