Davos 2023: What you need to know about the WEF on Thursday

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DAVOS — All eyes were on Greta Thunberg on Thursday as she called on the global energy industry and its financiers to end all fossil fuel investments at a high-profile meeting in Davos with Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA).

During the round-table, she and three of her fellow activists said they had presented a “cease and desist” letter to CEOs calling for a stop to new oil, gas and coal extraction.

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“As long as they can get away with it they will continue to invest in fossil fuels, they will continue to throw people under the bus,” Thunberg warned.

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That message seemed to have got through to Britain’s opposition leader Keir Starmer, who said there would be no investment in new oil and gas fields in Britain if the Labour arty is elected to govern, which would mark a big change from the country’s current energy policies.

“What we’ve said about oil and gas is that there does need to be a transition,” he said.

While much of the talk at and around the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting has been about the urgent need to address climate change and the challenges and solutions of the transition to a low-carbon economy, war in Ukraine has also been at or near the top of the agenda.

As Kyiv attempts to secure more modern arms from its allies, it has stepped up a parallel effort to lock in financial support from business leaders in Davos to help rebuild the country.

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Since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, the United States and its allies have given tens of billions of dollars’ worth of weaponry, but Kyiv is still desperate for more, and keen to ride a wave of Western public support to ensure that pledges for its reconstruction are more than just words.

Ukraine, which dominated the WEFs last big meeting in May, has again sent dozens of executives, lawmakers and decision makers with a clear message from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy: commit now, not later.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson lent his support, urging allies to double down on sending military equipment to support Ukraine.

“The best thing for the world is to get this thing done, and done fast,” Johnson said in an interview as part of the Reuters Impact Arctic Warning series.

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ChatGPT has also been a hot topic of conversation.

Generative artificial intelligence, the umbrella technology behind the popular chatbot technology, has interesting applications for social media, Chris Cox, the chief product officer for Facebook parent Meta, told Reuters.

He said that such technology has the capability to create image filters for apps like Instagram. Meta has been working on generative AI research, for instance tech that can convert a text prompt into a video clip.

For daily Davos updates in your inbox sign up for the Reuters Daily Briefing here (Editing by Alexander Smith)