Terrorism Bumped From Top Of Davos Agenda In Favor Of Climate - Bloomberg

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Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Terrorism, a subject that has dominated recent meetings of the World Economic Forums, was largely absent as a topic at this year's gathering as economic and political leaders turned their focus to climate change. ``Terrorism has slid way down the agenda,'' Stelios Haji- Ioannou, the founder of the EasyJet Plc discount airline company, said in an interview at the meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Only one session was devoted to terrorism this year, down from three a year ago, while 17 were about climate change. In 2002, the forum was held in New York out of solidarity after the September 11, 2001, attacks, the only time it wasn't held in Davos. Terrorism was named as only the 10th biggest risk facing global companies in a poll of business leaders presented on the first day of this year's forum. The lack of interest shown at this year's meetings may reflect a divergent approach between the U.S. and Europe and the absence of a devastating attack in the West since the 2005 bombings in the London underground.

``Terrorism is slipping as a major concern and it's a trend we've seen for several years,'' said Samuel A. DiPiazza, chief executive of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, which carried out the survey of 1,084 business leaders. Coca-Cola Co. Chief Executive Officer E. Neville Isdell said that ``so much has been said that maybe there just isn't anything more to say for the moment. Davos is very much about what's of the moment, and climate change is of the moment.''

`Live With It'

DiPiazza said companies are learning to manage risks. ``It's still a big issue but they realize that they just have to live with it,'' he said. ``They've built up their security systems and then they just get on with it.'' There's similar thinking on Wall Street, said Greg Fleming, president of global markets and investment banking at Merrill Lynch & Co., whose headquarters in New York are across the street from the site of the former World Trade Center.

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