Welcome to Zero. I'm Akshadrati. This week, thin ice, missing snow, and a party for billionaires.

Next week, I'll be going to Davos, a ski resort town in Switzerland.

But I'm not telling you about my holiday, it's that one week in January,

where Davos becomes the home of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting.

An invite-only gathering of CEOs, billionaires, select political leaders, and increasingly, climate

people.

That's not always been the case.

As recently as 2014, climate didn't even get a mention in the executive summary that is

sent to attendees before the meeting starts.

And now, climate has broken through,

with more than a quarter of the main panel discussions tied to climate issues one way or another.

It's disorienting to be a climate journalist at Davos. On the one hand, you are close to the people

who have power or money, or both, to make the decisions that can change the fate

of the climate. The 2020 meeting, which was the last big one before the world shut down

to deal with the pandemic, had 119 billionaires and 53 heads of state attending. On the other

hand, Davos is a petri dish for innovations in greenwashing.

That same 2020 meeting ended with Davos attendees failing to find a consensus around carbon

taxes.

But it closed with a widely applauded initiative to plant one trillion trees.

There is little doubt that the business world listens closely to what happens in Davos.

So, how did climate get to Davos?

What made the world's business elite take notice?

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