Collaboration and Innovation
For a start, the fact that there are seven Co-Chairs is itself an exercise in collaboration. They include the former Prime Minister Blair; two bankers – from Morgan Stanley and ICICI of India; three executives – Pepsi, Chevron, and a Chinese Mobile phone magnate; and Henry Kissinger.

One could see the group as two politicians, two financiers, and three executives. Or six men and a woman. Or four westerners and three easterners. Perhaps this year’s theme seeks to emphasize that given the urgency and enormity of our global problems, how you divide people is not as significant as what they can accomplish by working together.

The conference is also making strides in innovation with this year’s Davos Question, by taking a cue from the YouTube debates popularized in the presidential primaries. The question is: "What one thing do you think that countries, companies or individuals must do to make the world a better place in 2008?" And for the first time this year, the more than 2,500 participants, business leaders and heads of state - arguably the largest annual meeting of the world’s most powerful people – will be viewing and responding to videos posted directly by the people. Go here to watch the videos and make your own!

Some of the videos will be screened at select plenary sessions, and the Forum states that world leaders will continue to watch the videos and make responses of their own. Some leaders have already contributed, with Rajendra K Pachauri  Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), talking about his solar lighting program “Lighting a Billion Lives;” while Bono talks about the need to hold leaders to the promises of the Millenium Development Goals, saying “Right now governments are slipping back in their commitments to halve extreme poverty by 2015. Don’t let them.”

Executive Chairman of the Davos Forum, Professor Klaus Schwab, says, “The focus on collaboration and innovation in 2008 underscores the opportunity for the world's leaders to use the World Economic Forum's multistakeholder platform in Davos to collaborate and take action to tackle the world's most pressing problems.”

“Collaboration, the main theme of this year's Davos meeting, is the keyword to make progress on the issues of climate change, Africa's development and the global economy," said this year's G8 Chair, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda of Japan. Fukuda also announced a $10 billion “Cool Earth Partnership” program to combat global warming.

The first Test of Globalization
With the pessimists warning of a recession with global implications, bursting housing bubbles across Europe, causing recession in China, and exacerbating soaring food prices in Africa, it was a gloomy beginning to the 38th Annual Meeting.

“The current financial crisis is the first test of globalization. Can the economies of India and China see us through the slow down in the largest economy in another part of the world?” asked Forum Co-Chair Indra K. Nooyi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo, a woman who's background in globalization includes graduate degrees from the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta as well as Yale University.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice responded to the anxiety, saying Wednesday during the opening address that the U.S. economy was resilient and would remain an "engine of growth." Speaking to an audience of chief executives and world leaders, Rice said the long-term fundamentals of the US economy are sound, and that the $150 billion stimulus package proposed by President Bush would "boost consumer spending and support business investment this year."

An upbeat Rice said that international problems may be managed, but never resolved without “a combination of ideals and optimism.”

“There is not one challenge in the world today that will get better if we approach it without confidence in the appeal and effectiveness of our ideals – political and economic freedom, open markets and free and fair trade, human dignity and human rights, equal opportunity and the rule of law,” she said.

US receives Poor Environmental Ranking
But while Switzerland, which topped a new international ranking of environmental performance, can be proud of its efforts on global warming, the US has “bottom-tier performance in greenhouse gas emissions,” concluded researchers from Yale and Columbia Universities.

“We are putting more weight on climate change,” said Daniel Esty, the report’s lead author, who is the director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. “Switzerland is the most greenhouse gas efficient economy in the developed world,” in part, he said, because of its use of hydroelectric power and its transportation system, which relies more on trains than individual cars or trucks.

The United States, which ranked last among G8 nations, and 39th overall, “is slipping down,” said the report, both because of low scores on three different analyses of greenhouse gas emissions and a pervasive problem with smog. The country’s performance on a new indicator that measures regional smog, he said, “is at the bottom of the world right now.”

Despite the Bush administration’s many denials, delays, and obstructions on the issue, Rice claimed the US was ready to do its part on climate change and global warming. Stating that if the global economy is to continue to grow, the world needs an entirely new approach to energy and the environment, Rice said, “We have to … cut the Gordian knot of fossil fuels, carbon emissions and economic activity.”

Christine Kim, one of the researchers on the report calculated that while a country’s GDP tended to correlate with a better sanitation, indoor air quality and success in combating diseases, it also corresponded with a poor performance on greenhouse gas emissions and agricultural policies .

UN Secretary General says Water a Crucial Issue
One of the first panels at Davos this year stressed the risk that global crises over water pose to economic growth, human rights, health, safety and national security. “The challenge of securing safe and plentiful water for all," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, "is one of the most daunting challenges faced by the world today."

"The solution to water is more complex than the solution to climate change," added Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Nestlé, Switzerland.

Panellists agreed that no individual, firm or nation could escape the consequences of water scarcity. Meanwhile, efforts to extract more and alternative energy sources such as shale oil or biofuels only speed the depletion through their own requirements for water.

Water is also wasted, because it has no economic value, despite being the most precious and scarce resource of all, said Brabeck-Letmathe. "If we allow market forces to play a role in how to define the value of water, we could take a big step forward," he commented.

The panellists agreed that a certain amount of clean water for drinking should be seen as a human right. South Africa and Oman have shown both novel and ancient ways to secure its availability. But water for farmers, industry, swimming pools or gardens needs to be priced to prevent waste and inefficiency, the panellists declared.

Meeting has Five Themes
Solving the world's problems is a daunting task by any estimation, and the Annual Meeting will seek solutions in over 240 sessions over the course of the five-day Meeting, as well as related smaller, private meetings and the Open Forum, which the general public is invited to attend. The programme is organized around five sub-themes:

    * Business: Competing While Collaborating
    * Economics and Finance: Addressing Economic Insecurity
    * Geopolitics: Aligning Interests across Divides
    * Science and Technology: Exploring Nature's New Frontiers
    * Values and Society: Understanding Future Shifts

More than 2,500 participants from 88 countries are in Davos, Switzerland, including 27 heads of state or government, 113 cabinet ministers, along with religious leaders, media leaders and heads of non-governmental organizations. Around 60% of the participants are business leaders drawn principally from the Forum's members – 1,000 of the foremost companies from around the world and across all economic sectors.

All this collaboration will hopefully yield some of the innovation the world most definitely needs. Stay tuned over the next week to see what comes as the world's major players confront the issues that matter most.

AP photo courtesy of Michel Euler