24th January: Secrets uncovered

Alpine Accentor

This morning we woke to bright sunshine and the best views across the valley we've had all week. On the walk into town this morning, we saw a gorgeous Alpine Accentor - the first time bird-lover Tony Juniper has seen this species ever!

But even though the natural visibility here in Davos has improved dramatically over the last few days, there is a still a fog of secrecy surrounding the discussions.

Before we came here, Friends of the Earth formally requested a copy of the World Economic Forum(WEF) participants list for the fat cat meeting and a copy of the detailed agenda. Despite the World Economic Forum (WEF)'s repeated promises to support transparency and dialogue, they refused saying it was "confidential".

But this week, a copy of the participants list (PDF† 222K) was leaked to us. The WEF might not be committed to transparency but Friends of the Earth is and we are pleased to be able to share it with you.

Some top tips

Try searching for words like "oil", "petroleum" and "energy" and then you will see just how many oil ministers and directors of oil companies are present.

We wonder how many secret deals have been made, over the last few days, concerning:

• oil and gas exploration licences
• pipelines routes and
• refinery permissions

- all very far away from the local communities that will be affected?

Also, do a search for Dutch Bank "ABN-Amro" and you will see that they had four Senior Executives here in Davos. How strange then that they told the organisers of the Public Eye on Davos that they had no-one who would be able to speak at the panel on the investment sector.

Committed to "transparency"? Committed to "dialogue"? We don't think so.

Don't let big business rule the world,

Craig and Eve

Craig Bennett and Eve Mitchell, our Corporates Campaigners are sending daily updates direct from the World Economic Forum.

†To view PDF files you will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. Visually impaired users can get extra help with these documents from access.adobe.com.

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