Prognosetagung: climate crisis, coronavirus crisis – does the economy now have to adapt?

The climate youth movement has already called for a restructuring of the economy. Companies have also recognised the need for action. The coronavirus crisis poses further challenges. Has the time now come for the economy to change?

This question will be the focus of the KOF Prognosetagung on 22 October. Here we will take a closer look at the two crises and examine their consequences for the Swiss economy. We will discuss whether the pandemic could have a positive long-term impact on the climate. And we will ask whether Swiss companies are prepared for the future and how sustainable they already are.

Swiss Airlines and Microsoft Switzerland CEOs will be available to answer questions

KOF Director Jan-Egbert Sturm will initially focus on the coronavirus crisis and the question of how long it will take the economy to recover from it. Swiss Airlines CEO Thomas Klühr, on the other hand, is directly affected by both the pandemic and the climate crisis. The pressure on air traffic to make its contribution to the fight against climate change is increasing. And, what’s more, hardly any other industry has been hit so hard by the pandemic. In the first half of 2020, Swiss Airlines carried 64 per cent fewer passengers and reported an operating loss of CHF 266.4 million. How is the airline coping with these challenging times? And how can a company like Swiss remain viable? This is what we will want to hear from airline boss Klühr.

Microsoft attracted attention at the beginning of the year by announcing ambitious climate targets. By 2030 the software company plans to be carbon negative, i.e. to remove more CO2 from the atmosphere than it emits. By 2050 the company intends to have removed from the atmosphere all the carbon that it has emitted either directly or through its electricity consumption since it was founded back in 1975. What impact will COVID-19 have on this ambitious programme? And how can we ensure that this becomes more than just a one-off initiative? Marianne Janik, CEO of Microsoft Switzerland, will be posing these questions.

Nora Ernst, Senior Sustainability Risk Manager at Swiss Re, will explain the costs of climate change and the coronavirus crisis, and she will outline what contribution major investors such as Swiss Re can make in the fight against them. Finally, Bastien Girod, an environmental scientist and a member of the National Council of the Greens, will show how he helps companies to make their businesses sustainable as Business Development Director at the climate protection company South Pole.