Dispatches From The Magic Mountain - Davos Attendees Talking Climate Impacts - ET India

DAVOS: Climate change will be among the major issues at this year's meeting of the world's business and political elite in the Swiss Alps and they can start by confronting their own carbon footprint. Hundreds of participants in the World Economic Forum will land in private planes as large as Boeing 767s and travel to the secluded winter resort of Davos in helicopters, limousines, official buses or rented sport utility vehicles.

While some will take advantage of different programs to reduce greenhouse gases or use Switzerland's train network, one of the world's best developed, the annual meeting will demonstrate how such global meetings contribute to the problem of greenhouse gases.

Andre Schneider, chief operating officer of the Geneva-based WEF, said the five-day meeting produces about 7,500 U.S. tons (6,800 metric tons) of carbon emissions, which are widely regarded as being a main cause of global warming. The figure equates to the amount released over a whole year by 1,250 passenger cars or 900 homes.

The 38-year-old Forum is trying to shrink its carbon footprint this time around by offering free transport from the Zurich airport in one of 94 Audi A8s including 12 equipped with heavy armor that run on low-emission biodiesel fuel.

Ed. - emphasis added for a paragraph that says much, much more than I suspect was intended.


EDIT

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Developmental_Issues/Worlds_wealthiest_to_talk_climate_change/articleshow/2723316.cms