Week Ahead: World leaders jet out to ‘carbon neutral’ Davos summit

JET-SET DISCUSS CLIMATE CRISIS

World leaders and the global elite will spend much of the week in the exclusive Swiss ski resort of Davos as they attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.  

Several thousand business and political leaders will be in attendance as the conference, which has been running since 1971, gets under way from Tuesday.

Ahead of the event, an annual risk report compiled by the WEF listed the top five concerns of world leaders as environmental ones, including extreme weather, biodiversity loss and events like oil spills.

With the conference taking place in the wake of Australia’s appalling bushfires, in a bid to head off criticism organisers have aimed to make this year’s Davos event carbon neutral. It follows past criticisms of guests discussing environmental issues after travelling to the event in private jets.

The UK is due to be represented by Chancellor Sajid Javid in something of a U-turn for the Government after allies of Boris Johnson said before Christmas that he did not want ministers attending the “champagne” event as it went against his priority of running a “People’s Government”.

LABOUR LEADERSHIP BATTLE

With five contenders still in the race to become Labour leader, Monday at 5pm marks the deadline for new members to join the part in time to have a vote in the election.

A leadership hustings event will be held in Leeds on Saturday, as Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Lisa Nandy, Jess Phillips and Emily Thornberry set out their pitches on why they should be chosen to succeed Jeremy Corbyn.

The Leeds event follows concerns being raised by local Labour MPs last week after an initial list of hustings venues contained no event in Yorkshire. Labour subsequently claimed it had always planned to put on an event in this region when announcing the Leeds date.

RELIGIOUS CHALLENGES

Yorkshire’s Baroness Warsi will be talking about the challenges of growing up a Muslim woman in the UK at a speech in London on Tuesday night. The Dewsbury-born politician, who was part of David Cameron’s Cabinet and has campaigned against Islamaphobia in the Conservative Party, will talk about Britain’s “troubled relationship” with Islam at the Migration Museum.

The lecture will be chaired by Labour’s Shami Chakrabarti, a colleague of Baroness Warsi’s in the House of Lords, though politically on opposing benches.

OFSTED FINDINGS INSPECTED

Ofsted will publish its annual report for 2018/19 on Tuesday at a launch event in Westminster. Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman will set out the watchdog’s annual findings on education and social care, as well as advice on what can be done by education providers to tackle issues such as knife crime.

The publication of the annual report had been due in December but was delayed by the election and rules preventing the publication of anything perceived to be political by public bodies in the run-up to it. It was particularly pertinent for Ofsted at the last election as Labour, the Lib Dems and the Green Party had all put forward plans to abolish the watchdog.

CHARLES IN ISRAEL

After a difficult two weeks for the Royal Family, Prince Charles will be making a ground-breaking visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories on Thursday and Friday.

At the invitation of the Israeli President, Reuven Rivlin, The Prince will attend the World Holocaust Forum on Thursday, to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. On Friday, he will travel to Bethlehem to be received by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.