From Davos: What’s missing from the climate change discussion

Despite all the Davos focus on climate change and alternative energy, I’ve heard surprisingly little on 2 key issues. One: shale gas, which most of my friends in the industry think is a game changer. In part, I suspect it’s because it’s technical, and there are far more business folk and ngos on these panels ...

By , the president of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media.

Despite all the Davos focus on climate change and alternative energy, I've heard surprisingly little on 2 key issues. One: shale gas, which most of my friends in the industry think is a game changer. In part, I suspect it's because it's technical, and there are far more business folk and ngos on these panels than specialists. But could also be because new shale gas champion exxon mobil didn't field a team for Davos. Apparently, CEO Rex Tillerson's participation was contingent on a high level public bilateral, but the other person in question didn't show. My educated guess says Brazilian President Lula, where energy reform means international exploration is in the balance.

Despite all the Davos focus on climate change and alternative energy, I’ve heard surprisingly little on 2 key issues. One: shale gas, which most of my friends in the industry think is a game changer. In part, I suspect it’s because it’s technical, and there are far more business folk and ngos on these panels than specialists. But could also be because new shale gas champion exxon mobil didn’t field a team for Davos. Apparently, CEO Rex Tillerson’s participation was contingent on a high level public bilateral, but the other person in question didn’t show. My educated guess says Brazilian President Lula, where energy reform means international exploration is in the balance.

Two: Geoengineering. The greater the inevitability of severe climate change, the more obvious it is that we’ll see a proliferation of interventionist measures. It’s probably one of the biggest new greenfield research and development prospects in the world today. And yet there we’ve heard almost nothing of it at davos. Could be it’s just this side of out of consensus. Or maybe it’s still too science fiction for the over-50 set (I’d say the over-40 set, but that now includes me.  criminy)

Ian Bremmer will be blogging from Davos this week sending reports and commentary from inside the World Economic Forum.

Ian Bremmer is the president of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media. He is also the host of the television show GZERO World With Ian Bremmer. Twitter: @ianbremmer

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